"Taste is the enemy of creativity" - Pablo Picasso

          The necropolis of Seyruun poured down a hill outside the walls, like the great city’s ugly sister. Bright, bustling Seyruun was filled with life: Chattering crowds filled the streets and alleys between the tall, sparkling buildings of white stone decorated with brightly-colored mosaics and banners. The shouts of street vendors and laughing children filled the air, along with the smells of food, dust and sunshine. Princess Amelia Wil Telsa Seyruun sat in a carriage moving through crowds that parted before it and closed behind it like a stream flowing past a rock in its path. As she looked out through the crack between the shade and the window, Amelia could almost imagine the carriage was standing still and the people were moving around it, just like a great, noisy, colorful river. The coach was quiet, something that was vaguely disturbing considering its occupants’ usual chattiness. Lina Inverse sat next to the Princess, mimicking her pensive, people-watching pose. Gourry Gabriev slouched in his seat with his arms across his chest, surreptitiously looking from one friend to the next: First Lina, then Amelia, then, out of the corner of his eye, Zelgadis Greywers, who sat beside him like a statue. Zel’s head was turned toward the window next to him but he didn’t seem to have any interest in what lay beyond.
        They’d been forced to wait in Seyruun for almost three days for a representative from the family to agree to come and let them into Dr. Lara Sorez’ mausoleum. Amelia claimed she wanted to pay respects to her friend, which had convinced her father, Prince Phileonel. None of Zelgadis’ friends mentioned his connection to the doctor, and neither Phil nor the Sorez family questioned Amelia’s story. The family representative who was to let them into the crypt had to come all the way from Timeron, which was more than a day’s journey from Seyruun. The Sorez family had wanted Lara to be buried with her ancestors in Timeron, but Prince Phil had convinced them that "the most important magical scientist of our time" should be buried in "the most important city in the world". Furthermore, Phil had once offered her a tenure at Seyruun University, and the doctor had been the official Royal psychiatrist. The bottom line was, Phil got his way, and Dr. Lara Sorez was buried in the necropolis outside of Seyruun.
        The family couldn’t understand why Amelia needed to get inside the mausoleum, rather than pay her respects by viewing the sarcophagus through the wrought iron door like everybody else. It was Zelgadis who had insisted, for reasons he wouldn’t reveal to the Princess or anyone else, but Amelia had to make it appear that she was the one making the request. So she made up a story about wanting to be as close to her friend as possible because it was more personal that way. Standing outside the crypt seemed to her like shouting through the door at your friends inside their house. That would be rude. She cried a bit, too, which helped convince her father of her sincerity. Phil in turn used his powers of persuasion to convince the family to open the crypt.
        Convincing Phil not to come along with his grieving daughter had been even tougher than talking the family into opening the mausoleum, but Amelia was eventually able to make her father believe she really, really wanted to be alone. The only reason Lina, Gourry and Zelgadis were going was because they’d been helping her deal with her grief since she’d first learned of Lara’s murder. So it was only right that they go with her and help her deal with this most difficult final visit. Phil actually bought that and let Amelia have her way.
        They rode in silence toward the cemetery to meet the person who would unlock the mausoleum for them, the sounds of the living city a constant buzz in their ears, unnoticed until it was gone.
        The cessation of crowd noise didn’t startle Lina and Amelia, who had been watching the crowds diminish and the scenery change all along and had noticed when the carriage had passed through the northern city gate. Gourry and Zelgadis, however, seemed to snap out of a trance as soon as the crowd noise went away. Gourry pulled the shade aside to look out the window: "Are we there?"
        Zelgadis did the same, but said nothing. The necropolis really was another city, a city of the dead that seemed to be trying to hide in the shadow of Seyruun’s mighty walls. Stone mausoleums, like tiny houses, lined the well-ordered paths. Sprinkled amongst them were other types of markers, some humble some grand. There were obelisks and statues, most of them grim, but some amusing, like the dancing bear that marked one grave the carriage passed. Trees had been planted throughout the cemetery in a vain attempt to make the place seem less gloomy, but their boughs seemed to bend lower to the ground, and their leaves to droop, like tears waiting to fall. Despite the sunshine, the necropolis seemed to lie in shadow, far beyond that of Seyruun’s towering walls.
        Lina could think of places she’d rather be than a city of the dead, visiting a woman she’d never met, a woman Zelgadis thought he knew because Xellos had used her form to trick him. She sighed sadly. No, it had been more than a mere trick. Beast Master’s chief servant had used Lara’s form to seduce Zelgadis, to play with his already fragile emotions then smash them. As if that wasn’t bad enough, Xellos had also put a piece of his own hair into the machine that had made the copy body Zelgadis now wore.
        The carriage stopped, and as if on cue, the occupants opened the shades on their windows and looked outside. As soon as he saw the mausoleum, Zel’s stomach bottomed out and he gave Amelia a dirty look. Fortunately, she wasn’t looking at him, so she missed it. Zel clenched his fists and shook his head. This had to be the work of that master of weird, Prince Phileonel. No one but Phil was as tasteless, obnoxious or over-the-top—except, perhaps Amelia, but she hadn’t been anywhere near Seyruun at the time of Dr. Sorez’ burial to give input into the mausoleum’s design.
        Lina was the next to get a look at the offending edifice, just as the footmen came around and opened the carriage doors. She stepped out first, followed closely by Zelgadis. Both of them looked like their jaws might come unhinged. Soon they were joined by Amelia and Gourry, who wore the same expression as their companions.
        Humiliated tears pooled in Amelia’s eyes, but all she could do was point at the mausoleum and sputter. Zelgadis and Lina buried their faces in their hands, leaving Gourry to express their collective opinion: "That’s the ugliest building I’ve ever seen."
        "It’s obnoxious!" Amelia wailed. "Daddy, how could you?!"
        Well, thought Zelgadis, at least she had no illusions about her father’s taste in architecture. The Prince probably designed the thing himself, and it just got built that way since nobody had the nerve to argue with Prince Phil. Even Amelia backed down when Phil got really passionate about something. But this…this was inexcusable. Why hadn’t the family put their foot down about this, at least?
        Lina cleared her throat and pointed at the statues that stood guard at the foot of the stairs leading up to the entrance. "Are those supposed to be dragons?"
        "They look like lizards," Gourry said. He approached the creatures in question to get a better look. "Lizards dressed up like Seyruun soldiers…I think."
        Zelgadis was looking around for the person who was supposed to meet them there. Anything to keep from looking at Phil’s monument to the ridiculous. No one was there but him and his friends. Even the coach was gone, headed back to the city to wait until it was needed again. It was just them and the goofy soldier-lizards—and whatever the rest of those beasts were supposed to be. Damn, it looked like an entire anthropomorphic honor guard. There were twelve statues in all, standing all the way around the mausoleum. Aside from the two lizards, there was a pair each of lions, bears, eagles, wolves and horses. All of them wore the livery of His Majesty’s Armed Forces and were armed to the teeth with swords, spears, crossbows and shields. At least, that’s what kinds of animals Zelgadis thought they were. Only the horses could be positively identified, the rest of the critters were a bit iffy.
        The actual mausoleum wasn’t much better. Never in all his travels had Zelgadis seen so much ornamentation used so effectively to create the most displeasing impact on the viewer’s mind. It was positively boggling in its utter lack of taste and beauty. It just screamed Phileonel.
        "Amelia, I’m going to kill your father," Zelgadis said very calmly, "and I’m going to bury him in this mausoleum. Right after I build a better one for Lara. Something that doesn’t look like a birthday cake from hell."
        Amelia sniffled. "It’s not my fault! I don’t know how her family could have let Daddy do this to them! I’m so embarrassed!"
        "You should be!" Lina snapped. She’d just returned after completing a tour of the building’s exterior in the vain hope that there was some mistake, and this wasn’t Dr. Sorez’ grave at all (even though the gigantic, bright blue plaque over the door said so in gilt letters with happy little birds, flowers and ribbons all around them). "Amelia, your dad is a freak. Who told him he was an architect?"
        Zelgadis snorted: "A better question would be: Why didn’t anybody have the guts to tell him he wasn’t?"
        "Because it’s Prince Phil," Gourry moaned, "and he’ll get all weird on you if you disagree with him."
        "Daddy’s not weird!" Amelia protested without much enthusiasm. "He’s just…um…well, he’s very…uh…"
        "Weird," everyone else filled in the blank for her.
        Amelia hung her head. "Um, yeah."
        "Well, if I was Dr. Sorez’ family," Lina griped, "I sure wouldn’t have buried here in that thing!"
        They heard the footstep behind them at the same time as a woman’s voice said sourly: "We didn’t have much of a choice."
        They spun around with a start to find themselves face to face with a beautiful woman with long, blonde hair and big, green eyes behind her small, round-rimmed glasses. Amelia screamed, and her hand flew to her mouth in horror. She pointed with the other trembling hand at the newcomer. "No! It can’t be!"
        Zelgadis gasped and for the moment couldn’t speak or move. His mind struggled to get around what his eyes were seeing, then suddenly his expression hardened, and his fists clenched at his sides. He lunged himself at the woman with a vicious snarl: "Xellos!"
        The woman screamed as a pair of stone hands wrapped themselves around her neck and squeezed. Gourry grabbed Zelgadis’ wrists, trying to pull him off of her, while Lina pried at Zel’s fingers and shouted in his face: "Zel?! What are you doing?! Let her go!"
        Amelia staggered backwards toward the mausoleum unable to believe what she was seeing. It was Dr. Lara Sorez, in the flesh, screaming in terror while Zelgadis tried to kill her. But how could she be alive? Unless that really was Xellos trying to pull the same trick on Zel again! The Princess clenched her fists and stomped back to the action with a powerful determination and the blackest hate burning in her eyes. "Xellos!" She snarled. "Let him go, Zelgadis, he’s mine!"
        Zelgadis didn’t let go. All he could see was Lara’s face, eyes wide with terror—but he’d seen that look before, performed so skillfully by Xellos while he wore the guise of Dr. Sorez to destroy him. He didn’t even feel Gourry’s strength pulling on his wrists, or Lina’s fingers yanking desperately on his, didn’t hear her screaming at him. He ignored Amelia, even when her hands joined his around his victim’s throat. They were just faceless people getting between him and his goal. "Get off me!" He bellowed and tightened his grip.
        All at once he realized a strange sense prodding at his brain. He got the idea that it had been trying to get his attention for some time, as if someone had been tapping on his shoulder for the past few minutes, and he only just noticed them. What the sense told him was this: The woman in question, who looked way too much like Lara Sorez to be anyone but her, was genuinely terrified of him and feared for her life with every ounce of her rapidly diminishing strength. A Mazoku of Xellos’ caliber wouldn’t feel that kind of true fear, he would cause others to feel it and then he’d feed off of it, as he’d done with Zelgadis before. Now that he actually noticed her fear, Zelgadis found he rather liked it. It was… yummy. Not to mention that delectable hatred pouring from Amelia like a heat wave.
        And that’s what made him let go. Not the fact that that woman who looked like Lara couldn’t be Xellos because of all that fear she was feeling, nor because Amelia had turned suddenly homicidal, but because of the way their emotions made him feel. He stared at his trembling hands while Lina and Gourry chewed out him and Amelia. Zel didn’t hear them. All he could hear was Xellos laughing in the back of his mind. "Oh gods," Zelgadis choked, "that’s what he gave me…"
        Lina and Gourry shut up. Even Amelia quit struggling in Lina’s restraining arms. All three companions paled as they stared at Zelgadis. "You mean the hair…" Lina gasped. "What happened just now, Zel?"
        Zelgadis pushed her aside to kneel next to the newcomer, fighting down the delight he felt when she tried to escape him, begging him to leave her alone. He grabbed her wrist to stop her backward progress and was rewarded with sobs. "I’m sorry," he said in the most reassuring voice he could summon. "I thought you were someone else."
        She didn’t appear to find that in the least bit comforting. "Who—who are you?"
        She tried to free her wrist, but Zel wouldn’t let go.
        "My name is Zelgadis Greywers," Zel explained. "I was one of your patients, though you don’t know it." He swallowed the tears that threatened to fall and embarrass him in front of Lara. The real Lara. Oh gods, could it really be her? He was positive it wasn’t Xellos, nor any other Mazoku, since the monster race didn’t experience fear like that. Same hair, same eyes, same glasses, same everything. It had to be her! Suddenly Zelgadis found himself wishing he would’ve dressed up a little, but how could he have known she wasn’t really dead? And if she wasn’t dead, who was buried in that disgusting mausoleum?
        She was confused. "One of my patients?" Then understanding came to her in a snap and she started laughing. "I see, you were one of Lara’s patients! You can let go of my wrist now, I promise not to run away if you’ll promise not to try to kill me again." She looked shakily from Zelgadis to Amelia.
        "You’re not…" Zelgadis stammered and unconsciously tightened his grip on her wrist, causing her to wince.
        "You’re not Lara?" Amelia echoed Zel’s confusion.
        "My wrist?" The woman prodded.
        Zel blushed from ear to ear and hastily released her. "I—I’m sorry. I didn’t realize." Not Lara? Then who? Zelgadis backed away, tripped over his own feet and fell into Gourry’s arms with an embarrassed yelp. He jerked himself free and straightened his tunic, unable to look at that woman’s too-familiar face.
        Since Zelgadis wasn’t going to be a gentleman, Gourry offered the woman his hand and helped her to her feet. While she brushed off her dress, she explained: "My names Lita, I’m Lara’s twin sister. Everybody used to make that mistake," she faltered for a moment, pausing in mid-pat. Sadness shadowed her face for a moment, then she brightened again and went back to tidying herself up. "Before Lara died, of course. Now there’s just me!" She realized she wasn’t fooling anybody with her forced cheerfulness and let her face slip back into sorrow. She ran a long-fingered hand through her hair in a gesture that was painfully familiar to Zelgadis and continued: "I was Lara’s research partner until about two years before she died."
        Amelia frowned and glared at Lita suspiciously. "Lara never told me she had a twin sister…or a research assistant. We were friends for over a year! I think she would’ve mentioned a sister, at least!"
        Lita bowed her head and sighed. "We…had a bit of a falling out. You see, I disapproved of the direction her research was taking. We argued, and I left. We didn’t speak to each other for two years…" a tear dripped off her jaw into the grass at her feet, and she wiped her face with the back of her hand. "I—I should’ve tried to contact her, to patch things up! Now—now she’s dead, and—and—" she sniffled and wiped at her face some more. Then suddenly she looked up and asked Zelgadis with a forced smile: "Were you a patient of hers, Mr. Greywers?"
        Everybody looked at Zelgadis, who turned even redder and still couldn’t look her in the eyes. "Y-yes. That’s right. Briefly." He couldn’t tell her the truth, he just couldn’t. It had to be hard enough for her to know her twin sister had been murdered. To know that it was a monster who did it, and that that monster then took on her sister’s appearance and used it to harm others would probably be more than she could bear. Better that she believe a more pleasant lie.
        Lina raised an eyebrow at him but backed up his story with her silence. Amelia was too lost in her own thoughts to say anything. She was trying to remember the obituary her father had shown her when she’d returned from Marrigan three days ago. It had listed the names of Lara’s surviving family, including a few female names that were similar to "Lara". She couldn’t remember if Lita was one of the names she’d read, so she resolved to look at the obituary again when she got back to the castle.
        Meanwhile, Gourry was being his usual clueless self. "But, Zel," he argued, scratching his head, "I thought Xellos killed Dr. Sorez before you started seeing her?"
        "Gourry!" Lina clocked him in the jaw, but it was too late. The damage was done.
        Lita’s jaw dropped every so slightly. "I thought that’s what you called me at first," she gasped. "Oh, dear, holy gods…she actually did it…"
        "Did what?" Zelgadis asked suspiciously.
        Lita kept talking as if in a daze. "Xellos Metallium, Chief Priest and General of Beast Master. I can’t believe she actually summoned a monster of such incredible power." She seemed to remember her audience and looked up, pinning each with a sharp glance until her gaze came to rest on Zelgadis and stayed there. "That’s what we argued about. I warned her against summoning monsters, but she insisted her research depended upon it. That’s why I left her. There were other reasons, too, but that was the last straw." Her voice caught in her throat, and she bit her lip to keep from crying. "I should never have abandoned her!"
        Bloody hell, thought Lina, what kind of research could they possibly have been doing that Lara thought she had to summon a monster of Xellos’ power? She remembered the newspaper article Sylph had shown her back in Marrigan, before Zhara had sent the kitsune to look for Zelgadis. According to the article, Dr. Sorez had been searching for the Source of All Power. Being a user of that source, herself, Lina had her own theories about what it was. As she saw it, it was a byproduct of the eternal struggle between the dragon gods and the monster race. If Dr. Sorez had felt the same, it was possible that she had tried to recreate that struggle in the laboratory to see if, indeed, the power generated was the same as the one sorcerers called upon to cast spells. To do that, no low-level dragon or monster would do, which would explain why she thought she needed someone like Xellos. But who would she summon from among the dragon gods? Seified was dormant, the Sea Dragon god was destroyed. That didn’t leave many candidates. Hm…she’d have to pit Xellos against a Knight of Seified who was at his same level. The only Knight of Seified Lina knew who even came close was her own sister, Luna Inverse, who wouldn’t allow herself to be summoned for any price. Luna was retired and now owned and operated an inn in her home town. Luna battling Xellos wasn’t in the least bit funny, but Lina couldn’t keep a smile off her face at the thought. She made it vanish before anyone noticed it.
        While Lina pondered such frightening thoughts, Zelgadis was trying to pry more information out of Lita. "Why would she want to summon Xellos?"
        Lita’s shoulders drooped. "She was looking for the Source of All Power, and I guess she thought she could get answers from the monster race—"
        "You guess?!" Zel gaped. "I thought you said you were her research partner!"
        Her shoulders drooped even more as she went to sit miserably on the steps of her sister’s mausoleum. She pulled up her knees and wrapped her arms around them, resting her chin between her kneecaps with a depressed sigh. "I didn’t agree with the path her research was taking. Don’t get me wrong, Lara had the most honorable of intentions. You see, she hoped that by finding the source of the Source of All Power, she could use it to heal people’s minds. Lara believed the source lay within mortals, who are the product of the struggle between dragons and monsters—"
        "No they’re not," Zelgadis told her bluntly as he sat next to her on the step. "The Lord of Nightmares told me she made us. Humans. She said she made humans."
        Lita sat up and gave him a queer look. "You talked to the Lord of Nightmares?"
        "He died," Lina explained and sat down on the grass in front of the steps, facing Zel and Lita, "but L-Sama let him come back."
        "Like reincarnation?" Lita prodded, looking from Lina to Zelgadis.
        Amelia and Gourry sat down on either side of Lina as Zelgadis replied. "No, she said she didn’t set up this world like that. There is no reincarnation. We get one shot, and that’s it."
        Lina nodded. "So anyway, she told Zel she made everybody and everything in this world, even the dragon gods and monsters. I have my own theory about where the Source of All Power comes from," she went on proudly. "I was just thinking that maybe your sister had the same idea, and that’s why she was trying to summon a monster. My theory—let’s call it The Inverse Theory of the Source of All Power—"
        "Oh, that’s creative…" Zel muttered under his breath and got a mean look from Lina.
        "Ahem! It’s just a working title, ok? I’ll come up with a better one later," Lina huffed. "My theory is really pretty basic: The Source of All Power that sorcerers like me, Zel and Amelia use, is a byproduct of the ongoing struggle between the dragon gods and monsters. It surrounds us and fills us, controlling us but allowing us to control it, as well. That’s how we cast spells, and how spells can control us. So if your sister was thinking like I’m thinking—"
        "Heaven forbid…" Gourry muttered and got the same dirty look Zel got.
        "—then she probably wanted to summon both a monster and a Knight of Seified, of about the same level of power, to recreate the eternal battle in the lab and see if the power produced was the same as the one sorcerers use in their spells."
        Lita shrugged. "We rejected that theory shortly after beginning our research, based on our supposition that mortals were a byproduct of that eternal struggle. It would take a long time to explain why we felt that way, but I’d be happy to let you read our documentation if you feel like coming back to Timeron with me after the Princess has paid her respects," she smiled at Zelgadis and added: "And you have, too. You’re the real reason I was brought here, aren’t you, Mr. Greywers?"
        Zel blushed again and nodded. "I’ll tell you the story later, if you want to hear it. For now, suffice it to say I think I owe this to the real Lara."
        Lita’s smile softened and she startled Zelgadis by laying her hand on his leg. "You thought you loved her, didn’t you?"
        Zel sputtered and blushed and prayed that his friends would keep their mouths shut for once, then spilled the beans himself. "I-I was rather…attached to her, yes."
        "In more ways than one," Lina thought but let it go at that.
        Lita seemed inclined to accept his explanation for the time being and nodded with a sweet smile. Amelia thought miserably that she could see why Zel would fall for someone who looked like that. Lita Sorez was beautiful from her emerald eyes and shining golden hair to her shapely figure and cheerful smile. She actually looked mature, like a woman, not like a little girl, which was how Amelia saw herself whenever she thought about Zelgadis. No wonder Zel had picked Lara over her. And now he’d probably go after Lita, since she was Lara’s twin. Amelia rather hoped Lita was married but couldn’t think of a tactful way to ask if she was. She could just sort of conversationally say: "So, tell us about your family," but that would be pretty tacky with her twin sister’s tomb right behind them. Amelia decided to wait and ask when they were somewhere other than the cemetery.
        "Assuming she really is Lara’s sister Lita," she thought grimly, "no matter what Zelgadis believes."
        Lita got up and pulled a key out of her pocket. "Well! I guess we should get on with it, then!" She put the key into the lock and opened the door to the crypt, moving aside to let them go in ahead of her. "I should warn you about the artwork," she told them sheepishly. "It’s a bit dramatic."
        Zelgadis went first, followed by Amelia, then Lina, Gourry and finally Lita. The good news was, the interior wasn’t nearly as obnoxious as the exterior. The bad new was, it was still pretty overpowering. An immense sarcophagus of white marble sat in the middle of the floor with its foot facing the entrance. It was decorated with carvings that made it look like it was fixed to the floor with great, stone vines. Every wall was covered with inscriptions and carved figures, none of which were immediately recognizable to anyone currently inside the mausoleum. The ceiling was covered by a giant fresco that was quite possibly the most disturbing work in the whole place.
        "’Dramatic’ doesn’t begin to describe it," Lina gasped under her breath.
        The scene and the identity of its participants were quite clear: The dragon god Seified and the Mazoku Lord Shabranigdo battling in energy-spewing glory on a blasted landscape. It was so realistic that those looking at it had to remind themselves that it was only a painting. Still, Lina wasn’t the only one who got chills as she stared at it, transfixed.
        "That’s that guy," Gourry whispered in awestruck wonder as he stood with his head cocked back and gazed at the fresco, "Shabby Big Toe!"
        "Shabranigdo," Lina corrected him quietly. She was more interested in what was going on in the painting than in punishing Gourry for once again royally screwing up the name of the most powerful and terrifying creature the world had ever known. "The dragon is Seified, the Dragon God, who used the last of his power to split Shabranigdo into seven pieces and seal them in the earth. I think this is a painting of that battle, just as Shabranigdo began to split apart."
        Seified’s scales shimmered pearly white, tinged with red and pink where the flames all around him were reflected. His eyes were alive with a fire of their own that came from deep inside the ancient god, a fire that was cold and filled with burning hatred for the great monster lord. Darkness seemed to cling to Shabranigdo’s craggy body as a bright jet of blood-red energy flew from his gaping maw to smite the dragon god in the chest. Even as he attacked, Shabranigdo’s body was coming apart into seven pieces. Fire and blood spewed from the seams like erupting volcanoes to mix with the burning, churning ground beneath his clawed feet.
        "I take it Prince Phil had nothing to do with this?" Zelgadis asked quietly. Like his companions, he was unable to tear his eyes away from the dramatic fresco.
        Lita closed her eyes and smiled. "No, this was my work. I painted it to give this awful tomb some semblance of taste." She laughed self-consciously. "Actually, I’d planned to do something a little less…spooky. A summer sky, perhaps. Something cheerful. But this is what came out. It was as if it was painting itself."
        Without realizing it, the others put some distance between themselves and the artist, who kept on talking, as if they weren’t even there. "It felt like someone was working through me. Maybe Seified or Shabranigdo wanted his story told."
        "Their stories are told all the time," Zelgadis and Lina said at once. They exchanged worried looks, then went back to examining the fresco. It really did seem to be alive.
        "The vines weren’t here before I finished," Lita said and lay a gentle hand atop her sister’s sarcophagus, but none of the others heard her.
        As Amelia stared at the painting, it seemed to grow and expand, to move off the ceiling and flow closer to her until she thought she was part of it, standing in the middle of the flames as Shabranigdo shattered in front of her. She could feel the hot wind whipping her hair into her face and wrapping her cape about her body. It was unbearably hot, but even though she knew her clothes were burning, she couldn’t move, could only stand and watch the most important event in the history of the world unfold. Her friends were with her, their clothes and hair on fire, as well--all but Zelgadis, who seemed immune to the blaze. While the others stood near Seified, Zelgadis walked through the fire toward Shabranigdo. Amelia tried to call to him to come back, but if any sound came from her throat it was swallowed up by the thunderous sounds of Shabranigdo splitting asunder, and the roar of the flames that surrounded him. Zelgadis kept on until he stood at the monster’s feet and looked up at him, watching with spine tingling calm as the gigantic pieces fell from their host and shook the earth with every fiery impact. Then he reached out his hand and caught one.
        "Your Highness! Your Highness, please wake up! Princess Amelia!"
        The voice was unfamiliar, and Amelia found that her mind was unwilling to follow it into consciousness. She was aware of something cold and hard against her back and warm, softness squeezing her hands. Then she recognized Lina’s voice.
        "Amelia! Amelia wake up!"
        "She sounds so scared," Amelia thought and felt guilty about making her friend worry. Then she thought: "What a horrible nightmare. I think I’ll wake up now."
        And she did, much to the relief of her friends and Lita Sorez, who all hovered over her, along with that dreadful painting. Amelia took one look at it and screamed until Lina slapped her face to make her stop. "It’s not that creepy, Amelia!" Lina scolded, but Amelia could see the sorceress’ face was pale and her eyes were a little too wide.
        Then Gourry was there, patting her shoulder. "It is, too, that creepy!" He argued with a shudder. "It’s ok now, Amelia. It’s just a painting."
        "No, it’s not," the Princess thought fearfully and wouldn’t look at the ceiling. Instead, she sat up with Gourry’s help and tried to make herself stop shaking. Lita had to have put some kind of spell into the painting for it to induce such a powerful vision. Amelia closed her eyes and concentrated on her breathing in an attempt to calm herself while she thought about it. Lara had been a sorceress of no small talent, but she’d always used her magic for scientific research, never for harmful purposes. Lara would never have created something as horrible as that fresco. Was Lita a sorceress, too? And if so, was she able to put her power into a painting? Amelia had heard of paintings being cursed, maybe Lita had put a curse on it without knowing it. That is, if her claim that the thing just painted itself through her was true, which Amelia didn’t believe for a second. Nobody did something that powerful by accident. And why would she put such a horrible thing in the tomb of her own sister? Well, they hadn’t been speaking to each other at the time of Lara’s murder… Maybe Lita was still mad when she did the painting, in spite of all those tears she shed outside the crypt a few minutes ago, and had put that dark energy into her artwork.
        The others hadn’t had the same reaction to it, Amelia realized. She was the only one who had seen the vision of Zelgadis catching a little piece of Shabranigdo. What did it mean? Four days ago, she would’ve known exactly what it meant: Zelgadis had a piece of Shabranigdo in him that would turn him into a Dark Lord with the power to destroy even L-Sama. But things were different now, weren’t they? The Lord of Nightmares said she’d destroyed that part of Zelgadis when she’d killed him, but what if that essence was in the piece of Zel’s hair they’d used to clone him a new body? Amelia gasped: Zel’s new body also had some of Xellos in it! Had they made an even more terrifying Lord out of Zelgadis than he was before L-Sama killed him? No, that couldn’t be it. If that was true, then L-Sama would never have allowed them to make Zel a new body. Unless…
        Unless the Lord of Nightmares still wanted to destroy Xellos and planned to use Zelgadis to do it, just like she’d tried to use the Sons of Chaos before.
        Suddenly Zelgadis’ worried face was in front of her and his hand was on her shoulder. Amelia flinched at his touch, changing his concern to hurt, but she couldn’t bring herself to say anything to him to make up for it. When she’d looked into his eyes just then, she’d seen Xellos looking back at her. This couldn’t be happening, it was crazy. For the hundredth time, she cursed Xellos for tampering with her precious Zelgadis. What sick, twisted thing had Xellos been scheming when he’d put his own hair into the copy machine that would make a new body for Zelgadis? Amelia clenched her fists in her lap and ground her teeth as she silently swore to kill Xellos if what he’d done turned Zelgadis to the side of evil.
        Lita Sorez knelt beside the Princess and said in a halting voice: "Princess, please believe me: I didn’t mean to paint that. It just came out." She looked away and added quietly: "I’ve tried to scrub it off the ceiling a dozen times since I finished it—even when the paint was still wet—but it won’t come off. Neither will they," she swept her hand around the mausoleum to indicate the glyphs and figures on the walls. "I did those on the same day. The painting came last. I’ve tried so hard to get rid of them," she sobbed, "but they won’t go away!"
        She seemed sincere. Amelia touched Lita’s hand and asked carefully: "Did you put a spell into those paintings, Miss Lita?"
        Lita wiped her face and nodded. "I felt magic flowing through me," she explained. Her expression became almost euphoric as she remembered the day she’d created the images inside her sister’s tomb. "I’ve never experienced so much power!"
        "What did it feel like?" Lina asked. "Black magic? White?"
        Lita bowed her head to think about it. "It felt like…" she shook her head slowly, "it felt like both, if that makes sense. As if both sides were trying to communicate something through my paintings."
        Zelgadis was on his feet and walking around the mausoleum examining the glyphs on the wall. As he walked, he trailed his fingers over the carved surfaces, as if he could read the characters better by touching them than looking at them. Actually, he could do neither. "Do you know what these mean?"
        Lita shook her head and rose to join him. "I don’t. Can you read them?"
        Lina came over to examine the carvings. There was something familiar about them but she just couldn’t place where she’d seen similar writing. The feeling nagged at her, trying to pull the memory from the back of her mind to the front where she could see it, but still Lina couldn’t place it. She touched the wall, sending a weird, tingly shiver all the way up her arm to her shoulder. With a startled gasp, she jerked her hand away, then carefully put it back again. "Zel, did you feel—"
        "It tingles with power, yes" he interrupted. "Fascinating, isn’t it?"
        Lina shuddered at how much that comment sounded like something Xellos might say, especially when Zel delivered it in that tone of voice. She sighed. "Ok, Zel, where have I seen these before, since you seem to believe you know something about it."
        Amelia sat on the floor near the sarcophagus and leaned closer into the shelter of Gourry’s chest, but he was too curious about the goings on at the wall to notice. She closed her eyes and listened to his heartbeat with one ear and Zelgadis’ reply with the other. She had a terrible feeling about the meaning of that strange writing, that it had something to do with the two great powers that fought in the ceiling fresco. For a moment after she’d awakened from the vision, she’d thought she could read the glyphs, then they’d blurred back into obscurity. But before they did, they’d left her with an icy, otherworldly chill.
        The chimera chuckled under his breath and said: "I have no idea."
        Lina resisted the urge to reach around Lita and hit him. Unnoticed behind her, Amelia began very quietly to cry.