If I ever meet myself, I'll hit myself so hard I won't know what's hit me. - Zaphod Beeblebrox

        The hieroglyphs stared at Lina from the tomb wall, as if taunting her for not being able to remember whereshe’d seen them before. Picture writing was so rare and ancient, she was stunned she couldn’t immediately go: "Ah ha! These are the ancient writings of such-and-such from the blah-blah era!" But, no. They just sat there in all their brightly-colored, inscrutable glory and dared the puzzled mortals in the mausoleum to sort them out. Dammit! Where had she seen them before?! Lina gnawed her lip and cast a surreptitious glance out of the corner of her eye at Zelgadis and Lita, who had adopted her exact same pose to study the glyphs: Elbow cupped in one hand, chin resting on the other, lower lip pinned between teeth.
        "Any luck down there?" Zelgadis asked, looking at Lina out of the corner of his eye, just as she was looking at him.
        Lina bit her lip some more. "This is gonna drive me crazy! I know I’ve seen this kind of writing before! I just wish I could remember where or when! You?"
        Zel and Lita replied in unison: "Same."
        They sighed as one and went back to staring at the wall. Meanwhile, Amelia had convinced Gourry to take her outside for some fresh air and to get away from the tomb’s creepy artwork. Even the hieroglyphs that had the others so enraptured gave the Princess goosebumps just to think about them. So she and Gourry sat on the steps where they could still hear the conversation inside the mausoleum but not have to look at the subject matter. Not that it bothered Gourry nearly as much as it troubled Amelia, he was just being a gentleman and making sure she didn’t faint again. Chivalry was half of being a truly great swordsman, and it didn’t get more chivalrous than rescuing princesses from fainting. Well, ok, maybe rescuing princesses from dragons was more chivalrous, but helping them out of a good faint was a close second. Gourry didn’t know it yet, but before the day was out he’d bump fainting even farther down the list of chivalrous things to do for princesses. For now, however, he was feeling rather proud of himself for being such a gent.
        "Dragon?" Lina suggested.
        "Nah," Zel shook his head. "We saw a lot of those with Filia, remember?"
        Lina sighed. "Right. Forgot."
        They thought about it some more, then Lita wondered: "Mazoku, perhaps? I’d think their race would have its own system of writing and recording its history."
        "But you’ve never seen an example," Lina cut in, disappointed. "I have, and this is nothing like it. They use runes."
        Zelgadis nodded his sage agreement, and back they went to their evaluation.
        Out on the steps, Amelia was trying desperately to remember the revelation she’d had upon awakening from her faint. In those first few moments, she’d known exactly what those glyphs were and what they meant, then it had faded back into her subconscious. She pulled her knees up to her chin and closed her eyes, trying to ease into a meditative state, but Gourry wasn’t making that very easy.
        "Do you believe her, Amelia?" He asked in a whisper.
        Amelia opened one eye to glare at him. "Not a word," she whispered back. "I don’t even remember seeing the name ‘Lita’ in the obituary from the newspaper. I’m going to read it again when we get back to the castle, and ask Daddy if Lara ever mentioned having a twin sister to him."
        Gourry drew his sword and lay it across his knees. Taking a handkerchief from his pocket, he began polishing the metal blade. He always thought more clearly when his hands were occupied with his sword. "What if Lita’s not who she says she is? Do you think she’s another of Xellos’ tricks?"
        The Princess considered that for a few moments. Lita had seemed too terrified of her and Zelgadis trying to strangle her to be a real monster. They didn’t feel fear like humans did (if they even felt it at all), so Amelia figured they wouldn’t be able to fake it that convincingly. "I don’t know," she said quietly, "I think a monster wouldn’t be able to act as scared as she did."
        Gourry nodded, his mouth set in a grim line. "Yeah, and didn’t you think she seemed too proud of those paintings. Remember how she acted when she told us about the magic she used to paint them?"
        "The magic that used her," Amelia corrected but she wasn’t convinced of that, either. "Or so she says."
        "Can that happen?"
        Amelia nodded. "I’ve heard of it happening, but usually the person wants it to happen—you know, like a priestess in a trance."
        Gourry paused in his sword polishing. "She’s a priestess?"
        "I don’t think so," Amelia told him, trying very hard to be patient. Gourry was known to latch onto the most irrelevant part of a sentence and twist the facts up so badly it was hard to backtrack far enough to make him understand the truth. She would have to chose her words carefully. "I think she’s a sorceress of some kind, just because of the work she says she was doing with Dr. Sorez—Lara, I mean. Lara’s work involved magic, so I’d think her ‘research partner’ would have to know magic, too. What kind of magic is what I want to know. Lara was a shamanist, like Zel."
        Gourry nodded. If Lita’s magic was like Zelgadis’, and she wasn’t their friend, they had a lot of worrying to do.
        "That’s it!" Lina exclaimed and smacked her fist into her palm. She pointed at the fresco of Seified and Shabranigdo with a triumphant smirk and declared: "The hieroglyphs must have something to do with that battle! Why else would she have painted them at the same time?" She pointed at Lita, who gave her a clueless look and shrugged. Lina turned her expectant gaze upon Zelgadis, who obligingly stared at the ceiling.
        "A viable theory," he said thoughtfully, "but that still doesn’t tell us what kind of hieroglyphs these are, what they mean or even how they relate to that battle."
        Lina deflated. "I know that, but don’t you think they’re related?"
        Zelgadis looked cross. "I just said it was a viable theory, didn’t I?"
        Lina’s words gave Amelia a vague sense of deja vu. She saw the hieroglyphs superimposed over the fresco. They seemed to move and dance, arranging themselves in a precise order on the big painting on the tomb’s ceiling. She was standing in the fire again watching Zelgadis catch a piece of Shabranigdo, but as it fell, the piece turned into one of the glyphs, which became a black bird with a mandrake plant clutched in its talons. It tried to fly away, but Zelgadis caught it and held it tightly between his hands, so it couldn’t escape. It lost its grip on the mandrake, which fell into the flames, only to emerge again as a warrior in white and gold armor. The warrior swept aside the flames with a great sword that reflected the light like a blinding sun. The sword bore down upon Zelgadis’ head, just as he noticed the warrior and released the bird in surprise.
        Amelia screamed and found it was night, and the battlefield was nothing more than charred embers. There was no sign of Seified, Shabranigdo, Zelgadis or the mysterious knight in white armor. She was alone on the field. The smell of charred flesh overcame her, and she fell to her knees, only to wretch up more of the hieroglyphs. They swirled before her eyes, while her mind slowly made sense of them.
        "In…the beginning…emptiness…darkness…"
        "Amelia?" Gourry nudged her shoulder. "What are you talking about?"
        The Princess blinked her way back to sunlit reality and her old friend’s reassuring voice. "I—don’t know. What was I talking about? I think I, um," she started to tell him she’d had another vision, the remembered she hadn’t told anyone about the first one and decided to change the subject. "I must still be a little dizzy, I guess."
        Gourry frowned at her. "You said something about the beginning and emptiness and darkness. Is that how you feel? I thought you said you were dizzy."
        Amelia didn’t answer him. She jumped to her feet and ran back inside the crypt and frantically scanned the walls for the hieroglyphs from her vision. "There! Miss Lina! Over here!"
        Lina, Zelgadis and Lita excitedly joined her on the other side of Lara’s sarcophagus just as Gourry dashed in with his sword in his hand and a worried look on his face. "Amelia, what’s wrong?" He demanded at the same time as Lina wanted to know the same thing from him.
        "She said something about—" Gourry began, but Amelia finished his sentence for him.
        Pointing into the upper corner, she read: "In the beginning there was emptiness and darkness!" Then she realized those were the only ones that had been revealed to her and faltered. "I—I don’t know the rest." Great. Now she’d have to tell them how she knew all that.
        Lina put her hand on Amelia’s shoulder and looked very deeply into her friend’s frightened eyes. "I thought so," she said quietly. Only Amelia could see her expression, so when she continued, Lina made sure her face told the Princess what she was really thinking, but kept Zelgadis and Lita from knowing. "You’ve seen these before, in one of those holy books in the great library of Seyruun and you’re just now remembering!"
        Amelia blinked. What did that look mean? Better play along, she decided, and laughed self-consciously. "I think so. They’re really old, I’m sure of that. We should probably take our investigation to the library, don’t you think so, Miss Lina?" What was Lina trying to tell her with that look?
        Lina clapped Amelia on the shoulder and hugged her. "Good thinking, Amelia! We’re not making any progress just standing around staring at the things. Zel?" She turned a determined grin on Zelgadis, who just nodded.
        "You’re right about that." He turned to Lita and asked if she’d give them access to the tomb while they translated the writing on the wall. She agreed, and the coach was summoned to collect them all and carry them back to the royal palace. Amelia held Lina’s hand very tightly for the entire journey.

        Upon their return to the castle, Lina straight away wanted to get to the university library to find books on ancient writings. Lita volunteered to go with her, claiming that such things were a bit of a hobby for her. Lina’s plan had been to take Amelia along, so they could talk about her visions and get some research done at the same time. But they couldn’t talk with Lita there, so when Amelia wanted to stay at the castle and take a nap, Lina gave in. She wasn’t too sanguine about leaving her with Zelgadis, though she couldn’t exactly place why that made her so uneasy. So far, Zelgadis’ only Xellos manifestations had come in the form of annoying comments and mannerisms. Jumping Lita’s throat was more a Zelgadis thing, though she couldn’t remember him losing control like that before. Still, after everything Xellos had done to him, Lina couldn’t rightly say she blamed him for going for the throat when he thought Lita was Xellos trying to trick him again. And speaking of Lita Sorez, that was one woman Lina definitely didn’t trust—not the woman, herself, and not anything she’d told them so far. Except the bit about the paintings, but only because she’d heard of trance painting before, though never to such a powerful degree. Well, the only way to get to the bottom of Lita’s story was to decipher those hieroglyphs. There was something disturbingly important about them, something that begged her to solve their mystery, especially after those few words Amelia was able to translate. Lina had no doubt that her little friend had received that translation in a vision of some kind and that she’d had a similar vision just before she’d fainted upon seeing the fresco. The girl’s eyes had just that sort of haunted look to them when she’d come out of it. She had to get Amelia someplace away from Lita Sorez to find out what she’d seen. It occurred to Lina that Lita might be the perfect person to interpret Amelia’s visions, since she’d put the glyphs and fresco in the tomb, but Lina didn’t trust her enough. And anyway, Lita already told them she didn’t know what her paintings meant, either.
        Well, nothing for it, then. She’d go to the university with Lita and hopefully find some clues. She just wished Zelgadis, at least, would come along, but he was going on an investigation of his own at Seyruun’s main temple, at the heart of the city. He asked Amelia to go with him, but she said she wanted to lie down for a while after her ordeal. Lina knew better: The Princess just didn’t want to be alone with Zelgadis.
        "Keep an eye on Amelia," Lina ordered Gourry, who for once seemed to have a clue and nodded seriously. "But don’t look like you’re keeping an eye on Amelia. If he thinks you think something’s wrong, Phil will have every guard in the place camped outside her door."
        Gourry rolled his eyes. "No kidding. He overreacts to everything." He glanced down the hall to where Lita was adjusting her cloak as she waited for Lina to join her. She caught his eye, and he waved at her with a hesitant smile. "I don’t trust her, Lina," he whispered in the sorceress’ ear.
        "I know," Lina replied, "me, neither. And much as I hate to say it, I’m not too sure I trust Zel anymore, either."
        She expected Gourry to disagree with her, hoped he would tell her she was imagining things or was just being paranoid, but he did just the opposite. "I think Amelia’s scared of him," the big swordsman confessed in a hushed voice, "and I think he likes it."
        That was it. That’s what had been bugging her about Zel’s new behaviors. He liked making his friends uncomfortable. Though, he’d looked hurt when Amelia had jerked away from his touch back in the mausoleum, not like he wanted her to be afraid of him. What was going on inside that chimera’s head, anyway? It wasn’t like he’d actually tell anybody if asked, Lina knew. That much of their good ol’ Zelgadis was still there: He hated talking about himself.
        "Just keep her company," Lina told him, "like a good friend would do. Ok?" Gourry nodded with a forced smile. "We should be back for supper, so leave some for me for once, will ya?"
        Gourry gave her a teasing shove in Lita’s direction. "Yeah, right! You’re the one who always eats all of my food!"
        Lina stuck her tongue out at him and walked backward a few paces to add: "That is so not true, and you know it! I’m a delicate flower!"
        "You’re a delicate flower with big thorns," Gourry shot back under his breath. Lina heard it, but chose not to clobber him for it in front of Lita. She didn’t like the way that woman looked at Gourry and wanted to make it perfectly clear he was spoken for. Then she realized she was being silly. If Lita Sorez was paying attention to anyone, it was Zelgadis, and he was certainly encouraging it, if all that smiling at her was any indication. Ye gods, she thought, he were go again.
        Zelgadis watched from his window as Lina and Lita left the castle for the university, then he left his room and headed for Amelia’s. He was sure the Princess had had at least one vision about the tomb paintings, if the levels of her emotions at the time were any indication. Furthermore, her eyes had looked like deep, chilly pits when she’d come out of her faint. Why Lina Inverse of all people hadn’t done the math on that one was beyond him, but one of them had to convince Amelia to tell them about her visions, since the girl didn’t seem willing to just volunteer the information. Zel saw Gourry knock on the Princess’ door as he came around a corner and quickly ducked back into the other hallway. He didn’t object to Gourry hearing about Amelia’s visions (the big guy probably wouldn’t be able to make sense of them, anyway) but his interrogation method required him to be alone with Amelia, which meant Gourry had to go.
        "I just wanted to see if you needed anything," Gourry called to the Princess through the door. Zel strained his ears to hear her reply but couldn’t make out the words through the heavy wood. "Are you sure you don’t want me to sit with you, or anything?" Pause. "Well, ok. Sorry I bothered you. If you need anything, my room’s just down the hall!" Gourry hesitated with his hand on the door knob, then sighed and walked away, down the hall toward Zelgadis’ hiding place. Zel quickly ducked into a nearby room until he heard the swordsman’s door open and shut, then he reemerged and resumed his mission.
        He turned the knob and slipped into the Princess’ room with a finger to his lips to keep her from calling out. "I, uh, was worried about you," he explained awkwardly and went to stand by her window. Damn. Now that he was actually here, his brilliant plan was harder to execute than it had seemed in the safety of his room. He smiled at her and felt his cheeks grow warm. "You seemed kind of, you know, not well back there—at the cemetery—so I just wanted to make sure, you know, that everything was alri—"
        "I’m fine, thanks!" Amelia hastened to assure him. She pulled the covers up to her nose and looked at him with big, frightened doe eyes. "Just having a nap! Ulp!"
        Zelgadis came over and sat on the edge of her bed. He gently pulled the coverlet away from her face and said innocently: "I’m not going to hurt you, Amelia. I’m your friend, remember?"
        She blushed. He blushed. They looked away from each other, then looked back and blushed some more. Zelgadis rubbed the cloth of the coverlet between his fingers while he thought about how to proceed. He could just take the direct approach and ask her outright about her visions, but where would be the fun in that? His fingers paused as he realized he was doing a Xellos thing again.
        Fun?
        Hmm…well, he thought, maybe that’s why she was avoiding him. She was just shy! Their interlude inside her mind when his spirit was in her body had been pretty sudden, after all. And in such unusual circumstances, too. Now that they were in their own bodies in the waking world, she probably wondered if it had all been just a dream. They hadn’t gotten very far when they’d tried to discuss it in Marrigan, either. Should he bring it up again now?
        He looked into her eyes and felt a twinge of glee when she shrank away from his gaze. Well, maybe his original plan was best after all. Zel leaned close, taking his time in order to savor Amelia’s confusion and mounting fear, letting his arms slide to either side of her head and allowing his body to press down upon hers.
        He didn’t expect to get his lip bit when he kissed her, but he just found that more exciting. Amelia, however, wasn’t sharing his enthusiasm, especially since she suspected she’d just chipped a tooth. She struggled beneath him, fists pummeling his shoulders and back, legs trying to push him off the side of her bed to no avail. He was just too strong and heavy, and with his mouth covering hers, she couldn’t scream.
        Zel released her lips and covered her mouth with his hand at the same time to keep her from calling for help. "I’m not going to hurt you, Amelia. I thought you wanted me to do that with you? I thought you loved me. That’s what you’ve always said, isn’t it? That our love is eternal? Whatever happened to that?" He gave her a look that was a mixture of mocking concern and genuine confusion. What am I doing, he wondered. This is crazy! Amelia is my friend! Why do I want her to feel like this?
        Tears welled up in Amelia’s eyes and dripped down her face to wet his fingers. It was too much for him to bear, he had to try to make it better. Keeping his hand over her mouth, he leaned down to kiss the tears from her cheeks and was at once gratified and dismayed that he’d only managed to frighten her even more. "Shhh, Amelia, it’s me, Zelgadis! I won’t hurt you, I promise."
        She shook her head frantically to show how much she disagreed with that sentiment and tried to kick him off the bed again. If only she could speak, she could throw him through the window with a really good Diem Wing! Oh, no, she couldn’t do that to Zelgadis! What if he got killed when he fell from the fourth floor? No, he’d levitate himself to safety—then come back and get revenge! Amelia cried even harder, unable to think of a way out of this predicament. A week ago, she would’ve given anything for Zel to come on to her like this, but he just wasn’t the same guy anymore! Now he was just plain creepy. But still…those eyes…he looked so hurt…
        Amelia stopped struggling and looked into his eyes. That was all the encouragement Zelgadis needed and swapped hand for lips again. Amelia promptly resumed her struggles. "Zffadff! Foffiff!"
        His hands pinned her wrists to the mattress as he moved the rest of his body over hers to keep her from kicking him over the side. There was something very tantalizing about her fighting him. Her emotions were like…like…Zel sighed, devouring her fear, rage and helplessness like a feast. This was incredible! Wonderful! Even being with Lara hadn’t made him feel this good, as if he was glowing, radiating power.
        He didn’t hear Gourry pounding on the door until the pounding turned into a mighty kick that blew the heavy oaken door straight off its hinges and across the room. Next thing he knew, the swordsman had plucked him off Amelia and thrown him into the wall by the bed.
        Gourry pulled Amelia off the bed and pushed her toward the door where a knot of royal guards had gathered. His drew his sword and put himself between Zel and the retreating Princess. "Amelia, I think you should have your nap in you Dad’s room." He glanced over his shoulder.
        Two of the guards directed their Princess away from her rooms, while four others pushed past Gourry and placed Zelgadis under arrest. Before they could get past him, Gourry stopped them with his sword and demanded of his friend: "What were you thinking, Zel? She’s Amelia!"
        Zelgadis hung his head in shame and couldn’t meet Gourry’s eyes. What had he been thinking? "I—I don’t know what came over me," he stammered, then suddenly looked up with a devastated expression. His shattered voice stabbed Gourry’s heart. "What’s happening to me?"
        "Xellos," Gourry said and stepped aside to let the guards pass. "This is for your own good, Zel. I’ll let you tell Lina what happened if you think you’re man enough. Just stay away from Amelia from now on."
        Zel allowed himself to be led through the doorway. "I have to apologize to her."
        "Not in person," Gourry told him firmly and raised his sword a little to make the point that disobedience would not be tolerated. What he really wanted to know was how he’d explain to Lina how Zelgadis had gotten into the Princess’ room when he was supposed to be keeping an eye on her. He shouldn’t blame himself, he knew. After all, Amelia had told him she didn’t want any company, and if he’d hung around outside her door, the guards would’ve gotten suspicious and told Prince Phil. But if he had hung around, then Zelgadis wouldn’t have been able to sneak in and… "I’m sorry, Amelia," Gourry whispered, as the guards and Zelgadis disappeared around a corner, "it’s my fault."

        "No it isn’t your fault!" Amelia protested when Gourry went to apologize to her in her father’s apartments. Prince Phil was down in the dungeon giving Zelgadis the full frontal Phileonel experience, which Gourry and Amelia really felt the chimera more than deserved. It was the first and probably the last time Gourry would ever wish Phil on anybody.
        Amelia lay her hand on Gourry’s and tried to smile. "How were you supposed to know not to trust Zelgadis?"
        Gourry looked away and sighed. "But I did know, Amelia," he told her. "I mean, I didn’t know he’d do something like that, but I knew he wasn’t our Zel anymore, like something’s wrong with him. I knew it when he attacked Lita—he looked like he was enjoying it. That’s so Xellos!"
        Amelia nodded sadly. If ever she got her hands on Xellos, she raged, she would make him suffer long and hard before killing him. "We have to find a way to make Zel normal again," she told Gourry in a hard voice, "and to do that, we have to find that cure the Lord of Nightmares said she put in the world just for him. If he’s fully human again, then there won’t be any Xellos in him anymore."
        "How can we find it, though?" Gourry asked and sat down in a chair by the window. The late afternoon crowds were starting to thin out as people headed back to their homes or to restaurants for dinner. His stomach growled, and he thought of Lina. She’d kill him when he told her he’d failed to protect Amelia from Zelgadis (right after she got done killing Zelgadis for attacking Amelia). "The world’s a big place. It could be anywhere."
        Amelia pulled up a chair opposite him and leaned her head against the window pane. "And only Zelgadis can find it."
        "Which he can’t very well do in prison," Lina’s strident voice brought them about with a start. "Amelia, what in the hell did he do that you had him arrested?!"
        Gourry and Amelia exchanged blushing glances, and Amelia asked timidly: "Didn’t anybody tell you?"
        Lina put her hands on her hips and tapped her foot angrily. "No!"
        The pair by the window exchanged looks again. "Zel attacked Amelia," Gourry confessed, then hurried to apologize for his failure. "I asked Amelia if she wanted company, but she didn’t, so I told her I’d be in my room if she needed anything! You said I shouldn’t—"
        Lina waved him into silence. "I know what I said! What do you mean by ‘attacked’?" She looked at Amelia. "Do you mean he tried to kill you?"
        There was a long, uncomfortable silence, while Lina glared at Amelia and felt her stomach do acrobatics. The expressions on her friends’ faces told her the truth, but she just didn’t want to believe it. Couldn’t believe it. Even Xellos, in all his twisted, sadistic, Mazoku loopiness wouldn’t attack a girl like that. Sure, he’d stolen a kiss from her in Marrigan, but not to scare her, or anything. He’d seemed to really want her in the way that ordinary human guys wanted ordinary human girls. So what was up with Zelgadis? He’d never seemed to return Amelia’s desire before, why now when she was clearly afraid of him? Just for that tasty rush of human fear? Had he attacked Amelia because he had the munchies? "Oooh, I really need to have a little talk with Xellos!" Lina vowed silently.
        Out loud, she asked again: "What did Zelgadis do, Amelia?" She came closer and squatted down by the Princess’ chair. "It’s ok. You can tell me. I promise I won’t hurt him for it. Too much."
        Amelia’s reaction took Lina completely by surprise. The Princess’ face turned livid with rage and her eyes blazed like hot coals. "But I want you to hurt him very much, Miss Lina! He tried to—he—he—" she burst into tears and left the sentence for Gourry to finish.
        "He, um," Gourry cleared his throat and leaned down to put himself closer to Lina’s ear, even though the three of them were the only ones in the room. "He forced his attentions on her," he explained as delicately as possible.
        Lina gasped in horror. "How far did he get?"
        "He kissed me," Amelia sobbed, "and held me down and—" she threw herself off the chair and into Lina’s arms. "He scared me! He’s not Zelgadis anymore!"
        Gourry went to close the door, then poured Amelia a glass of water from a carafe on a table by a luxuriously upholstered couch. He gave it to Lina so she could help Amelia drink it, then sat down on the couch to wait out the Princess’ cry and figure out what he was going to do about Zelgadis. It very shortly occurred to him that Lina had arrived alone, without Lita Sorez, who had gone with her to the library.
        "Lina?" He asked suspiciously. "Where’s Lita?"
        Lina gave him a funny look that he couldn’t interpret at all, then said: "I left her at the university when your messenger came and told me Zelgadis had been arrested."
        "I didn’t send a messenger," Gourry told her.
        Amelia sniffled. "Neither did I. I guess Daddy sent him."
        Lina frowned. "No, he said you sent him, Gourry. Maybe you just forgot."
        "No," Amelia insisted, "he’s been with me ever since they took Zelgadis away. I would’ve seen him send a messenger."
        Gourry nodded. "It wasn’t me, Lina, I swear. Must’ve been Phil."
        "Then why would the messenger say he came from you?" Lina persisted.
        Shrugs. "Maybe he made a mistake," Gourry suggested halfheartedly.
        Lina narrowed her eyes at him. "You and Phil are a little hard to confuse with each other, don’t you think?" She got up and looked out the window, her arms folded across her chest as she thought. "I guess we should ask Prince Phil if he sent him before jumping to conclusions. Where is Phil, by the way? I would’ve expected him to be here comforting his little girl."
        "He’s explaining the ways of honorable conduct to Zelgadis," Gourry told her sourly, "probably at the top of his lungs, with physical demonstrations." And Zel really deserves it, he thought but didn’t say aloud.
        Amelia said it for him. "He deserves it."
        Lina closed her eyes and shut her mouth. The Princess’ tone had hit her like ice water in the face. It was so like the cruel voice she’d used to threaten Xellos that day back in Marrigan when she suspected Zelgadis was dead before any of the rest of them knew the truth. "Please, Amelia," Lina prayed silently, "don’t become that person again. Zel doesn’t know what he’s doing anymore. If we abandon him, Xellos wins." She leaned her forehead against the window pane and tried not to cry. Oh yes, she definitely needed to have a nice, long, forceful chat with the Trickster Priest, if only she could make him appear on demand instead of when she least wanted him around.
        The messenger had not come from Phileonel, nor anyone else in the palace, which put a very cold, nauseating lump in Lina’s belly. She had a pretty good idea who that mysterious messenger was, especially since none of the palace guards or servants seemed to meet the description of him Lina gave Prince Phil. And if her hunch was true, then she’d left Lita Sorez all alone in the library with the man who probably murdered her twin sister. So it was with great urgency that Lina returned to the library with Gourry, Amelia, Phil and a pack of palace guards in tow, only to find Lita with her nose in a musty tome, completely unharmed and very much surprised to see them. That didn’t convince Lina, of course.
        "Where’d that messenger go when I left?" She demanded, nose-to-nose with the nervous former-scientist.
       Lita blinked innocently and tried to lean back away from the angry sorceress. "I don’t know! He left right after you did. Why?"
        "Because I didn’t send him!" Gourry revealed, as if that should explain everything.
        "Neither did I!" Amelia added enthusiastically, and was seconded by Prince Phil.
        Lita frowned. "Oh dear. Then who sent him?"
        "We don’t know," Lina growled, "that’s what we’re trying to find out!"
        "Well, I don’t know!" Lita protested indignantly and slammed the book shut with a puff a dust that left everyone in range, including herself, coughing. "What—what did I *cough-cough* ever do to you *cough*, that you come in *cough* in here and—and—AH-CHEW! And accuse me! *cough-cough-cough*"
        Ok, so she had a point. They had no reason to suspect her of anything clandestine except for a suspicious feeling in Lina’s gut, and the fact that Lara Sorez had never told Amelia she had a twin sister. True, Amelia had met Lara after the falling out she’d supposedly had with her twin, but still. She might at least have mentioned she had a twin sister, even if she wasn’t speaking to her.
        Lina fanned dust away from her face and sneezed. "It’s not that I think it’s you," she explained, "I think it was—" she hesitated and looked around herself, wondering if this was information Phil and the palace guard actually needed. She decided they didn’t. "Look, why don’t we go back to the palace and get something to eat. It’s probably just a big misunderstanding," she laughed self-consciously. "And I just overreacted with everything that’s happened today."
        Lita didn’t look like she was buying that especially but she got out of her chair and returned to the palace without argument. On the way out, Lina tried to see if there was any sign of a struggle, or even bloodstains, but everything looked perfectly peaceful and just as it had been when she’d left it. Maybe she was just overreacting…

        Zelgadis sulked in his prison cell with his ears still ringing from Prince Phil’s lecture on acting like a gentleman when alone with a girl, and particularly how to behave with his daughter. Couldn’t that buffoon explain anything at decibel levels that didn’t shake the plaster off the walls? Of course he was sorry for what he did to Amelia, but how could he explain why he did it to Phil without getting his stony ass tied to a burning stake in this the holiest of white magic cities? Amelia was probably convinced he was a monster by now, which meant it was only a matter of time before Gourry believed it, then Lina. Sigh. As soon as he figured out how to bust out of this cell, he decided he’d continue the quest for his cure alone, which was the only way he could see to protect his friends from his newfound appetites. The real trick would be keeping them from following him, like they usually did.
        "Nice job with the Princess, Zelgadis!" Xelloss cackled from the top bunk of Zel’s cell. Zelgadis was on a chair in the opposite corner. "Couldn’t have done it better myself!" Zelgadis launched himself at the Trickster, only to rebound off an energy field and into the bars behind him. Xellos continued without missing a beat. "Oh, that’s not true, is it? I’m much better in bed than you are. No wonder Amelia was so keen on getting you out of hers!"
        Zelgadis threw a fireball at his nemesis, but it just fizzled out before getting halfway across the cell. Xellos clicked his tongue and waggled a scolding finger at the furious chimera. "Now, now. If you keep that up, you’ll exhaust your energy—and you can’t feed off me. I don’t experience the emotions you need."
        That brought Zel up short with a flare arrow pulled back and ready to launch. He let it die instead. "What have you done to me?" He fumed.
        Xellos swung his legs with a happy grin. "You don’t like my present? You can return it if you don’t mind dying again."
        Zelgadis leapt at Xellos in a rage, only to repelled by the Mazoku’s barrier once again. "Mmm…yummy!" Xellos giggled and smacked his lips with delight. "Can I make you angrier? Let’s see…Ah! I know what! I could tell you the truth about Lara Sorez!"
        "What? The truth that you killed her?!" Zelgadis shouted and threw the chair at Xellos’ shield and wound up with the chair back in his face. He batted it aside with a furious snarl. "Murdered her in cold blood?!" Where were the guards, he wondered. With all this noise, they should’ve been there long before now. Xellos probably put a sleep spell on them, or outright killed them. The bastard.
        Xellos blinked in genuine shock. "I didn’t kill Lara Sorez."
        "Liar."
        "Nope," Xellos swung his legs some more and crossed his heart. "Mazoku honor. I didn’t kill her. Neither did that useless version of Rezo, before you ask."
        Zelgadis snorted: "Yeah right. Why should I believe you?"
        The Trickster hopped off the bunk with a heavy sigh and approached Zelgadis, who backed away until he had nowhere left to go. Xellos pierced his victim with a terrifying glare and told him coolly: "She was a mortal who thought to command the monster race. She was nothing to us but an amusing plaything until we grew bored with her experiments."
        "Is that when you killed her?" Zelgadis sneered.
        "No," Xellos replied quite calmly, "but I think I know who did, and it wasn’t one of us."
        It took Zelgadis a second to realize Xellos had just lumped him in with the monsters. "I’m not one of you," he seethed, "and I never will be one of you. I’ll die first."
        Xellos rolled his eyes and tapped Zelgadis on the head with his staff. "You have died first, you idiot."
        "And see where it got me."
        Xellos grinned. "Should’ve cleaned the copy machine before using it! Nothing for it now, my boy!"
        "I’m not your boy, either." Zelgadis tried to shove the Mazoku out of his personal space, but Xellos was stronger than he appeared and didn’t budge. "Ok, who killed Lara?"
        Xellos held up a finger between their faces and giggled. "That is a secret."
        "SON OF A BITCH! THAT’S IT, YOU’RE GOING DOWN, YOU BASTARD!" Zelgadis kicked and punched and shoved at the Trickster and had absolutely no effect whatsoever. Xellos just stood there and giggled at him, seeming to get happier the harder Zelgadis tried to hurt him. After a while, Zel realized he was running out of steam and not just on a physical level. He let himself slide down the bars to the floor while he caught his breath and tried to figure out what was wrong with him.
        Xellos saved him the headache. Sitting in front of the chimera, he explained: "I told you, Zelgadis, this is your new nature. You’re one of us now, so you must eat like we do, or grow weak like you are now. Fear, rage and despair are your food. Without them, you’ll be no better than a feeble human."
        Zelgadis shook his head weakly. "No, I’m not one of you. I’m not. I’d rather be a feeble human than one of you."
        Xellos shrugged. "Well, that is your goal, isn’t it? To be human again? My gift will give you the power to do that—"
        "Sure it will."
        Another shrug. "Why are you always so difficult? I’m trying to help you survive, and you act like I’m the one who tried to rape Princess Amelia. Tch!"
        That hit the mark hard, and Zelgadis buried his face in his hands and cried. That’s what it had been, hadn’t it? Rape. Oh gods, he wanted to die. Maybe if he annoyed him enough, Xellos would kill him. No, Xellos would never do that if he knew that’s what he wanted. He could kill himself if he could just figure out how. The Sword of Light, perhaps? Hm. But how to steal it from Gourry, who even slept with the thing (to keep Lina from stealing it). Poison, then? What poisoned a chimera of his mix? Could golems and demons be poisoned?
        Xellos poked him with his staff. "What are you thinking, Zelgadis? That you’re a bad person now for trying to get what you want from the little Princess?"
        Zel sniffled and glared up at him with a bonafied look of death. "Why are you still here?"
        Xellos giggled. "Because I like you, Zelgadis! We had… a thing."
        Die, you scum sucking pig. Zelgadis couldn’t muster the strength to do more than just think that, so he returned to his deep sulk. Who had killed Lara, if not Xellos or Kopii Rezo 3? Another Mazoku? But would a monster think to dump her body in the river to try to cover its evil deed? A monster probably wouldn’t care that it had murdered a human. According to that logic, her murderer was human, or at least that’s what the killer wanted people to think if he wasn’t human. He drove his fist into the stone floor of his prison cell. Xellos had to be lying. Who else would have a motive to kill Lara Sorez other than the monster who needed a pretty body to use to get control of the world’s next big Dark Lord (Zelgadis) before he realized his own potential? It had to have been Xellos!
        "Xellos?" Zelgadis asked without looking up, his voice muffled by his arms on which his head rested.
        "Yes?" The Trickster replied cheerfully.
        "You’re a lousy liar."
        Another giggle. "Ok, you caught me. You really weren’t that bad in bed."
        "ARGH!" Zel’s hand shot out and grabbed Xellos around the neck, getting through his force field by taking him completely unawares. "I’m saying I don’t believe that you didn’t kill Lara, you pervert!"
        Xellos easily pried Zelgadis’ hand from his throat and very gently replaced it in its owner’s lap, delighting in the chimera’s startled expression. "I didn’t kill Lara Sorez, Zelgadis, and that is the truth. Whether or not you believe it is your problem. That doesn’t affect its truthfulness."
        Zelgadis looked away with his fists balled in his lap. "Then tell me who did."
        Beast Master’s chief servant scratched his head thoughtfully. "I don’t think you’ll believe me. I know I didn’t believe it at first." He shrugged with a resigned grin. "Oh well, nothing ventured nothing gained. Lara killed Lara, but it wasn’t suicide."
        "An accident in the lab?" Zelgadis probed sharply.
        Xellos shook his head and giggled. "Nope. That’s as much as I’m going to tell you for now, Zelgadis. My master calls." He got up and brushed himself off, waiting for Zelgadis to try and stop him. When he didn’t, Xellos looked down to find the chimera making a valiant effort stand on his own. "Oh dear, this simply will not do." Xellos put his hand through the bars and snapped his fingers.
        In a moment, a pair of guards appeared outside the cell. They stared dumbly into it until all of a sudden they realized they now had two prisoners where once they’d only had one. "Who are you?" They demanded, pulling swords on Xellos, then realizing rather sheepishly that he already was their prisoner.
        Xellos tapped Zelgadis on the top of his head. "Zelgadis? Observe. And remember, you owe me dinner for this." He looked up at the guards, cleared his throat and arranged his garments. Then all of a sudden, he changed his appearance from happy-go-lucky wandering priest to gore-dripping, crazy zombie, scaring the shit out of the two guards, who screamed in terror then fainted dead away.
        Xellos brushed his hands together with a smug grin, then offered Zelgadis his hand. "Now don’t you feel better?"
        Zelgadis swatted his hand aside and stood on his own. He did feel much better, but hell if he was admitting that to Xellos. "I thought your master was calling you.."
        Xellos perked up. "That’s right! Almost forgot."
        "Sure you did."
        Giggle. "We’ll talk again, Zelgadis. Tootle-loo!" With that, Xellos disappeared, leaving behind a very depressed, yet oddly satisfied chimera.