When Sylph regained consciousness she had a moment of panic when she didn’t immediately see Zelgadis, but a quick psychic check of her den located him behind her. Still weak from changing her form so many times in one day (including being a spider for a few moments!), she rolled over to look at him. He was sound asleep, his chin resting on his chest, his arms and legs crossed, leaning against the candle mound. Many of the candles had burned themselves out already, and the remaining ones sputtered on lengths of barely more than an inch or two. How long had she been unconscious? At least Zelgadis was still there, which meant Xellos hadn’t figured out where she’d taken him. Likely, the trickster supposed she’d taken Zelgadis to Zhara’s house in Marrigan and had gone there. She made an undignified grunt as she reluctantly pushed herself up into a sitting position and scooted until her back was resting against the candle mound, as well.
        "You had better be worth all the trouble I went through to rescue you," Sylph warned her sleeping companion, who shifted his pose but didn’t wake up. "Hmph!" What was so special about him, anyway, that Zhara would remember this mortal at all, much less take the time and trouble to pull his butt out of the fire. Furthermore, why were Zellas Metallium and Xellos so interested in him? Taking on a female form and seducing him was going a bit far for a mere whim, so it had to be something much more than that. But what? Sylph bit her lower lip as she thought about it, casting the occasional, thoughtful, sideward glance at Zelgadis. Even he didn’t seem to have a clue what they were after. "Huh. You’re cute, my blue friend, but not that cute. What are you, really, I wonder?"
        "Trying to get some much-needed sleep," Zelgadis grumbled, not opening his eyes or moving anything but his lips. "What are you?"
        "Hmph." Sylph stretched and yawned. "I’m a fox spirit, twit, I should think that was obvious."
        "I’m a chimera, twit," Zelgadis mimicked, "I should think that was obvious."
        Sylph gave him a sly smile, which he missed entirely for having his eyes closed. "I could always return you to Xellos," she teased. "I’ll bet he misses his lover. HEY!" Sylph just barely caught the fist that swung for her stomach. "It was just a joke!"
        "It wasn’t funny."
        Sylph snickered at that, not really caring if he liked her humor, though even she wouldn’t wish Xellos on anyone, particularly someone who seemed to be so near and dear to the heart of one of her best friends. "Well, I was amused," she giggled and gave him a flirty nudge with her shoulder. "I’m just trying to cheer you up a bit—"
        "Don’t waste your breath," Zelgadis cut her off bitterly. "The less anyone talks about it, the less I have to think about it."
        She shrugged: "As you wish," and rolled onto her knees then got to her feet in one silent, graceful motion, the pale green, transparent fabric of her skirt kissing Zel’s cheek like a light breeze.
        Zelgadis shivered and recoiled from the cloth, though it’s touch hadn’t been unpleasant. Out of the corner of his eye, he watched her rummage through the debris on the floor until she came up with a thick twig. She then cleared away a bare spot at her feet, knelt down and started etching in the dirt with the stick. Curious, Zelgadis crawled over to see what she was drawing. He watched as she drew a circle near his side of the dirt space, then drew parallel lines from that circle to a much larger one, then another set of parallel lines from the big circle to a crude representation of a door, signified by what was obviously a knob in its face.
        Sylph jabbed the end of the stick at the little circle. "This is where we are, my den." She smiled and shrugged, then. "Well, one of them. To get to your friends at Zhara’s house in Marrigan, we must pass through this tunnel—" she dragged the stick between the first set of parallel lines, "—which is safe. The tunnel on the other side of this big cavern is also safe. This side is protected by my wards, the other side by Zhara’s—"
        Zelgadis interrupted: "It’s a long way to Marrigan. How long will it take us to get from here to here?" He pointed from the little circle to the door on the other side of the drawing.
        The fox spirit grinned and her leaf-green eyes sparkled with the delight of knowing something he didn’t. "One hour, no more, if we keep moving and don’t encounter trouble, here." She dragged the stick through the big circle, the cavern. "This cavern is between us and two gateways that allow those with the power to do so—like myself—to pass from one place to another in mere moments. One gate is that door over there," she pointed to the door on the other side of her den from the one through which they'd entered. "We’ll spend the most time getting to Zhara's gate, which lies here, at the far side of the cavern." She settled back on her heels and gave Zelgadis a wicked, sidelong look, gauging his reaction as she continued. "There are things in the darkness between here and the gate that may or may not notice our passage. If they don’t, we’ll make good time and arrive with our hides and our lives. If any of them notice us—even one of them—we’ll have a fight on our hands. "
        "’Them’?" Zelgadis probed.
        Sylph’s grin failed to be convincingly cavalier, leaving Zelgadis with an unpleasant chill in his stomach. Fox spirits were notoriously fearless to the point of being annoying, hence their reputation as tricksters. For something to scare one of Sylph’s kind… "Hmmm…" she frowned, thinking how best to respond. "Well, I could just say ‘monsters’, but then you might feel overconfident—I would. Monsters are easily dealt with if one has the proper tools, which I do and, I assume a sorcerer like you does, as well—"
        Zel held up a hand to stop her, shaking his head negatively. "I don’t have the ‘proper tools’ to deal with monsters," he told her solemnly, "at least, not to kill them. I have quite a bit of experience fighting them, however, which should serve me against these whatever-they-are’s."
        "Well, shit." Sylph chewed on her lower lip thoughtfully. "I assumed, since you studied under the Red Priest, that he had equipped you to slay monsters." She looked up at Zelgadis apologetically. "It was sort of his specialty, as I’m sure you know."
        Zel raised an eyebrow. "I thought his specialty was healing."
        All she had in response to that was a derisive snort, leaving Zelgadis to wonder just how much he didn’t know about Rezo. Sylph returned to the issue of monster slaying: "Ok, we’ll leave any actual slaying of monsters, should it become necessary, to me."
        "But monsters aren’t the only things in that cavern, right?"
        Sylph didn’t smile at all this time. "No, and those ‘other things’ are what can stop us for good." She took a deep breath as she studied his eyes for signs of fear or even over-confidence; she found neither. He met her gaze steadily, his expression serious and expectant, probably going over a list in his head of all the nastiest things in the world and how best to fight them.
        "Have you ever faced a true revenant?" She asked in a hushed, solemn voice, as if she might be overheard and bring the objects of discussion down on their heads.
        Zel almost laughed with relief. That was it? Revenants? Just walking dead? He’d been expecting something really terrible, like another Dark Lord, or a soul-eating larva! "I’ve fought and destroyed many of the living dead—"
        "NO!" Sylph smacked the dirt map with the palm of her hand, sending bits of fur and dust into the air. Zelgadis recoiled with a start. "No, not ‘living dead’, Zelgadis, true revenants!"
        "Define…" Zelgadis asked carefully, his eyes narrowed.
        She pursed her lips in irritation. "Didn’t that idiot teach you anything?!"
        "I was only his student for a few months!" Zelgadis snapped back, wishing she’d stick to the subject and quit insulting him. "My power comes from the chimera spell he laid on me, not from study, ok?! Just get on with it, will you?"
        "Shit, man, you don’t have to bite my head off!"
        "And I really don’t like that kind of language…"
        Sylph started to make some piercing retort but bit back on it and took a breath, instead. "Sorry. I’ll be more careful." She told him tightly, cursing Zhara and Urlich, whose nasty habits appeared to be rubbing off on her.
        "Thank you." Zel muttered.
        "True revenants. Right." Sylph took another head-clearing breath and began to explain. "A true revenant was never alive. It’s a creature born of undead parents—and before you tell me that’s impossible: It’s possible, just trust me."
        Zelgadis held up his hands to ward off further annoyance. "So how do I destroy one?"
        "You must destroy all of its body," Sylph replied, green eyes dark with fear, "or the pieces will regenerate into new bodies. While they’re doing that, they’ll continue to fight you. And if any of their bodily fluid gets on you, it’ll eat through your flesh and poison you to death in seconds. Though you might last longer, with your stone skin." She bit her lip thoughtfully. "Hm. Actually, I’m not sure how the poison would affect a creature like you, if at all. I’ve never witnessed a fight between a true revenant and a part-golem chimera."
        "Let’s hope you never will." No, Zelgadis had definitely never faced anything like what the fox-woman was describing. Not even close. In fact, this was the first he’d heard of such a creature. "How do you keep from being splashed with its fluids when you’re fighting it? And what if it spits on you?" He asked incredulously.
        She rolled her eyes. "Don’t use a blade, of course. And if it spits, duck."
        "Yeah, right." Zelgadis rubbed the bridge of his nose, wondering if maybe taking the long way to Marrigan might not be a better idea. "Only use magic, then, is that what you’re saying?"
        "Magic has no effect on them." Sylph sighed as she scratched behind one of her furry ears.
        Zel’s eyes narrowed dangerously. "Then how do you kill one, Sylph?"
        "Light."
        "’Light’?" Zel repeated with a twinge of sarcasm. "Would magically-generated light work?"
        A fluffy, red-streaked, silver tail appeared at the base of her spine, poked through a slit in the back of her dress (apparently designed for such an eventuality) and curled around Sylph’s hips into her lap to twitch in time with her drumming fingers. "Yes, magically-generated light will work. I meant, you can’t use attack spells against them."
        Zelgadis closed his eyes and balled his fists on his thighs, trying to master his irritation. "So, are these light-fearing ‘true revenants’ the worst we can expect out there?"
        "Not counting your scintillating personality?" Sylph snorted, "probably. But there are a lot of them and they’re fast."
        He grinned. Speed was one of his greatest assets.
        She read his mind. "Faster than a part-demon chimera, even."
        "I doubt it."
        "I thought you’d never encountered a true revenant before?" Sylph taunted him. Zelgadis’ jaw tightened but he didn’t reply. "Well, I have—many times—and others like you, as well." She lifted her chin proudly, her tail giving a superior twitch. "Trust my experience, kid, I know what I’m talking about." Zelgadis started to get his hackles up over being called a "kid", but Sylph silenced him with a raised hand. "And I’m old enough to call you that, so don’t get all bent out of shape."
        "Hmph." Zelgadis looked cross but let the comment go. Being kitsune, Sylph could easily be anywhere from the teenaged years she looked to more than a thousand years old. "Alright. What else can I expect in this cavern?"
        Sylph proceeded to tick off a list of the usual suspects: Trolls, golems and orcs. "There’s also rumored to be a soul-eating larva living in there, but I’ve never encountered it. And the cave’s haunted, of course, so expect the usual amount of poltergeist activity and specters—just annoying, really, and not too dangerous unless they find something heavy to throw around. Um…" Sylph’s tail flicked in her lap as she made sure she wasn’t forgetting anything. "Oh, right: There’s also a psychotic dragon that lives beneath the cavern. There’s a pit well off our path that goes straight down to its lair. I don’t think we’ll have to worry about him, though, since he sleeps most of the time. Well, guess that about covers it. I’m going to get a little more rest before we set out. You should, too."
        His mind was so occupied with planning what to do if he and Sylph met any or all of the creatures she’d described that Zelgadis didn’t hear what she said at first. When it sunk in, he blinked at her in confusion. "Shouldn’t we leave as soon as possible? Why do you need a nap?!"
        Her dangerously narrowed eyes shut him up abruptly. "When I use a form other than the one you see before you or my fox form, it drains my strength. The farther I depart, proportionally, from either of these forms, the bigger the drain. When I ‘disappeared’ after hiding in your pants, I actually turned into a spider long enough for Zellas Metallium to give up and go away, and Xellos to lower his guard. Then I assumed this form to deal with Xellos and escape with you." She curled up on the floor, wrapping her tail around herself and closing her eyes. "If I don’t rest now, I won’t be strong enough to fight, should we be forced to do so. I only need an hour or two. Don’t worry: Marrigan’s not going anywhere, and Zhara knows we’re coming."
        Zel eyed her for another few moments, but she ignored him. "Fine."

       The raised voices down the hall said a familiar name, stopping Lina outside her door with her hand on the doorknob to listen. It sounded like Zhara and her brother. Lina tiptoed down the passage toward Zhara’s room, straining her ears to make out their words through the heavy wooden door.
        Urlich: "…how should I know where she’s gone?! I thought Sylph was keeping an eye on her!"
        Zhara: "Sylph’s gone after Zelgadis, you fool! You were supposed to be finishing your half-ass healing job!"
        Urlich: "I don’t owe her anything, ok?! You’re lucky Jaz and I were even willing to cooperate—"
        Zhara: "Don’t give me that ‘lucky’ shit, Url! You wanted to screw over Dad as much as I did! And you said you’d heal her!"
        Urlich: "Yeah, well I didn’t say I’d baby sit!"
        Lina’s heart skipped a beat. Were they talking about Amelia? They had to be! "Oh no! She can’t be gone! That means she’s a—" Lina’s mind conjured an image of Amelia coming at her with a bloodthirsty look in her eyes and long, sharp fangs. Shudder! Lina looked around, expecting Amelia the vampire to jump out from one of the doorways and sink her fangs into her neck for a little snack, but Lina was the only one in the hallway.
        Zhara: "…have to have Jaz track her down."
        Urlich: "Like hell."
        Zhara: "How much?"
        Urlich: "Three thousand and your map of the catacombs."
        Zhara: "Uh-uh. No way. Not the map. Five thousand."
        Urlich: "Six. And a ring to pierce illusions."
        Zhara: "The ring and four thousand."
        Urlich: "I’ll talk to her."
        Zhara: "She does it, or I’ll never let her back in this house again!"
        Urlich: "You wouldn’t. She’s your friend."
        Zhara: "Your friend. My associate. I employ her, remember?"
        Urlich: "Fine. The ring and five thousand."
        Zhara: "She can have the ring and two thousand as an advance, the rest when the princess is returned safely."
        Urlich: "Has to be ‘safely’, eh?"
        Zhara: "You want an invasion, brother?"
        Urlich: "Ah. Point."
        The voices moved closer to the door, so Lina high-tailed it for her own room in a cold sweat and quickly shut the door behind her. Footsteps passed her door (she assumed they were Urlich’s). When they were gone, Lina let out the breath she didn’t realize she’d been holding and staggered over to collapse on the edge of her bed. "Amelia’s a vampire?" Her stomach clenched at the thought. Little Miss Justice was scary enough without joining the ranks of the undead. Where could she be now? Haunting the corridors of Zhara’s house, looking to make a meal of her friends? Would Zhara’s wards keep Amelia in the house, or did they only prevent people from entering? And what about that magical gate in the basement that Sylph and Zelgadis would be arriving through in a matter of hours (if Sylph had been successful in freeing Zelgadis from Xellos)? No, Amelia wouldn’t know about that since they’d had that discussion in Zhara’s room, having just left Amelia unconscious down the hall. Maybe Amelia the vampire had run into Urlich’s girlfriend Jaz the vampire and they’d gone off together to do vampire things? Maybe Jaz had taken the new vamp into Marrigan’s fabled catacombs where the rest of the vampire population reportedly made its home. One thing was certain: When and if Zelgadis joined them at Zhara’s house, he’d be Amelia’s prime target. Lina just hoped Zel’s stony hide could protect him from vampire fangs if they couldn’t capture and cure Amelia before she found him. That is, if one could "cure" a vampire and return it to its former, living, state. Lina had never heard of any cure for vampirism outside of destroying the vampire or the vampire that had bitten them. But, according to Urlich and Zhara, Amelia had been bitten by several vamps before being rescued. Lina wondered if anyone had been able to I.D. the vampires in question. Well, one way to find out: Ask Zhara.

        "So, you heard," Zhara said woodenly when Lina posed her question about the vampires who’d attacked Amelia. Zhara took a sip from the drink in her hand, but didn’t turn from the window to look at her guest. "I’m sorry. Urlich promised to finish healing her once he’d rested, but then I sent him to Zelgadis. I should have sent Sylph in the first place. But I never guessed Zelgadis could have bested Urlich of all people in a sword fight." She sighed. "I’m sure if I hadn’t told him not to kill Zelgadis, Url wouldn’t have lost that fight. Killing is his business and Url fails to see the point of fighting without the death of his opponent being the final outcome."
        "Then how can he be a healer?" Lina asked incredulously.
        Zhara turned around to meet Lina’s eyes with an ironic smirk. "Good question. Even he can’t figure it out, but the fact remains that Urlich can both take and give life. Though he prefers to take it, if given a choice. I try not to question such a useful gift, just use it."
        Lina steered the conversation back to her original question: "So, did anybody get a make on the vamps who bit Amelia?"
        Zhara nodded and took another drink before replying. "Jaz did. She knows everybody down there."
        "So, if we destroy them, Amelia’ll be cured, right?"
        "Where’d you hear that myth?" Zhara chuckled.
        Lina’s face fell. "Well how do we turn Amelia back into Amelia, then?!"
        Zhara shrugged. "That depends on how long she stays like this. There is a point at which Urlich will no longer be able to help her. After that, we’ll just have to destroy her or let her take up residence in the catacombs with the rest of them." She took another drink. "Our window is two days. After that, she’s stuck."
        That was slightly comforting. Surely Urlich and Jaz could track down a wayward vampire-princess in that amount of time. After all, Amelia was a stranger to Marrigan and didn’t know her way around. Hopefully, no native vampire would take her under its wing and show her all the good hiding places. If that happened, Lina figured they were pretty much screwed. "They’ll find her."
        "I’m sure as hell paying them enough!"

        Meanwhile, in a dark corner of Zhara’s basement, Princess Amelia huddled behind a dusty old chair, watching a place on the wall across from her, where she sensed a gateway lay. Zelgadis would come through it soon. Her vampire’s superior hearing had caught every word of Zhara’s and Sylph’s plan to rescue her beloved from the evil Xellos. When he came through the gate, Amelia would make Zelgadis like her, then they’d be together forever, and no one would be able to keep them apart! She licked her lips in anticipation of Zelgadis’ sweet blood, the bite that would make him hers for all eternity. There was justice in this, she mused, great justice. A noble man like Zelgadis deserved eternal life as much as a true warrior of justice like herself did. Together, they would make the world a better place for everybody. All she had to do was be patient for a little while, then a new era of justice for one and all would begin!

        After adjusting to the fact that Zelgadis was gone, Xellos collected himself, returned to his natural form and took himself off to his master’s lair to get a few nagging questions answered. Per usual, Zellas Metallium was smoking, drinking and lounging by the fire. This time, she was wearing a cherry blossom kimono, loosely bound about her waist so that the top hung open low and the bottom fell open high, revealing more of Beast Master than Xellos wanted to see. In a foul temper, he poured himself a drink, nicked a cigarette from the box at her elbow, lit up and sat down in the chair across from her. "So." Was all he said.
        "So." She replied, mimicking his expectant tone. "You lost him."
        That was the last straw. Xellos downed his entire drink in four, huge gulps and slammed the glass down on the end table hard     enough that Zellas Metallium actually jumped. "No, he was snatched! By a kitsune who could only be my daughter’s friend Sylph. This, after my son showed up to reveal my identity to Zelgadis! He almost ruined everything—"
        "But you got laid." Zellas drawled coolly.
        "WITH ANOTHER MAN, WHO I CAN’T STAND!"
        Pause.
        "Don’t have a cow, Xel."
        Seething silence.
        Xellos growled: "And you just let Sylph take him like it was no big deal. Can I assume this little caper is over?"
        Zellas grinned at him around her cigarette. "Not by a long shot, sweetie. But, now that the cat is out of the bag, we must alter our tactics a bit, yes?"
        "Why even bother with him?" Xellos snorted crankily. "The game isn’t any fun anymore; I’m bored with it. It was nothing more than a whim on my part, anyway." He took a drag off his own cigarette as he rose to pour himself another drink. As he poured, he asked: "What’s Zelgadis to you, anyway, master? The one that got away?" He finished pouring and returned to his seat to look at his boss expectantly.
        Zellas ran her tongue along the lip of her glass in a way that Xellos would have found sexy in any woman but her. She seemed to be considering something, deciding whether or not to give him the information worming about in her twisted little brain. At last, she seemed to come to a decision. "Zelgadis is more than just another chimera," she explained slowly," he’s a talisman—a powerful one. When Rezo made him, he infused Zelgadis with much of his own power, so that if he failed to find the Philosopher’s Stone, Zelgadis’ body, along with Rezo’s remaining power, would serve the same purpose."
        "Then why didn’t he just use Zelgadis in the first place?" Xellos demanded.
        "Because the only way to release Zelgadis’ power as a talisman," Zellas told him sweetly, "was for Rezo to die. Once that occurred, Rezo’s clone would then receive the benefits and continue as the real Rezo."
        Xellos still didn’t see her point. "Yeah, so?"
        She rolled her eyes. "Don’t be dense, Xel. Now that both Rezo and his clone are dead, all of the Red Priest’s power is in Zelgadis!" Zellas leaned forward excitedly, revealing her prodigious cleavage. "Including the power of Shabranigdo!"
        Enlightenment came to Xellos with a bang. All that power…"So if we have Zelgadis, that power is ours…"
        "Righty-o!"
        Xellos’ imagination continued to click over. With the proper direction, Zelgadis could become another Dark Lord! Or at least a powerful servant of a Dark Lord. Doubtless, Zellas Metallium planned to be that Lord. What would that do to his position, then? He decided to ask.
        "Unchanged," she told him, much to Xellos’ relief. "I would put Zelgadis under your command. He’d need molding, of course."
        Xellos nodded. "Considering that he hates my guts."
        Zellas smirked. "Ok, brainwashing."
        They sat quietly for a while, basking in the glow of potential success, then Xellos asked his other, nagging question: "Why did you want me to sleep with him, master? Really."
        She crunched out her cigarette and lit another before answering. "Think how powerful your offspring would have been, my dear. Your power and his combined? Amazing." Zellas looked close to having an orgasm over that one, so Xellos directed her mind elsewhere.
        "Why did you let Sylph take him? You and I could have snatched Zelgadis as soon as the kitsune disappeared—"
        Zellas shook her head. "That’s just it, you see: Sylph didn’t disappear. She was still there, in a form I couldn’t immediately find. In any form she chooses to take, she’s powerful enough to fight either of us. With Zelgadis’ power and skill against us, as well, we couldn’t have won. Better to fall back and regroup."
        "Ah." Xellos nodded thoughtfully and watched the firelight glitter in his drink as he swirled his glass. "What’s your plan for getting him back, master?"
        Beast Master grinned happily. "Why, we trick him, of course!"
        "Of course."