Every eye riveted on Lina Inverse as she struck a confident pose by the door and tried not to sweat. The shining trust in Amelia’s eyes and the unfaltering hope in Zelgadis’ were almost too much to bear. Even Urlich looked like he believed Lina Inverse the Dark Lord slayer could just spit out the perfect plan with only a few moment’s thought. Gourry…well, Gourry’s eyes were so full of pride and affection, Lina blushed and had to look away. Zelgadis had one hour before this spirit form he wore disappeared leaving him stuck in the afterlife, dead to stay. First, they had to buy themselves more time to work on a solution and that meant getting Zelgadis a more permanent body. Lina looked around the room, briefly considered then rejected the idea of asking for volunteers, then took a deep breath and declared:
        "First, we’ll put Zel’s spirit into my body, so we have more time to deal with this. Spirit Transfer should—"
        "No." Amelia barked. Everybody in the room jumped at the sharp tone in her voice. She clenched her fists and gave Lina the same look she’d given Xellos right before sticking a knife in his chest. The other sorceress took a cautious step backwards. "Put him in me."
        Lina shook her head. "No, Amelia. I won’t let you do that!"
        "We need you to lead us," Amelia argued, "and if you, as a Black Magic user, could cast Spirit Transfer to put Zel in your body, his consciousness will suppress yours! It’ll be Zelgadis thinking and talking—we won’t even be able to communicate with you, and neither will he." Gourry started to say something, but Amelia silenced him with an upraised hand. "If we need the Sword of Light, we’ll need your skill, Gourry." She turned to Zelgadis. "You’re good with a sword, Zel, but you’re no match for Gourry. And everybody else in this room is practically a stranger—no offense—so, it has to be me!" She bowed her head and rubbed her hands in her lap. "And I—I love you. Even if you don’t feel the same. It should be me. If that’s alright with you," she looked up at him, her eyes sparkling with tears and forced a smile, "Zelgadis."
        Zel melted. His mouth opened to speak, then he changed his mind. He wanted to argue with her, tell her he should be in a man’s body, preferably Gourry’s, since he was at least good with a sword. He didn’t mind the idea of being in Lina’s body, if it had to be a woman: Not only was Lina good with a sword, she was a powerful sorceress. But every argument he had faltered before Amelia’s stubborn, anguished, frightened, blue eyes. The naïve hero-worship he was used to seeing there was gone, replaced by something hurt and angry that got a death grip around his heart and gave him one more reason to curse Xellos. He thought about the obscenity she’d thrown at the Trickster Priest, a very un-Amelia thing to say, or even think. Xellos hurting him was one thing—Zel was used to abuse—but to corrupt Amelia, to put such hate into her that it could crush her usual perky optimism, spill darkness into her personality… If she came up against Xellos again, as she surely would before this was all over, Zelgadis wondered if she’d be strong enough not to fall into his trap and become like him. Annoying as it sometimes was, Zelgadis had to admit Amelia’s personality was a ray of sunshine, a bright spot of youthful innocence he’d irretrievably lost. He had to protect her but…
        He lay his hand over hers and squeezed them, still holding her eyes with his. "Thank you, Amelia. I’m honored that you would trust me so much, but," he hesitated and looked over the Princess’ shoulder at Gourry. The men exchanged understanding nods, then Zelgadis returned his eyes to Amelia’s and found she was crying again. He wiped away her tears and tried to explain: "I’m a man, Amelia and I—well, I don’t want to be a woman, even for a few days. If Gourry wasn’t here, I’d choose you over anyone else in this room, because I know you’d take good care of my spirit." Actually, he would have chosen Lina, but Zel didn’t think that would have been a kind thing to say to Amelia under the circumstances. "And what you said about sword skills: I can handle the Sword of Light if I have to. Remember, it’s still Gourry’s body with his reflexes. It’ll be alright, Amelia, I promise."
        "But Gourry can’t use magic!" Amelia argued.
        Zelgadis shrugged. "Can’t or hasn’t tried? The only other male choices I have are Urlich and those three guys over there—but I don’t knew them, and Urlich seems to want to kill me. That leaves Gourry. I guess I’ll just have to rely on the Sword of Light and everyone else’s magical abilities if I can’t work my magic with Gourry’s body." Zel gave her a gentle little smile. "It’ll be alright, Amelia, you’ll see." He took her face in his hands and pressed a kiss to her forehead. "Next problem," he said into the kiss, then sat back to meet Lina’s eyes again. His best friend looked like she was going to lose it again, so he talked fast: "I suggest we find a way to copy my old body, then we can transfer my spirit into it. The problem is: How? We can’t make the copy from my spirit, that’s impossible."
        "And with your stone skin," Urlich added cheerfully, "my swords couldn’t cut you, so you didn’t bleed on me, nor did you shed! Aw, bummer, Zel, I guess it’s back to the afterlife with you!"
        Zhara’s eyes narrowed dangerously. "Shut up, Url." Her brother just grinned. "I know I don’t have anything from our meeting four years ago," Zhara said, just in case Zelgadis was wondering.
        He wasn’t. "I didn’t think you would. Hmmm…"
        While the others rolled that problem around their brains, Princess Amelia shifted nervously about and refused to meet anyone’s eye. What she could tell them was incredibly embarrassing and might make Zel think she was a total fruitcake (more than he already did sometimes) but it was his only hope. Well, she’d just have to swallow her pride and fess up. She sighed. When no one noticed, she sighed again, only louder.
        "Amelia?" Lina asked. "Are you ok?"
        By way of response, Amelia slipped off one of her bracelets and laid it on Zel’s thigh. "Open the locket," she said shyly. "There’s a button on the side." Then she braced herself for the onslaught she was certain would come. When, after some time had passed, no onslaught of mockery seemed forthcoming, she risked a glance in Zelgadis’ direction.
        He didn’t look like he had mockery on his mind. In fact, he was smiling at her—partly in amusement, but there was affection there, too, and that made Amelia’s heart soar. Zelgadis held up the locket’s contents for all to see: A tiny chunk of his stone hair.
        "Thank the gods for puppy love!" Zhara laughed, then stifled it beneath a death-glare from Amelia.
        From the other side of the room, the underworlders looked as relieved as Zelgadis did. Lenzer appointed himself spokesman: "Well, looks like you got your plan, so…uh…if you won’t be needing us, My Lady…?"
        "Speak for yourself," Garroll interrupted coolly. This was getting interesting and copying was a subject he knew something about. "My Lady," he said to Zhara with a polite nod of his head, "I still wish to offer you my services, particularly in light of your need of someone with copying knowledge. I am that someone, as I’m sure you know."
        Zhara smirked. Urlich outright guffawed. "That piece of shit?! I wouldn’t copy a fly in that thing, much less a man! Even that man!" He pointed at Zelgadis, who was less than amused.
        Garroll frowned. "It’s been upgraded since the last time you saw it, sir. A young woman named Ellis, a servant of the Red Priest, she said, performed the up—what? What’s wrong?"
        Lina shook her head in disbelief. What a small world it was. First another Rezo copy causes her trouble, then the name of Ellis, creator of the first Rezo copy, comes back to haunt her. What next? An Ellis copy? Lina made a sign against the evil eye, just in case her words would give the universe any funny ideas. "We fought Ellis and her Rezo copy three years ago," she explained. "I just didn’t expect to ever hear her name again."
        "So you have a facility like hers?" Zelgadis probed. "Have you ever copied a sentient life form?"
        Now in his own backyard, Garroll leaned eagerly forward in his chair, painfully beautiful eyes all a-sparkle as he spoke on his favorite topic. "I successfully copied myself! The copy retained all of my abilities and memories and survived until he was cut down in a duel over a woman two years ago. It was very romantic, perhaps I could tell you the story sometime."
        Lina cut him off with an impatient wave of her hand. "Whatever. So this thing works, huh? Great! Where is it?"
        Garroll’s enthusiasm crumbled. Urlich and Zhara whistled and looked to the ceiling, back to that twin choreography they’d so unsettled Lina with earlier that day. Nik and Lenzer found something really interesting to look at between their toes. It was Jaz who answered.
        "Ah, well, that’s the problem," she admitted sheepishly, "Xellos loaned Garroll the money for it, but then Garroll lost it gambling, so Xellos got mad and sort of repossessed it."
        Lina crossed her arms and glared at the vampire, then at Garroll. "’Sort of’?"
        "Either he repossessed it, or he didn’t," Zelgadis added irritably, "which is it—oh, never mind! We can figure this out after the transfer. I’m running out of time!" Zelgadis turned an encouraging smile on Amelia. "Amelia, can you do Spirit Transfer?"
        Amelia choked. "Uh…well, I—uh, I’ve never actually cast that one…" she turned red and watched her fingers twiddle in her lap.
        Lina gaped. "After telling me I wasn’t ‘pure’ enough to cast it?! Amelia!"
        "Well, it’s true!" The Princess argued stubbornly. "A black magic user can’t cast a Spirit Transfer! It has to be a white magician or a shamanist, and since neither the spirit to be transferred nor the body into which it will be transferred can cast the spell, Zel can’t cast it, either."
        "I’ve never tried it," Zel confessed, "even if the spell would allow me to cast it." He almost hated to ask who else in the room worked white or shamanist magic. Sylph was obviously too weak, which left (oh, gods) Urlich. Zelgadis didn’t have anything against Xellos’ son, unless you counted the fact that he’d been acting like a jerk from the moment they’d met, but Urlich obviously had a very big something against Zelgadis. Zel suspected it had something to do with Sylph. The two seemed pretty affectionate and they’d had a child together. He honestly wouldn’t argue with Urlich if he blamed him for Sylph’s brush with death. In fact, he wouldn’t blame Sylph, either, and was mystified that she wasn’t holding a grudge.
        Zel’s worst fears were realized when Zhara spoke up to volunteer her brother. "I don’t know a more powerful white sorcerer than Urlich, but I don’t know if he has the strength after healing Sylph. Url?"
       Urlich smiled a very unsettling smile, his eyes flashing darkly. Shorter hair and a little taller and he’d be the Trickster Priest (with a foppish wardrobe and an arsenal of sharp objects). "Nonsense, sister, I’d be delighted to help your friend!"
        "Url…" Zhara growled.
        Unfazed, Urlich continued to smile wickedly at Zelgadis. That is, until Sylph reached over, got a fistful of his crotch and squeezed. Not looking at him, she snarled: "Swear you won’t screw this up, and I’ll give you your balls back. I mean it, Url. What happened to me wasn’t Zelgadis’ fault, so you can drop the bad-ass act and quit making a fool of yourself."
        "Sylph!" Urlich squeaked. Then, from his doubled-over, cross-eyed position, he swore he do the spell flawlessly.
        "And you’ll be polite to him?"
        Sqeak. Nod.
        Sylph released him, and he flopped down onto his knees, then fell flat on his face on the floor, both hands wrapped around his manhood. "You…bitch…"
        She rolled her eyes. "Vixen. Vixen!"
        There was an uncomfortable silence while men and women both cringed in empathy. Amelia blushed and stared firmly at her boots, while Lina just coughed and found something nifty to look at on the ceiling. Zhara took this opportunity to go pour herself another drink. The men in the room crossed their legs and shuddered. Meanwhile, Urlich was finally able to sit back on his heels and start breathing again, then managed stand. Even Zelgadis let him take a little time to collect himself after such a traumatic assault, but eventually Zel’s patience ran out.
        "I feel for you, Urlich," he said as sympathetically as he could, "but I’m not getting any more solid over here."
        Url glared, but an air-squeeze from Sylph killed whatever snappy retort he’d planned. So he started to prepare himself for the spell, instead. "Go stand by Gourry," he ordered. Zelgadis hurried to comply. "Good. I need absolute silence so I can concentrate. Right." He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, held it in spite of the throbbing pain between his legs, then slowly let it go. When he opened his eyes again, they were a deep shade of purple and cold as steel. "Ready?"
        Zel and Gourry nodded. "Born ready," Zelgadis told him, matching Urlich’s cool stare with one of his own. Back on the couch, he heard Amelia sniffle, probably fighting more tears, but he didn’t look at her. Lina, he knew, was watching Urlich with more than just her mundane sight: She would monitor his magic, ready to jump in and stop his spell if she sensed him trying anything funny. The others just watched, holding their breaths, as Urlich began to chant, and the air in the room started to crackle with life. 

Spirit without a shell
Wanderer in this realm of flesh

        As he chanted, Urlich’s body began to glow with a soft, pale light, like moonlight, and his shape appeared to waver and shimmer before their eyes. Spirit Transfer would tolerate no lies, no illusions, no deceptions. Urlich’s gloved hands wove before his face like a pair of hypnotic snakes, growing longer and more muscular as the spell continued.

Accept me as your guide
Take as your own the form I offer you

        The sorcerer’s shoulders and chest melted into a broader, more powerful shape. Urlich’s clothes struggled to contain his true form for a few moments more, then lost the battle in a cacophony of burst buttons, broken buckles and torn fabric. A whirlwind freed his dark hair from its ribbon and sent it flying about his face in a curtain of raven silk.

Remain until my will releases you
By the purity of my soul I send you

        A pair of dark shadows spread from Urlich’s shoulders toward the ceiling, then stretched until they kissed either wall of the little room. The massive wings made soft sounds as they fluttered against the gale-force winds tearing at Urlich, while the power in the room built to almost unbearable levels. Huge, curling horns the color of iron emerged on either side of his head, and the sorcerer’s eyes changed from human lavender, to a dragon’s cat-like gold. When he open his mouth to shout the completion of the spell, the last of his human form disappeared, revealing a set of long, pearly fangs and needle-sharp teeth; his words were a dragon’s roar:

SPIRIT TRANSFER!

        Zelgadis disappeared, Amelia screamed, the glowing yellow orb in the middle of the room giggled.
        "Ah, Zelgadis!" The Lord of Nightmare’s voice laughed over the dying wind and Amelia’s sobs. "I knew you’d find a way! Such a stubborn mortal you are!" She giggled some more, the orb she’d chosen for this manifestation pulsing along in time with her mirth. Urlich the terrifying dragon-demon blinked in confusion, realized who it was at the same time everyone else did and dropped to one knee with a resounding boom, the force of his landing shaking everything in the room like a minor earthquake. His magnificent wings folded dramatically onto his back, and his hair—much longer and darker than it’s humanlike version—swung forward to hide his face. All but Gourry, Lina and Amelia were quick to follow suit. The Lord of Nightmares giggled some more.
        "Alright, Zel," she declared after a while, "I’ve changed my mind. I will make a deal with you, since you and your clever friends have come up with a reasonable plan to save your life. And you amuse me. You have 48-hours, no more, to make a copy body and get your spirit into it. This is the last interference I will make, so until the time is up, you’re on your own."
        Amelia clenched her teeth and fought back furious tears. When she looked up at the golden manifestation, her blue eyes blazed angry fire and her snarl rivaled the ones she’d used on Xellos. "I’M A WOMAN!"
        That declaration confused everyone but Gourry, who had just made a rather disappointing discovery of his own. "I’m not Zelgadis!"
        The Lord of Nightmares giggled herself back into the Great Beyond.
        Once the glowing ball of light was gone, every eye in the place turned angrily upon Urlich. The mighty dragon-demon quaked, his leathery, midnight wings fluttering in a panic, sending Sylph and Jaz for cover behind the chair. He hurried to reassure everyone in his true, deep, sexy, evil dragon-demon voice: "No! It wasn’t me! I swear I played it straight! Zelgadis! Tell them!"
        Zelgadis moaned and scrubbed Amelia’s tear-streaked face with her hands. "She did it," he affirmed angrily, then sighed. "Could be worse, I guess. She didn’t have to give me a chance, did she?"
        "Well, no, I guess she didn’t," Lina agreed, trying to salvage some of the group’s earlier optimism. "I mean, she is the Lord of Nightmares."
        Gourry snorted: "She’s kind of weird, isn’t she?"
        "Trust me," Zelgadis sighed in Amelia’s little-girl voice, "I know from experience, she has a very twisted sense of humor."
        The big swordsman tried to look on the bright side. "At least you know for sure you can use magic with Amelia’s body. And you can always buy a sword, right?"
        Zel shrugged and nodded. Gourry had a point, though training Amelia’s arms to handle a blade might be difficult in under 48-hours. He figured he’d stick to magic. Not only did Amelia work white magic, he’d seen her do some shamanist spells, as well. Maybe this wouldn’t be so bad after all—and, anyway, it was only two days, if that, since it just took a day and a night for a copy to fully develop. Half a day to get to wherever Garroll’s copy machine was, then make the copy without Xellos realizing his "sort of repossessed" appliance was being used by the guy he’d repossessed it from and destroy the copy. Fighting Xellos if the Trickster did realize what was going on would be the hardest part, but they also had Lina’s powers, along with Zhara’s and Urlich’s at the very least, possibly Sylph’s if she felt strong enough to accompany them. He didn’t know what sort of magic powers Jaz, Garroll, Nik or Lenzer might possess, if they had any at all. Then there was the Sword of Light, which had proven itself time and again to be a fantastic magic amplifier.
        While having these encouraging thoughts, Zelgadis unconsciously took stock of his borrowed female body and made a few interesting discoveries: Amelia kept things in her bra. Not the usual god given things, mind you, just…things Zel couldn’t identify stuck to the undersides of her breasts. But more disturbing to Zel’s mind was the fact that there was something in Amelia, something that felt suspiciously damp. He would have thought something stuck "in there" would feel good to a woman, but this felt distinctly un-good, sort of icky, actually. His hands had gone to his breasts to investigate the less-icky unidentifiables before he remembered there were other people in the room and one simply doesn’t feel oneself up in front of others if you’re a guy in the body of your good friend the Princess.
        Gourry noticed first. "Gee, Zel! Couldn’t you at least wait till you’re alone to do that stuff?"
        "Zelgadis!" Lina screeched, strode over to the couch and slapped Zelgadis firmly across Amelia’s cheek. "If you’re gonna do that, do it when you’re both in your own bodies and not in front of everybody!"
        Zelgadis kicked her in the shin and shouted back: "Well, maybe you can tell me just what in the hell she’s got in her bra?!" He added quickly: "And I don’t mean breasts!"
        Lina blinked her confusion. After a moment, the giggles started around the room, ending with that font of all embarrassing female knowledge, Gourry: "SHE STUFFS?!" He then proceeded to laugh himself off his chair and onto his butt with a thump. "Hey, Lina, guess you don’t feel so inferior anymore, huh?"
        Lina glared. "Laugh it up, jellyfish brains," then she returned her attention to Zelgadis and his bizarre insights into Amelia’s quirky habits. "What, exactly, are you, ah, feeling in there, Zel? Are you sure she’s not keeping money down there? Some women do—"
        "Only the ones with cleavage!" Gourry chortled. This time he got one of Lina’s boots tossed at his head. It got him in the temple, and he flopped over, still giggling away at his own wit.
        Zelgadis took Lina’s line of questioning as permission to explore Amelia’s bra without chastisement, so he unfastened her belt and sent his hands under her tunic then into her bra via the underside, which was where the whatsits were. Managing to ignore the fact that he was touching one of her breasts, he got hold of one of the "things" and tugged on it, but it wouldn’t budge. "Damn! It’s sewn in."   
        Jaz snorted: "You idiot! That’s a push-up bra. She doesn’t stuff, she just pushes them up to give herself a lovely décolletage."
        "Deca—what?" Several gentlemen asked at once.
        Lina rolled her eyes. "Cleavage that’s seen when she wears a low-cut dress or blouse. Like those Princess dresses she wears when she’s not adventuring with us."
        "Then why wear it with a tunic?" Zelgadis wondered in an irritated voice. With the bra problem solved, his mind had moved on to figuring out how to ask about that icky thing stuck…there.
        "So her boobs look bigger," Jaz sighed, equally irritated, "why do you think?!"
        "Hey, Lina," the unrepentant Gourry joked from his spot on the floor, "why don’t you get one of those?" He quite deservedly got her other boot in his face. "Heh. Guess they don’t make ‘em that small, huh?"
        Lina started to move on him, but Zelgadis stopped her. "Allow me." He crawled to the end of the couch nearest Gourry and smacked him, then returned to his seat.
        While he had his butt in the air, Lina and Zhara (who had the best view) noticed something very bad, something that would put a real kink in their plans. The sound of Zhara’s wine glass clonking onto the nearby table with unnecessary force turned Zelgadis’ attention to her, but then he got distracted by the dismay on Lina’s face. "What? What’s wrong? Lina, tell me what’s wrong!"
        Lina’s mind raced to remember when she’d last seen Amelia use magic, realized it had been a day and a half ago when they’d fought Kopii over their horses, and buried her face in her hands with an agonized moan. "This can’t be happening."
        "What ‘can’t be happening’?!" Zelgadis all but shouted at her. He had a sneaking suspicion it had something to do with the icky thing, which gave him another sneaking suspicion concerning the purpose of the icky thing. The upshot was, he was screwed. "No…no-no-no-no-no! Please tell me she isn’t…" Lina’s expression told him she was. Zelgadis screamed and beat his fists on his thighs. "Ah! I can’t believe this! That bitch! What did I ever do to her to deserve this?! If she wasn’t our god, I’d kill her! AUGH!"
        The women in room had caught on by now and the magic users among them knew exactly what sort of problems this would pose for them in their quest. Then Urlich caught on. Midway between his dragon-demon form and his human one, he paused with a startled look on his face that rapidly turned to amusement. By the time he was human again, Url was doubled over in nothing but those funky smiley face briefs Sylph had given him, laughing himself silly. In a few more seconds, the other guys got it.
        "You’re—" Nik chortled, tried to finish the thought but just simply couldn’t and was reduced to hearty laughter. Beside him, Lenzer was red in the face and brimming over with hysterical tears. Garroll chuckled more discreetly.
        Zelgadis contemplated homicide. "I can’t believe she’s having her period now! Dammit! When I need her magic, it’s that time of the month!" He fumed, thinking of all the things he wished he could do to the Lord of Nightmares if only she was capable of dying.
        Zhara cleared her throat. "We’re going to have to get you some clean pants, Zel. She’s had a bit of an accident in those." She tried not to laugh at Zelgadis’ horrified expression as she told Lina: "I had your things brought from the inn. Amelia’s pack is in the room next to yours. She probably has…things… in it and maybe a change of clothes. If she doesn’t have fresh clothes, Sylph’s about her size. Is that ok with you, Sylph?"    
        Sylph giggled and nodded, the most joy she’d shown in hours. If it didn’t do so much to improve her appearance of good health, Zelgadis would have thrown something at her. Which brought him to another interesting observation: Amelia was feeling pretty cranky and had a nasty headache, backache and a twinge of pain in her abdomen. She certainly hid it well. Zelgadis’ esteem for the opposite sex hopped up a notch, since he didn’t think he could walk around for very long feeling this awful (and not whine about it). But, since he was the one in Amelia’s body, Zelgadis griped—all the way to the room where Amelia’s stuff was, all through Lina’s embarrassed lesson on the proper use of feminine products and the tour of Sylph’s wardrobe of transparent, filmy little frocks. What they wound up doing was borrowing one of Urlich’s shirts (he couldn’t say no to Jaz when she asked him that way), which hung to Amelia’s knees, even with a belt, and Zel just had to deal with having his knees exposed. Wardrobe settled, they returned to Zhara’s study to figure out the rest of the plan.

        In the lair of Zellas Metallium, Xellos and his master fumed over their unceremonious booting out of Zhara’s house and plotted vengeance. Actually, it was Zellas who did the plotting and swearing of vengeance; Xellos was used to this sort of thing from his kids and just went with it, knowing he could always return later. The fact that Zhara could force the great Dark Lord Beast Master and her most powerful servant out of her house just by commanding it had been pure luck. Zhara had caught them by surprise while in her own territory, it was a simple as that. It was unlikely that Zhara would be able to accomplish the same feat twice, so Xellos just listened to his master rant and nodded at what seemed to be the appropriate places. His mind was on Princess Amelia and her tantalizingly evil change in behavior. He was still savoring the pain in his chest where she’d stabbed him, reliving the hate in her eyes—wonderful! All she needed was a little more encouragement and he’d have a tool in one of the most power cities in the world. The only thing that could possibly get in the way of his plan’s success would be if the Princess and her friends could come up with a viable plan to keep Zelgadis’ spirit in the realm of the living. This could be accomplished in one of two ways, as Xellos saw it: Put Zelgadis into someone else’s body permanently, or make a copy of his old body and put his spirit into that. Considering the time it took to make a copy, Zelgadis’ spirit would be put into a temporary host body until the copy matured.
        Naturally, all that depended upon the indulgence of the Lord of Nightmares. Xellos had been dealing with her long enough to have a feel for her often odd sense of humor and figured she’d be pretty amused by these goings on. In fact, she might even be amused to the point of letting Zel and his friends try to carry out their plan just for the fun of seeing if they could do it. Or, she could, as she often did, do just the opposite of what Xellos thought she might do and remand Zelgadis’ spirit to the afterlife, whether it had been given a host, or not. If possibility B was true, then (oh, happy day) he’d no longer have to deal with the very boring Zelgadis. If possibility A was true, then Xellos had a pretty good idea of where the gang would head to make a copy of Zelgadis. That is, if they had a piece of him to use for the copy. If not, Xellos had what they needed, which would give him a nice starting point for a new round of torments.
        "Xellos, are you listening to me?"
        Xellos snapped out of his thoughts to smile at his master in his most devious, evil, wait-till-you-hear-this-one way. Zellas knew that look very well. It was one of her favorites, since it was usually followed by a plan so twisted it gave her the most delightful shivers.
        She back burnered her plans for revenge against Zhara and commanded her chief minion to tell her just what was on his mind. He did, and she was well pleased. "And if Zelgadis is still alive, then we can kill two birds with one stone, as mortals say!" Zellas rubbed her hands together with wicked delight.
        "Not bad for a happy moron, eh?" Xellos quipped, still sore from being belittled by his master in front of the Lord of Nightmares and Zelgadis. Much to his satisfaction, Beast Master looked contrite, though only for an instant.
        She waved a dismissing hand in his face. "Forget that, will you? We have an evil plot to execute! A Princess to corrupt!" Beast Master clapped her hands and pirouetted on one delicate foot and giggled like a school girl. "Ah! It’s good to be back in the saddle again, isn’t it?"
        Xellos merely grinned as his master lit a cigarette and all but danced out the room. He looked ceilingward, his way of addressing the Lord of Nightmares, and said quietly: "Please give him a chance, My Lady, I’ve been so bored lately."