Food For Thought
And if you give us any more trouble, I shall visit you in the small hours and put a bat up your nightdress. - Basil Fawlty
Now he had something new to be depressed about: Attacking Amelia. The Xellos part of him said the girl had wanted him for years and couldn’t understand why she’d freaked out when he’d finally given her what she wanted. The Zelgadis in him wanted to die for terrifying her so badly. He couldn’t believe he’d done that—and that he’d kept at her when she’d obviously wanted him to leave her alone. Worse, he’d enjoyed it enormously.
Furthermore, why did he run out of juice so quickly after sucking up all that terror energy from Amelia and the guards Xellos scared? Sure he’d gone pretty ballistic on Xellos, but should that have worn him out so quickly? Maybe the trickster had sucked out his energy as part of his self-defense scheme. Well, if he had, he’d been pretty sneaky about it, because his victim hadn’t felt a thing. But if that wasn’t it, what was? Zelgadis sighed and lay back on his bunk, wishing for the first time in their acquaintance that Xellos would appear and answer his questions.
What if it was just a matter of poor resource management on his part? Seemed reasonable. His body wasn’t used to metabolizing and utilizing that kind of fuel. And anyway, he wasn’t pure Mazoku, so the problem could also be that his body had to juggle two kinds of food: The kind humans ate and the kind monsters ate. At any rate, the man with the answers was Xellos and he was off meeting with his master.
Zelgadis rolled over onto his tummy and hugged his threadbare pillow under his chin. "I can’t stay like this forever," he thought miserably. "I can’t live my life having to feed off people to survive." As he saw it, that left him with two options: Find his cure and become a full human again, or, failing that, kill himself. In the immediate future, however, he had to get away from his friends before he really did hurt one of them (or kill them, but he was trying not to think about that). Step one: Get out of the dungeon, then the palace, then Seyruun.
He jumped off the bunk and aimed a flare arrow at the lock on his cell but hesitated. What about the hieroglyphs in the crypt? Zelgadis let the spell peter out and sat back down on his bunk to think some more. There was something about that tomb writing…something important, and he had to find out what it was. Could it be the cure L-Sama had left for him in the world, the one only he could find and—No, that couldn’t be it. If he was the only one who could find it, then the others wouldn’t have been able to see the writing, or something like that. Maybe the writing was a clue that would point him in the direction of the cure. He recalled the fresco on the ceiling and the tiny snippet of translation Amelia had revealed. "In the beginning there was emptiness and darkness," he murmured aloud. It was the beginning of the story of the creation of the world by L-Sama. He knew how the rest of it went as well as anybody did. It told how the Lord of Nightmares had made the world and stuck it on the end of a giant pole, the Staff of the Gods from which the Philosopher’s Stone had supposedly been cut. Then she’d put Mazoku and Dragon Gods in the world and set them against each other in a never ending struggle between good and evil that affected everything in the world to the present day. Was that all the tomb writing was? A retelling of the creation story? Probably, it including the story of the battle between Shabranigdo and Seified, as well, since Zel doubted that giant fresco would have been included in the work, otherwise. Even so, why were those stories important enough to be the subject of trance paintings? Everybody knew those stories from the cradle, it wasn’t like there was anything new or shocking about them to warrant this kind of interpretation.
Or was there? What if there was some critical piece of information that didn’t make it into the traditional stories? Something that had come to be of desperate importance? Did it have something to do with his near-blooming into the world’s most devastating Dark Lord? No, that couldn’t be it. Lara Sorez had died days before Xellos took her form—but she hadn’t been buried until after he’d left Timeron!
Wait a second. How come Amelia hadn’t known that one of her so-called best friends had been found floating dead in a river outside of Seyruun? That would seem to be information Prince Phil would’ve given her as soon as Lara’s body had been found. Something was really fishy here, and the only way to get to the bottom of it was to ask Amelia.
At that realization, Zel’s stomach flip-flopped. "Oh, yeah. Like anybody’s gonna let me near Amelia again."
Well, he’d just ask Lina, and Lina could ask Amelia! Another flip-flop. "As if Lina will ever speak to me again after this. Except maybe to beat me senseless."
Things were looking pretty bleak, and Zel couldn’t imagine how they could possibly get worse, then he remembered something Xellos had said about Lara’s murder: She’d killed herself, but it hadn’t been suicide. A light went on in Zelgadis’ unhappy mind as he realized the obvious meaning of that statement. Lara Sorez had made a copy of herself, just as Rezo had done, and that copy had turned on her. What had made Zelgadis think of it at that moment, was a waft of Lita Sorez’ life force that came to him just before he heard the door to the cell block open and the guards order the visitor to halt and identify herself. He did a quick comparison of the way Lita felt to his memory of how Lara felt, found them to be ever so slightly different, then remembered that the Lara he knew had actually been Xellos at his tricky best. So much for that experiment.
Hey! Maybe Lita could ask Amelia why she hadn’t known about Lara’s murder before she’d left Seyruun to come after him! His heart sank. What if Lita had come to give him a piece of her mind about assaulting her twin sister’s friend? Then again, Amelia had tried to kill Lita at first, too, claiming to know nothing about Lara having a sister. Of course, that could be explained by the fact that the sisters had been estranged before Lara and Amelia had met. Maybe Lara had been so angry with her sister that she had tried to blot her out of her life completely. Suddenly Zelgadis had a terrifying thought: What if Lara had wanted Lita out of her life so badly, she’d tried to kill her, and Lita, her identical twin, had killed her in self-defense?! Would that meet the criteria of being killed by yourself but not committing suicide?
No, no, no. That didn’t seem like something Lara would do. Then again, Zel realized, he hadn’t known the real Lara, and hadn’t Xellos hinted that the truth would about her would make him really unhappy? What was the truth? One thing Zelgadis knew for sure: Whatever the story behind Lara Sorez was, he wouldn’t believe a word of it if it came from Xellos.
"Lita, wait!"
Zel heard Lina’s voice at the same time he felt her and Gourry. Lita’s footsteps stopped abruptly. Zelgadis heard Lina’s small footfalls running to catch up, along with Gourry’s heavier ones. Then he felt Amelia and almost choked. What was that girl thinking coming down here? What if he lost control again? Oh yeah. Lina and Gourry would kick his ass. Maybe they’d kill him, too, and end his misery. A friend in need is a friend, indeed, he always said.
Then they were all looking at him through the bars of his cell, and Zelgadis wished himself a million miles away. He’d witnessed Lina Inverse’s temper before, had seen her use it to give her spells and even mightier wallop, but he’d never really seen it turned on him (except when it was that time of the month, and she couldn’t have hurt him very much anyway). Lina glared blazing death at him, her delicate hands on her tiny hips, one of her small boots tapping the stone floor impatiently. Gourry loomed behind her, looking like a big, blonde avenging angel, his powerful arms crossed angrily across his chest. Amelia cowered behind him, peeking around the swordsman’s waist with big, frightened eyes, like a cornered rabbit. Lita stood apart from the group, her expression unreadable as she peered at the chimera through the bars.
"So," Lina barked, and Zelgadis cringed. This was the angriest he’d ever seen her. He licked his lips, which had gone suddenly dry, then remembered he didn’t have to be afraid of her temper, he could eat it. "No! No, I won’t!" He bit his lip and forced himself to ignore her delicious rage, but it just wouldn’t leave him alone. It beat against his consciousness like a bird against a pane of glass…thap…thap…thap. Zel closed his eyes and steeled his will against that tempting sweetness, so like candy to his Mazoku part. It was really hungry, that monster inside him. Really, really hungry. And that nice friend of his, that wonderfully generous Lina Inverse was throwing him great, big steaks. And Mr. Nice Guy Gourry was tossing in some delicious potatoes and gravy…well-aged wine… Oh gods, he couldn’t take it anymore! Zelgadis gave up, and let the Mazoku within take over and eat its fill at his friends’ expenses.
The friends in question, meanwhile, didn’t figure out what was going on until Gourry started to feel a tad light-headed and had to hang onto one of the bars to support himself. Lina realized what was happening after that and forced herself to calm down. "Think happy thoughts, Inverse," she coached herself, then realized Zelgadis had been lapping up their anger like fine cuisine and got really pissed.
"I came down here to give you a chance to explain yourself," she screamed at him, "and you’re using it for a snack! That’s it. I give up, Zel. I can’t talk to you without getting mad and when I get mad, you make a meal out of it, like a good, little monster." She turned on her heel and collected Amelia with one hand and Gourry with the other. "Come on, guys, let’s go. As long as he’s in here, he can’t hurt anybody."
"You don’t think I can escape anytime I want?" Zelgadis asked quietly, basking in the heady afterglow of his juiciest meal yet. Everything stopped, and he smiled his satisfaction. "I’m a powerful sorcerer, remember? I could blast my way out of here at any time."
Lina’s mouth tightened into a grim line. "So what’s stopping you?"
Zelgadis didn’t reply. He didn’t know what was stopping him.
"Can’t be guilt," Lina went on through her teeth, knowing she’d found a sensitive spot. "You’re too Mazoku for that, aren’t you?"
That hurt, but Zelgadis bit his tongue and refused to be baited. He wasn’t so sure that he wasn’t mostly monster now, anyway.
Lina looked at him over her shoulder and grinned. "It is guilt, isn’t it, Zel?" All of a sudden, her expression softened. She dropped her friends’ hands and came back to stand at the bars with Lita, who hadn’t budged. "You’re still in there, our old Zelgadis. The real Zelgadis. I knew it! Fight it, Zel! Don’t let Xellos win!"
Zelgadis slid off the edge of the bunk and put his hands over hers on the bars with a sad sigh. "You don’t understand, Lina. I can’t fight it. I need to feed as they do, or I’m almost too weak to move." He leaned his head against the cold iron and closed his eyes. "I don’t want to do it, but when I do, it feels so good! And I get strong, like I’ve never been before. What can I do?"
Gourry and Amelia returned to stand behind Lina, their anger turned to sadness and worry for their old friend. After a few moments, Amelia reached out and touched his hand. His eyes flew open with a start, and she pulled her hand away, then replaced it with a determined look. "I understand now," she whispered. "You didn’t want to hurt me, you wanted to scare me because you were hungry." Her eyes bored into his, and Zelgadis could tell she was forcing herself to look at him. "Is that why you came to my room? To…gulp…feed?"
Zel shook his head. "No. I wanted to ask you if you’d had visions at the crypt. I could tell from your eyes that you must have, but I wanted you to tell me about them yourself. I wanted you to trust me like before!" He thumped his head against the bars with clang of stone on iron. "And…I wanted to talk about…about before…in Marrigan."
Amelia’s eyes brimmed with tears and she patted his fingers soothingly. "Let’s talk about that some other time, ok? Like after we get your cure, and you’re human again!"
So that was it. Zelgadis pulled his hand out from under hers and went back to sulk on his bunk with his arms on his thighs and his head bowed. She was waiting for him to be human before really acting on her feelings for him. Odds were she didn’t realize it until they’d met in her mind while his copy body was being made, and she’d seen him as a human for the first time. No wonder she’d decided to hold out for that body. What woman would really want to be married to a guy with stone skin? They probably couldn’t even have kids, which would really rule him out as a candidate for Royal Consort. The Princess of Seyruun would need heirs, and couldn’t marry someone who couldn’t provide her with them. So Amelia would put her old feelings for him on hold until he found his cure. Well, he couldn’t honestly blame her, but it still hurt, especially after all those passionate speeches she’d made about liking him just the way he was. Why didn’t she say anything? Zelgadis didn’t dare look up to see her face and really have his assumptions confirmed, so he kept his eyes on his boots while nobody spoke for a really long time.
And yet, they didn’t leave him, either. They just stood outside his cell, feeling uncomfortable and confused. All but Lita, from whom Zelgadis felt nothing but curiosity. Hmph! Welcome to the freak show! He was probably the first person she’d seen with stone skin who wasn’t a full golem. As a scientist, she must find him utterly fascinating. Well, he was in no mood to be a laboratory animal.
"Paint a picture," he grumbled, glaring at her under his brows, "it lasts longer."
She flushed red and looked away with a mumbled apology. "I’m sorry, Mr. Greywers, I didn’t realize I was staring."
"Don’t feel bad," he snorted, "everybody who meets me has to get a really good look at the freak."
"I didn’t!" Lina protested. "What is it with you, Zel? You always think people are staring at you and thinking ‘oh, gods, what a ugly monster’. First of all," she held up a finger, "you’re not ugly. Second of all, you’re not a monster, no matter what Xellos did to you in Marrigan—"
"Should’ve cleaned the copy machine before using it," he interrupted, repeating Xellos’ sage, after-the-fact advice.
Lina found she couldn’t continue with her schpeel, and no one else could find anything to say to that. Apparently, they’d had that thought, too, but not when it could’ve made any difference. Zelgadis risked a look and had to fight to keep himself from laughing at their guilty expressions. At least he wasn’t the only one who felt stupid about that one. Well, it was neither here nor there. What concerned him now was finding that cure L-Sama had left for him and he had a nagging suspicion Lita’s bizarre artwork had something to do with it. Since Lita claimed not to know the meaning of her work, that brought Zel back to Amelia’s visions, which he was still sure she’d had.
But first, he wanted to know why Amelia hadn’t known about Lara’s death when the two of them had supposedly been such good friends. So he asked, throwing the Princess into a fit of blushing and stammering.
"Well, you see, I’d only just arrived before dinner," she explained, twiddling her fingers in nervous embarrassment while everyone watched her intently, "and Daddy was away—he was investigating Lara’s murder, but I didn’t know that—"
"None of your Daddy’s faithful advisors thought to tell their Princess the big news about her good friend’s murder?" Zel prompted incredulously. "I find that hard to believe."
Amelia cleared her throat. "Well, to be totally honest, um, so did I, so, um, I asked Daddy about it when we got here, you see, and he said he’d left instructions that I should be told about Lara when I got back," she cleared her throat again and was finally able to meet Zelgadis’ eyes. "Daddy’s advisors said they remember telling me about it, but I don’t remember that. Miss Lina and Mr. Gourry were with me, and they don’t remember, either!" She puffed up with pride and added: "Of course, Daddy believes me, because I would never lie to him about anything!"
"So what happened?" Lita and Zelgadis asked at the same time. Lita blushed and looked away, Zelgadis frowned and continued to stare expectantly at Amelia.
The Princess shook her head with a puzzled look. "I don’t know. Miss Lina thinks someone didn’t want me to find out about Lara and put a spell on the people who were supposed to tell me to make them think they had."
"Probably Xellos," Lina cut in sourly.
Zelgadis nodded agreement. "That would seem logical. Xellos or that third Rezo copy. Either one would have reason not to want any of my allies to know about Lara’s death while they were using her form against me." He nodded again, then said: "That brings me to my next question, Amelia: What did you see in those visions of yours at the tomb?"
He looked expectantly to the Princess, who just sighed. "I don’t want to talk about it here—"
"Well, I’m not getting out anytime soon, according to Phil," Zelgadis snarled, "so I guess you don’t have any choice, do you?"
Amelia set her jaw and balled her fists. "I’m the Crown Princess of Seyruun, Mr. Zelgadis, and I’m the one you attacked, not Daddy! If I say you can come out, you can come out!"
"Sure…"
Zelgadis wasn’t the only one taken aback by Amelia’s stubborn tone. Gourry looked positively shocked and put a little distance between himself and the Princess. Lina gulped and thought: "She’s got that look again. Like when she tried to kill Xellos." Aloud, she suggested: "Amelia, maybe we should just talk with Zel in his cell, huh?"
Amelia shook off Lina’s gentle hand and headed off toward the guard station at the end of the passage, leaving her friends and Lita to stare after her. "Is she always like that?" Lita asked in a whisper.
Lina shook her head. "Not unless she’s talking about justice."
"But," Lita prodded, "she wasn’t talking about justice."
Lina didn’t reply. She was too busy being worried about her little friend and didn’t trust Lita Sorez enough to even want to tell her about the incident in Marrigan. She cast a cautious, sidelong look at Zelgadis to see what he was making of Amelia’s attitude and got a sickening feeling in her gut at the sinister little smile on his lips. "Damn him! He’s feeding off her again!" But she couldn’t think of anything she could do to stop him that wouldn’t just add fuel to the fire. One thing was for sure: Zelgadis couldn’t be trusted alone with Amelia—and now that Lina thought about it, maybe Zel shouldn’t be alone with Lita, either. Before coming to the dungeon, Amelia had asked her father to show her Dr. Sorez’ obituary again, and she, Gourry and Lina had scanned it for mention of a twin sister named Lita, or even mention of anyone in Lara’s life named Lita. What they’d found had left them with more questions than answers: If the obituary was correct, Lara Sorez hadn’t had any sisters, only brothers and a small list of female cousins with whom she’d apparently been close. None of them were named Lita. Prince Phil had been all ready to apprehend the "impostor", as he called her, but Amelia had stepped in and cautioned her father against acting unjustly. After all, there weren’t any laws against just claiming to be related to someone, though the tomb art could be interpreted as vandalism, if they could prove that Lita was the artist and wasn’t lying about that, too. Lina had agreed, adding the possibility of Lita being involved in Lara’s murder somehow. If she was, playing along with her was the best way to keep her from going to ground while they collected the evidence they needed to arrest and convict her under the law. (Personally, Lina liked the idea of handling Lita outside of the law, but throwing around terms like "justice" and "law" got more cooperation out of Prince Phil than terms like "ass kicking" and "lynch mob".)
All that begged several questions: If Lita wasn’t Lara’s twin, why did she look exactly like her (according to Zelgadis and Amelia)? And if she wasn’t a family member, why did she have a key to the mausoleum? Furthermore, if a real family member had responded to Prince Phil’s request to open the crypt, what had become of that person, since the only one to show up was Lita? Lina thought question number one was pretty much a no-brainer: Lita was a copy of Lara. As such, it was reasonable for her to try to pass herself off as Lara’s twin to people she thought wouldn’t know any better, since copies weren’t really looked upon favorably by the general public. If that was the case, Lina figured the woman would fess up if confronted with the evidence, and if she did, Lina might be willing to forgive that little lie about being Lara’s twin. Self-defense was perfectly understandable. But why did she have a key to the tomb and why was she the only one who responded to Phil’s request to open it? Had she intercepted Phil’s message, or had she intercepted the real family member who’d responded to it? If the latter was true, what had become of that family member? Had Lita killed them? Another possibility entered Lina’s mind: What if Lita was the Sorez’ family’s best-kept secret? Still, would that mean they’d let her represent them to the Seyruun Royal Family? Lina doubted it. No matter which way she sliced it, Lita Sorez (or whoever, or whatever she was) couldn’t be trusted.
Which is why she really didn’t want Amelia talking about her visions in front of the woman. Amelia had confided in Lina after reading the obit, and honestly, the content of the first vision had left Lina pretty badly shaken. No wonder Amelia had fainted afterwards. She shared Amelia’s confusion over the symbolism in the vision of Zelgadis catching a piece of Shabranigdo. That would have made a lot more sense a week ago, but Zel was supposedly free of Shabranigdo, according to the Lord of Nightmares. So what did the vision mean? And what was the deal with the knight in vision number two? Was it a knight of Seified, perhaps? Or did it represent Seified, himself? No, that didn’t make sense, since the knight had formed from a mandrake plant that bird had in its talons, the bird Zelgadis had caught. And what was that all about? A hieroglyph turned into a bird, which Zelgadis caught, then the plant in the bird’s claws turned into a knight that hacked Zel in half. Well, ok, Amelia hadn’t actually seen the blow, just the build up to it, but it was pretty clear to Lina that Zel got whacked. Amelia spitting up hieroglyphs that translated themselves was a more familiar notion and just about the only thing that made sense in either vision.
Maybe telling Lita about the visions wasn’t so bad, Lina thought. It might jog her memory about the paintings. That is, assuming Lita’s claims about the tomb art were more true than her claim that she was Lara’s sister. No matter what, Lina figured Lita knew more about the hieroglyphs and the fresco than she was letting on, so if the rest of them wanted to solve the mystery, they’d just have play Lita’s little games for a while.
Amelia returned with a pair of guards. One of the guards opened the cell, though he was clearly not happy about doing so. They all stood aside to let Zelgadis out, then the guard locked the cell door behind him. "Your Highness," the guard begged, "Prince Phileonel will be—"
"Furious," Amelia finished for him sharply. Her tone and the glare that came with it shut him up and killed whatever notions the other guard might have been entertaining about arguing with her. "I’ll deal with Daddy. I officially accept full responsibility for this. You won’t be punished." She waved a hand at them and added airily: "Carry on!"
"Y-yes, Your Highness!" They saluted her and all but ran back to their posts.
As he came up along side her, Zelgadis bent to whisper in the Princess’ ear: "On a little power trip, are we, Your Highness?"
Zelgadis wasn’t sure what reaction he’d been expecting to his joke, but her sharing it hadn’t been it. The smug little snicker she gave him sent chills down his spine and told him his stony carcass could wind up with a nice, fat price on it if he didn’t behave himself. Such cold heartlessness was so unlike his Amelia, that Zelgadis couldn’t find anything else to say until they arrived in Phil’s study and she offered them all chairs and refreshments as if they were at a garden party. The Prince was nowhere in evidence, for which tiny blessing they were all very thankful.
Once they had their finger food and tea, and the servants had been sent away, Amelia seated herself primly on a gilt armchair facing her audience, took a dainty sip of her tea and began: "I’ve already told Miss Lina and Mr. Gourry about my visions, but I think it’s important for you to know about them, too, Mr. Zelgadis, since you were an important part of both of them."
"Gods, she’s so…Royal," Lina thought with a cold lump in her throat. Beside her on the couch, Gourry’s hand paused with a cookie halfway to his mouth. He uneasily met Lina’s eye, then the cookie finished its journey to his stomach.
On a chair to Gourry’s right, Lita Sorez sipped tea and gave Amelia her fullest attention. Other than that, Lina couldn’t read her expression. Zelgadis sat in a chair on the other side of the couch, at Lina’s left. He, too, gave the Princess his undivided attention. "Wait till he hears about her visions," Lina thought. While Amelia spoke, Lina divided her attention between Zelgadis and Lita, socking away their reactions for later analysis. For the moment, she was most interested in Lita’s reaction, especially if Amelia’s visions unlocked any memories about the paintings. Unfortunately, Lita’s expression remained infuriatingly unreadable throughout Amelia’s entire narrative. The woman just munched finger sandwiches and drank tea, all the while looking politely at the Princess. "Damn, it’s as if she’s heard this one!" Lina thought and made a mental note to ask about that when Amelia finished.
Zelgadis was more animate. Though he said nothing, his face went through a whole spectrum of colors between sickening green to mortified red. He looked confused for a while, then thoughtful as the Princess’ tale wound down and he tried to digest what she’d said.
Lita was the first to speak: "What do you think your visions meant, Your Highness? Do you have any thoughts on that?"
"What do you think they mean?" Lina wanted to ask, but Amelia was already replying.
Just as coolly and regally as before, Amelia said: "Before we made him a copy body, Zelgadis almost became a Dark Lord because of a part of Shabranigdo that was inside him. But the Lord of Nightmares removed the Shabranigdo part, so I really don’t know what that vision meant." Amelia, Lina and Zelgadis all watched Lita’s reaction to the revelation that Zel’s body was a copy, but she didn’t even blink. "Everything else, except the part where the hieroglyphs translated themselves, is a complete mystery." She took a sip of tea and set the cup down on the saucer which was balanced on her knee atop a tidy white napkin. "I really haven’t had much time to analyze it all, but I’m sure Miss Lina will be able to help me figure it out. She’s the most powerful sorceress in the world, you know."
Lita nodded politely, then looked impressed, if a bit dubious, in Lina’s direction. "Is she really?"
Amelia nodded while Lina tried to make herself smaller. "She destroyed Shabranigdo and Phibrizio and was instrumental in preventing Dark Star from entering our world. She’s the only sorceress I know who can successfully cast the Giga Slave."
Again, everybody looked to Lita for her reaction, Lina with a burning blush on her cheeks, but just as before, Lita put on an impressed face. "Giga Slave… I think my sister told me about that spell once." She smiled a little sheepishly. "We kept to White and Shamanist magics, you see, and I never really studied any of the Black magics well enough to know much about a spell like the Giga Slave. I know it’s very powerful, of course, but that’s about all."
Lina tried to be cool and not smirk. "If you studied Shamanist magic, then you’d know about the Giga Slave, since it’s the most powerful attack spell in any kind of magic."
"Though it really is a Black Magic spell," Zelgadis added and raised his teacup to Lina to show he was trying to back her up, not confuse the issue.
Lita was unflustered. "I know of the Giga Slave, I just don’t know many details about it."
"You should know whose power it calls upon, at least," Lina persisted, determined to trip her up.
Lita nodded. "Of course I do: The Lord of Nightmares."
Hm. Obviously, they’d have to find some other way to get under her skin. Lina decided it was time to play the copy card. "Lita," she began sweetly and leaned forward to look at the woman around Gourry, "Amelia and I were reading Dr. Lara’s obituary, and it didn’t mention any sisters. How could that be, if you’re her twin?"
Lita choked on a sip of tea and spent a few seconds politely coughing into her napkin before replying.
Lina fought down a triumphant sneer and thought: "Ha! Gotcha!"
Lita sighed and sadly looked away. "When Lara and I had our falling out, it trickled down to the entire family. My position wasn’t very popular, and since she brought so much fame and fortune to the family, and…and, well, I didn’t, when she disowned me, so did they."
Lina deflated. That was sort of plausible, except for one thing: "Then why would they send you as their representative when Prince Phil asked for someone to open the mausoleum?"
Lita smiled. "Because they’ve forgiven me. After all, I’m all they really have left of her, being her identical twin." Her voice caught in her throat as she bit her knuckles and added: "I’m just half a person without her!" Then she broke down and ran for the door, only just barely remembering to bow to the Princess and ask to be excused. Though she didn’t get permission, Lita ran out of the room, anyway, leaving the door to slam shut behind her.
"Well, that was unproductive," Zelgadis commented dryly. "I was sure mentioning my copy body would get some reaction."
Lina nodded thoughtfully. "So did I. I still won’t be convinced she’s telling the truth until we hear it from Lara’s family."
"It’s a three-day turnaround from Seyruun to Timeron," Amelia sighed, "if Daddy’s messenger doesn’t stop anywhere—"
"And if he isn’t intercepted," Lina interrupted quietly. She looked to Gourry, who was wearing his thinking face.
"Think I should go after him," Gourry asked slowly, "to make sure nothing happens to him?"
Lina thought about it, then shook her head. "No, Lita doesn’t know about the messenger, so let’s wait and see for now. Meanwhile, we can spend the next three days studying those hieroglyphs."
"Agreed," Zelgadis said, then gulped and looked up at Amelia. "That is, if you’ll let me stay out of jail…"
Amelia gave him a withering look. "If I put you back in jail, you’d just escape, isn’t that what you said? So what’s the point of putting you back in a cell if you’re just going to blow a big hole in my castle."
Zel bit his lip and hung his head. "I promise I’ll behave," he muttered.
There was an awkward pause, then Lina asked: "Define ‘behave’…"
After an hour, they’d laid down the law for their newborn Mazoku friend and exacted his agreement to comply with their demands. The most important demand being that he never be alone with Amelia. "And I wouldn’t advise being alone with Lita, either, all things considered," Lina added as they got up to retire to their rooms for the evening. The sleeping arrangements had Gourry and Lina sharing a room with Zelgadis on the assumption that her sorcery and his sworsmanship could stop a Mazuko-powered chimera. Amelia was lodged in her own apartments, the door having been repaired while they’d talked to Zelgadis in the dungeon. Being unable to convince his daughter to let him share her room, Prince Phil had settled for putting guards outside her door and checking on them personally throughout the night. However, Amelia had decided she trusted Zelgadis a little better now that she understood what happening to him and the real reason he’d come to her before. She still felt better having the guards outside her door, though.
While the castle denizens slipped off to sleep, Xellos perched on a turret with a nice view of the Princess’ window and giggled softly to himself. They’d left Amelia all alone in her room. That wasn’t very bright. He flickered over to another turret, where he could see into Zelgadis’ room. Hm…Lina and Dumbshit. As if that could stop the new and improved Zelgadis. Xellos chuckled as a plan formed in his brain. Tomorrow would be a good day to lay the truth about Lara Sorez on Zelgadis, right as the chimera got really twisted up inside over the prospect of finding a good, wholesome Mazoku-style breakfast. And tonight would be a good time to launch Operation Evil Princess.
He disappeared and reappeared outside Lara’s mausoleum where he stood at the foot of the stairs and scowled. He reached out a tentative hand, only to get the glove fried off of it again, so he launched a light spell at the door and tried to see what he could of the artwork from where he stood. Blurry colors were all he could see, and a plain marble sarcophagus. Whatever magic was keeping him from entering the tomb was also keeping him from clearly seeing what was on its interior walls. The only people with that kind of power were his master and her peers and the Lord of Nightmares. If this was L-Sama’s work, he knew he should just leave it alone, but his innate curiosity wouldn’t let him do that.
So back he went to the castle to get to work on that tantalizingly evil core he’d detected inside Amelia back in Marrigan. Tomorrow morning, he’d burst Zelly’s bubble about Dr. Sorez. Xellos grinned as he teleported into the Princess’ bed chamber. "I love my job!"