Lina strode down the hall with great purpose, past scads of busy servants carrying everything from sheets to chamber pots, until at last she stood before the door to Xellos’ room. She took a deep breath, preparing herself to deal with his evasive answers to her questions about Zelgadis, but just as she raised her fist to knock, the door swung open by itself.
        "Come in, Lina," the Trickster’s voice came from within, "I’ve been expecting you." He sounded much more subdued than usual, in fact, Lina thought he almost sounded…defeated.
        She entered his room and closed the door behind her. He sat in a large, high-backed chair in a stream of early evening sunlight by the window, an untouched glass of red wine on a small, round table at his elbow. Lina was surprised to find he’d shed his usual priest’s robes for the Lord of Nightmares’ visit and was dressed like an ordinary man in black pants and a shirt of creamy silk, unbuttoned halfway down his chest. A black silk jacket lay neatly folded over the back of the chair. Without looking at her, Xellos motioned for her to have a seat in a chair across from him, near the fireplace, and Lina took it without a word. He looked like hell, in spite of his fine clothes and tidy hair, and there was a distant look in his eyes that Lina didn’t like at all.
        "You look lovely," he told her and made a vain attempt to smile.
        Lina blushed. "Thank Ullan and Amelia."
        He nodded, then went back to staring into the empty fireplace. "Are you going to ask me about the hair?"
    She blinked but quickly regained her composure. That was just like Xellos to predict what she was going to do. "Why’d you do it?"
        Xellos sighed and shrugged. "I could lie to you, tell you I did it for fun, but…" he turned and pierced her with a look that was as sharp as broken glass, "I won’t lie to you, Lina. I did it for you, because you care about him so much and what she would’ve made him—" he bit his lip and turned away with another shrug. "It wouldn’t have made you very happy. You see, Lina, we’re pretty much the same kinds of creatures—L-Sama, Seified and the Mazuko. For a mortal to have our blood in them and survive, they need to have something to balance it."
        Lina raised an eyebrow. "I don’t follow."
        Xellos kept staring into the fire place. "Take me for instance. I was born human, but chose to become Mazuko. All but a very tiny part of the human me was replaced by Mazuko. It had to remain in order to enable me to maintain a solid form, since human is really what I am. It’s like the nature of energy: Energy can’t be created or destroyed, it can only be manipulated. But no matter how you use energy, it remains energy—it doesn’t become something else, like light or sound, though those things can result from the use of energy. Am I making more sense now?"
        Lina shook her head. "Not really, but go on."
        A sad little half-smile flickered onto Xellos’ lips, then quickly faded. "What I’m saying is this: Zelgadis was born almost fully human, but within him were warring natures: Shabranigdo and the Lord of Nightmares. When L-Sama removed the Shabranigdo part, she left Zelgadis unbalanced in relation to the form in which he was born. Zelgadis needs to have some Mazuko in him in order to survive. I’m sure my master would have been a better donor, but I wanted to leave her out of this," the half smile appeared again as Xellos turned to look at Lina once more, "I suppose that’s a moot point now, isn’t it?"
        She nodded. "So you want me to believe you were helping Zel—for my sake?" Lina asked skeptically. "And what am I to you?"
        That took him completely by surprise. "You honestly don’t know?"
        Actually, she had a pretty good idea, but given the choice between Gourry and the Trickster Priest, she’d go with  Gourry every time. She decided to play dumb; what if she was wrong? "Know what?"
        He frowned at her thoughtfully for a few moments, then waggled a finger at her. "You’re much smarter than that, Lina! I think you understand what I mean perfectly, but you’ve obviously made your choice, so let’s leave it at that, eh?"
        Boy did he give up easily! Lina wasn’t sure if she was disappointed that he wasn’t going to try to win her away from Gourry—after all, having two men fight over her would be…stupid. "I’ve been listening to too many fairy tales!" Lina silently scolded herself.
        She looked away, resting her chin on her knuckles. "Are you saying you’re in love with me, Xellos? Is that what you want me to believe? That a Mazuko fell in love with a monster-slaying sorceress?"
        "I was once human," he replied in a hurt voice. "Humans love."
        Lina turned to look at him again and was startled by the sadness in his eyes. Coming from Xellos, it was extremely unsettling. She wished he’d smirk at her and tease her for falling for his silly joke—just like he always did, but there was only truth in his amethyst eyes. Damn. Lina gulped. "I see. Well, like you said, I’ve, um, made my choice, so let’s talk about Zel and your hair instead, ok?"
        He shook his head with a dry chuckle and made a whatever gesture with his hand. "I’d hoped you might feel…something…"
        Yeah, mortification. He wasn’t an unattractive man, but he was a totally annoying nutcase, who couldn’t be relied upon from one moment to the next. Gourry was at least loyal and trustworthy, though often forgetful. Oh, and handsome as hell. "You drive me nuts, Xellos," she confessed. "I mean, you’re good-looking and funny, but—"
        He held up a hand to stop her. "Point taken. You can depend on him, but not on me. Very true. My motives are my own and don’t always fall in with yours. And then there is that matter of Dr. Sorez…"
        "Yeah," Lina growled, "what in the hell was that all about?! That was sick!"
        Xellos shrank into his chair in the face of her rage and waved his hands before him defensively. "It wasn’t my idea! I was just having a little fun, prying all his secrets out of him. Sleeping with him was Zellas’ idea! She hoped to break his spirit so she could control him when he, er, blossomed."
        "And you just went along with it, you big pervert!"
        "I am not a pervert!" He shouted back, and it was Lina’s turn to cringe. "If you think for one instant that I enjoyed it, you are sorely mistaken! I hate Zelgadis as much—maybe more after all of this—than he hates me, and I am definitely a ladies’ man if you take my meaning." He sat back and glared at her. "I either obey my master or die, that’s the arrangement. Nobody crosses Beast Master—"
        "But they cross L-Sama, is that it?" Lina drawled. She folded her arms across her chest and narrowed her eyes at him. "Look, I know it was your family or hers—"
        He was on his feet and in her face before she could finish her sentence. "Don’t presume to understand my feelings!" He snarled, resting his hands on the arms of her chair and leaning down until he and Lina were almost nose to nose. She pressed herself as far back into the chair as possible, but he only moved closer in response. "I was caught between the two most powerful forces in this world—and I knew that no matter what I did, I was dead! But I hoped, somehow, some way, that I could save my family! Shabranigdo would have killed me and them on the spot, but L-Sama took a solemn oath not to interfere directly with our battle with Siefied’s forces. I could cross her—as you put it—and still have a chance to save my family." He pushed himself away and stalked to the other side of the room, then came back and resumed the same pose, eliciting a frightened little squeak from his one-woman audience. "In my place, given those options," he rasped in an agonized voice, "what would you have done?!"
        Lina’s heart pounded painfully as she watched actual tears drop from his eyes to slide down his cheeks and drip off his chin onto her breast. She winced with each one as if burned and trembled with the overwhelming need to get away from his terrible eyes and claustrophobic presence. Time hung motionless as they stared into each other’s eyes, their faces scant inches apart and the blood rushing in their ears. Then all at once, his lips caught hers in a quick, burning kiss, then he shoved himself away and turned his back on her to stare at the sunset with trembling fists balled at his sides. "I’m going to die tonight," he explained tightly, "I just wanted that before I went."
        But Lina had already fled the room in confused, furious tears and didn’t hear him. "How dare he?!" Her mind screamed as she ran for Gourry’s room. "How dare he?! How dare he?! How dare he?!" She burst into her lover’s room without knocking and ran straight into his arms with ragged sob. "Gourry…"
        His arms automatically went around her shoulders and squeezed her in a safe, comforting embrace. "Lina, what happened?"
        She couldn’t tell him, could do nothing more than cry into his chest and let him hold her and rock her and beg her tell him what was wrong. "That jerk! He is such a jerk! How dare he do that to me?!"
        "How dare who do what to you?" Gourry demanded and held her at arm’s length so he could meet her eyes. "Xellos?"
        She nodded miserably. "He—he kissed me!"
        Gourry’s jaw dropped. "He what? Why?! Doesn’t he know about us?!"
        "Yes," Lina sniffled, "but he said he…" it was too much. She couldn’t tell Gourry that part! So Lina wrapped her   arms around his chest and cried instead. Gourry mercifully didn’t press her for more details. He might not have been the brightest candle in the room but he was able to do that math just fine. Xellos loved Lina. Well, Gourry wasn’t too surprised and was kind of mystified by the fact that Lina obviously was. After all, she was usually the one with the great powers of observation, especially when it came to the behavior of The Enemy (which in Gourry’s mind, Xellos definitely was, even when he claimed to be helping them). Lucky the Trickster Priest hadn’t pulled that stunt with him around! Gourry imagined himself saving the Lord of Nightmares a lot of trouble by slicing Xellos in half with the Sword of Light.
        "He’s such a bastard," he muttered into Lina’s hair.

        They gathered around the table in the enormous dining hall with it’s sparkling chandelier and tapestries depicting rainbow hued dragons in flight. The servants served them steak and shrimp and a vast assortment of vegetables. They ate soup from golden bowls with silver spoons, sipped wine from goblets of crystal, gold and colorful gems. L-Sama was the only calm one in the entire room. Even the servants’ hands shook as they served her, and the others at the table kept casting nervous glances her way, surreptitiously watching her coo over the delicious food and nod her approval of the wine. Xellos was openly sweating, and his hands shook so badly that he was almost unable to eat—but he forced himself to respond to L-Sama’s eerily friendly small talk with nervous smiles and halting comments. For her part, the Lord of Nightmares seemed to be enjoying his discomfort enormously.
        Lina sipped her soup and seethed where she sat between Gourry and Zelgadis. Amelia was on Zelgadis’ other side, with Urlich beside her, then Sylph. Gourry was at L-Sama’s left, while Jessica sat on at her right hand, then Zellan, Zellas Metallium, Ullan, Zhara, and at the foot of the long table, Xellos. Servants hovered behind each diner, ready to refresh their wine, offer a new napkin, or serve more food. Lina was only halfway through her first glass of wine, though everyone else was on at least their second; she’d never been much of a drinker but tonight it was frustration that curbed her thirst. "Why doesn’t she get to the point?!" Lina thought angrily, though she knew the answer: L-Sama was torturing Xellos, making him wait for the axe to fall. What a bitch. Well…maybe not, all things considered. After all, he did murder most of her mortal descendants, so maybe he deserved everything she gave him. Lina drove that sentiment from her mind: No, he’d only been protecting his family, and she understood his reasoning about them having more of a chance if he crossed L-Sama than if he disobeyed Shabranigdo. At least they’d gotten a thousand years more to live than they would have if he’d refused to do Shabranigdo’s bidding. She looked around the table at Xellos’ offspring and felt a twinge of sadness to think this might be the last time they’d meet. "And Marrigan and all of its inhabitants will cease to exist without Zhara," Lina thought unhappily. That just wasn’t fair—to punish a whole city that had had nothing to do with the matter at hand! All those people… She thought of Nik, Garroll and Lenzer, even the people who had been at the inn when she’d first stopped in Marrigan with Gourry and Amelia. The street performers and artisans. It would be a crime to destroy such a place and all its people just for the transgression of one man who had only been trying to protect his family.
        The Lord of Nightmare’s broke into her thoughts. "Well, Xellos, what shall I do with you now?" No segue, she just launched right into it. L-Sama stuck a cigarette into a long, silver holder, lit and took a long drag. Through smoke, she asked: "Why did you do it? Didn’t you fear my wrath at all?"
        He put down his fork and wiped his hands on his napkin, seeming to focus all of his attention on his hands, then he lay the napkin next to his plate and marshaled his courage. Taking a deep breath, he looked up and down the length of the table at his god. She was stunning in her gown of white silk and diamond jewelry that refracted the candlelight into infinite rainbows that dazzled his eyes. The smoke swirling from her cigarette gave her a mysterious air and picked up the colorful pinprick lights from the gems. Her golden hair was twisted into a loose knot atop her head, held in place by a pair of gold chopsticks from which dangled strands of glittering diamonds. Faced with that vision, Xellos’ mind went blank, so he cast his eyes down and tried to answer her again.
        "You swore an oath not to directly interfere with our war, My Lady," he began in a quiet, humble voice. "Shabranigdo was under no such obligation. He would have killed my family and me immediately, but you wouldn’t be able to do that because of your oath. Angering you still gave my children and their children time to live." He clenched an unclenched his hands in his lap as he added carefully: "I’m the only one to blame, My Lady. I acted alone. Even my master had no idea what I’d done until yesterday. Take me, but I beg My Lady to spare these others, since they had nothing to do with it and knew nothing of it until yesterday."
        L-Sama sucked smoke. "Then you admit to murdering my descendants?"
        Xellos nodded.
        She blew smoke. "On Shabranigdo’s orders?"
        Another humble nod.
        She regarded him thoughtfully for a while as she finished that cigarette then lit another one. Huh. This wasn’t fun at all. He was subdued. She’d sort of hoped he’d beg for his life, fall at her feet, offer to do anything she asked if only she’d spare him. "Give me one good reason why I should spare you, Xellos."
        He hung his head even lower than it already was and sighed: "I have none, My Lady."
        Pause. L-Sama lobbed a dinner roll at his skull. "Wrong answer. Try again."
        Xellos looked up with a start when the bread hit his head to find the Lord of Nightmares frowning at him most unattractively and blowing smoke out her nose like an angry dragon. "Wrong—My Lady?" He rubbed his head with one hand and looked at the dinner roll in the other as if it was an alien life form.
        She smirked. "Beg for your life. You want to live, don’t you?"
        Xellos shifted uncomfortably in his chair and cleared his throat. He put the roll down on top of his napkin and addressed it instead of the one who’d thrown it. "Of course I want to live, but not if my family has to die!"
        She threw a sprig of broccoli at him this time. It landed with a splat in the middle of his plate. "I’m over here."
        Xellos gulped and hesitantly met her gaze. She smiled indulgently. "That’s better. Now beg me for your life."
        He shook his head. "No. If someone has to die for Saiya and her children, it should be me—"
        "Why are you so sure I intend to punish them for your crimes?" L-Sama pointed around the table, taking in those where weren’t related to the Trickster Priest along with those who were. Lina wasn’t the only one who found that rather disturbing. "As you say: They had nothing to do with it." She favored her prey with a feral grin. "So, all that’s left is your life, Xellos. Well? Do you want to live, or don’t you? And what are you willing to do to convince me to spare you?"
        Xellos picked up the dinner roll she’d thrown, broke it open and spread it with butter. This was a very positive turn of events, indeed. His family was safe, and the Lord of Nightmares was willing to bargain. That fact alone told him she didn’t want him dead—unless she was still playing with him. Xellos hesitated with the roll halfway to his mouth and regarded L-Sama suspiciously. He set the roll down again. "Name your price, My Lady." There. Put the ball in her court. What was she playing at, anyway?
        The Lord of Nightmares blew out a smoke ring in a huff and tapped ash onto the carpet. A servant scurried over with a tiny broom and dustpan to clean it up, then retreated again. L-Sama took a sip of wine, then another hit off her cigarette. How boring of him not to beg and grovel—or even come up with one of his cunning excuses that had always been so amusing in the past. Xellos in defeated penitent mode sucked. This simply wasn’t like him at all. She took another sip of wine, then put down the glass and pouted. "Fine. My price. Let’s see…What could I possibly want from a fruity little wimpshit like you?"
        Gulp. Wimpshit? Xellos began to sweat again. "Nothing, My Lady." Is she going to kill me, or what?! What in the hell does she want from me?! He hated it when someone used his own game against him.
        L-Sama drummed her fingers on the tabletop. "Serve me," she said finally. "Neither you nor any member of your family may serve Shabranigdo or his agents ever again. If you do—" she made a cutting motion across her throat, "—all of you die."
        Zellas Metallium turned panicky eyes on her but backed away from asking what this meant for her. Was she losing Xellos for good? L-Sama read her mind. "You will still be under Beast Master’s authority," she told Xellos casually and watched her smoke rings float up to the ceiling as if that was the most exciting entertainment ever invented, "as long as she doesn’t do Shabranigdo any favors. Am I making myself clear?"
        Emphatic, if rather baffled, affirmatives from Xellos, his master and his relatives. L-Sama at last returned her attention to Xellos. "I understand your grandsons want to open a resort of some kind. That is acceptable. Zhara and Urlich may continue to operate this nice, little artists’ mecca of theirs and do some work on the side for whatever Dark Lords or Light Lords—or whoever—pays them. Just so it’s not Shabranigdo or an agent of his." She turned a stiff smile upon Jessica, who swallowed hard but didn’t look away. "There, you see? I do listen to you once in a while."
        The ancient kitsune nodded stupidly and could find nothing to say. She hadn’t actually expected L-Sama to take the peaceful route to punishing Xellos—and certainly didn’t think she’d be this merciful! There had to be a catch somewhere.
        The Lord of Nightmares shook a finger at Jessica and grinned. "I know what you’re thinking: ‘What’s the catch’? Heh-heh. Just this: These people are Mazuko, my dear—for them, avoiding Shabranigdo’s service is easier said than done. I have only to wait for one of them to screw up, and I am a very, very patient woman." She spread the love all around the table, favoring each Metallium relative with a smug look.
        Xellos applauded mockingly. "Well played, My Lady. More shrimp?"
        She laughed. "I think I will, thank you!"
        "Wait a minute!" Amelia exclaimed. "That’s it? Just like that? What about Zelgadis?!"
        A servant dished shrimp onto L-Sama’s plate while she replied. "What about him? I gave him another chance to live, and he succeeded. Here he is, alive and well and able to continue his quest for a cure. What else do you want me to do, Princess? Zap him with a love spell?"
        Gack! Zelgadis and Amelia sputtered over that, blushing and fumbling with their utensils and unable to meet each others eyes. The Lord of Nightmares giggled. "That was a joke." She peeled a shrimp, dunked it in a little silver bowl of sauce and popped it into her mouth. "Seriously," she said around the food in her mouth, then swallowed, "what do you mean ‘what about Zelgadis’?"
        Amelia twiddled her fingers in her lap. "Well, um, he—I mean, Xellos put some of his hair into the copy making machine!" She glared at Xellos, who merely grinned, having regained some of his confidence now that it was apparent nobody he cared about was going to be executed that night. "Zelgadis isn’t Zelgadis! Totally."
        L-Sama munched another shrimp and replied with amusement: "He wouldn’t be entirely his old self even without that added zing of Xellos, my dear. I removed part of his spirit, remember? What’s left of his spirit is human, Xellos and me. Personally, I think he’s getting a pretty good deal."
        "Me, too," Xellos agreed distractedly as he sawed off a piece of steak.
        Lina’s eyes bugged. "You told me you did it to keep him from falling apart, you jerk! You said he was unbalanced since the Lord of Nightma—"
        "Yes, yes! That, too." Xellos waved the piece of steak around on the end of his fork dismissively, but his eyes betrayed him. In their lavender depths was everything he’d said and done when they were in his room earlier—even his feelings for her and his sadness at losing to a mortal.
        Lina quickly backed down, unwilling to revisit that episode. L-Sama looked from her to Xellos and smiled a knowing smile. "Hm. Told her at last, did you? So, did you score?"
        Lina bit her lip against telling her god to shut the hell up. Xellos clenched his teeth and very carefully set down his empty fork. He chewed and swallowed, then told L-Sama in an icy tone: "No."
        Gourry lay his hand over Lina’s and gave it a gentle squeeze to keep her from saying anything stupid in a fit of temper. He needn’t have worried. Xellos’ feelings for her were about the last thing she wanted to discuss.
        The sorceress cleared her throat. "So, why didn’t make Zel human, My Lady?" She asked and made herself look the Lord of Nightmares in the eye. The Lady was intimidating without even trying to be, a shimmer of purest light that made Zhara’s grand dining hall look like a filthy hole in the ground. "You made this world, couldn’t you have made a human body for one of your own descendants?"
        L-Sama ate shrimp for a while before answering her, and everybody waited in silence until she did. That was the nice thing about being a supreme being: You could make people shut up while you were thinking. Zelgadis was her descendant. The only one she had left among mortals, which was why she’d taken the slightest interest in him and why she’d spared his life. Then there was the matter of her promise to Lei Magnus, who was both Zelgadis’ ancestor and Ulllan’s and Zellan’s: For his…services…he asked her to swear to protect his descendants by Zhara and to protect Zhara and Urlich, as well. She’d almost abandoned her plan over his insolence, but he carried Shabranigdo within him, and that made him the perfect candidate to sire her child, the child to balance the creature Shabranigdo was making to destroy her. Did that promise mean she should have made Zelgadis human, even though he turned out to be the one Shabranigdo had planned to use against her? No, she decided firmly, it only meant she had to spare his life, which she’d done. And yet… Well, there was one thing she could still do for the boy, since he was a part of her after all.
        She wiped her mouth and set down her napkin, then turned her dazzling eyes on Zelgadis, who quickly turned away. "Look at me, Zelgadis," she commanded, and he did with much fear and trepidation. "I have put the cure to your curse somewhere in this world. Only you will be able to find and use it. There."
        Zel and Lina exchanged looks. His was full of hope and relief, her was…skeptical. "Oh, sure," she snorted, "’somewhere in this world’. So he has to look all over the whole world to find this cure—he’ll be an old geezer before he finds it!"
        For her insolence, she got a shrimp flicked into her forehead. "Watch your tongue, girl," L-Sama warned in a dangerous voice. "I’m not unmerciful. Zelgadis, you will find this cure while you’re still young enough to enjoy it." She laid into her steak like it was evil incarnate and muttered bitterly: "The things I do for my family…the frickin’ ingrates…" All of a sudden she paused and pierced Zellan, then Ullan with a thoughtful glare. "When is this resort of your opening? Anytime before the next millennium?"
        The brothers choked and looked fearfully to their mother, who encouraged them to answer. Zellan cleared his throat. "Well, uh, it’s still sort of in the planning stages, My Lady," he explained nervously, "but, um, we’d like to have it open within the next three years, or so. Right, Ullan?"
        Ullan nodded. "R—right. Or sooner!"
        L-Sama grinned happily and chewed her steak. "Good! Expect me. I’m rather fond of hotsprings."