"OH-HOHOHOHOHOHOHO!"
        "Shit! She’s still out there!" Zellan hissed to his brother. They huddled between two houses across the street from their mother’s. Naga stood in the middle of the street between them and safety…and cackled. She looked like she was enjoying herself.
        "Don’t be shy," Naga cooed and flipped her hair in what she obviously thought was a seductive way, then did that cackle again.
        Ullan feared he’d go mad if he had to listen to that ear splintering sound for much longer but he couldn’t imagine how they’d get past her into Zhara’s house. Once behind their mother’s barrier, they’d be safe for sure. "Can’t mum hear her?"
        "How can she not?" Zellan replied with a shudder. "All of Marrigan is in hiding. I’ll bet mum is, too. What did we do to Lina that she’d send that monster here to punish us?"
        "She’s supposed to be a hot springs expert!" Ullan countered in Lina’s defense. He still had a bit of a crush on the petite, flame-haired sorceress who’d saved him and his brother from having to kill their mother. "Maybe it’s just her laugh that’s so awful…"
        "And her wardrobe…"
        "And those eyes," Ullan shuddered. "She looks crazy."
        "OH-HOHOHOHOHOHO!" Naga spun on her heels and pointed right at the terrified boys. "I see you!"
        Zellan gritted his teeth and gave his little brother a determined look. "Well, there’s nothing for it, then."
        Ullan gulped and nodded. "I know we said we’d never be them again, but…"
        "This is a very special circumstance."
        "Oh, yes, very special," Naga agreed in their ears, and before the boys could do anything else, she had an arm around each of them and was hugging them against her monstrous, leather clad breasts. "OH-HOHOHOHOHOHO!’
        The Sons of Chaos wailed: "MUMMY!"

        Urlich and Lina touched down outside Dr. Lara Sorez’ grave, Urlich having elected to Raywing instead of teleport, since he had no clue where he was going and needed to follow Lina. His reaction to Phil’s masterpiece was pretty much the same as Lina’s first impression. "That is the ugliest thing I’ve ever seen. Gods! What were they thinking?"
        Lina was more interested in the faint, flickering light inside the mausoleum than in Urlich’s critique. The door to the crypt was open, so Lina mounted the steps with Urlich behind her and went in. A stump of a candle sputtered on top of the sarcophagus. Lita was sound asleep, curled up on the floor between her sister’s final resting place and the left hand wall. Her right hand held a pencil and rested atop a small pad of paper. Lina quietly knelt to see what Lita had been drawing. "She was copying the hieroglyphs," Lina whispered, but Urlich was too absorbed in the artwork on the ceiling to hear her.
        "Holy shit, Lina," he gasped, "who painted this?! It’s incredible!"
        "She did," Lina told him and pointed to Lita, who was beginning to stir. "She doesn’t remember it, though, except for the feeling of power flowing through her while she painted."
        "No kidding," Urlich snorted and went to run his fingers along the wall on the other side of the sarcophagus from the women. "This is incredible! I haven’t seen anything like it in more than a thousand years!"
        Lina abandoned Lita and rushed over to Urlich’s side. "You recognize them?!" She asked, eagerly grabbing his sleeve with one hand and pointing at the wall with the other.
        That’s the part Lita heard as she awoke with an expansive yawn, then realized with a jolt that she didn’t know the man Lina was talking to. "Lina? Who is this man?"
        Urlich spared Lita a quick glance, then went back to admiring her handiwork. "I’m Urlich. Hi. Nice work, this. I never imagined a mortal could duplicate these so accurately."
        Lina tugged on his arm and growled: "What do they say, Urlich?"
        He yanked his arm out of her grasp and brushed off of his coat where her fingers had been, a distasteful look on his face. "It’s the story of the creation of the world," he replied thoughtfully, walking around the perimeter of the tomb as he spoke. When he got to the door, he stopped and tapped a bird-shaped hieroglyph with his gloved finger. "Here is where that story begins," he pointed to the battle scene on the ceiling, then tapped the glyph again. "This glyph is always used to represent the Lord of Nightmares. It’s the first one of the creation story, too." He pointed to the upper corner behind him, where the only hieroglyphs Amelia had been able to translate were. "See this," he tapped the Lord of Nightmares glyph, on the thing in the bird’s talons, "this represents mortals, caught in the middle of the battle between the powers of good and evil. It’s a mandrake root, so called because it’s supposed to have the shape of a man."
        Lina and Lita drew close to peer around his arms at the glyphs.
        "Mandrake root…" Lina whispered, as Amelia’s vision came back to her. Amelia had seen one of the hieroglyphs, in the shape of a bird with a mandrake in its claws, come down into the fires that were all around Shabranigdo. When it emerged from the flames, it was a knight in white armor, who clove Zelgadis in two—or had been about to when Amelia’s vision had changed. "If this glyph symbolizes the Lord of Nightmares, what’s the significance of the white knight?"
        Lina didn’t realize she’d asked that aloud. In fact, she’d said it so quietly that only Urlich with his supernatural hearing understood every word clearly. "Knight? Do you mean the Knight of Seified?"
        Lina hesitated, then nodded. She guessed the white knight in Amelia’s vision was a Knight of Seified. Who else could he possibly be? "Amelia had visions when we were in here before. She saw the mandrake root turn into a white knight at Shabranigdo's feet. The knight was about to cut Zelgadis in half when the vision ended. Is there a glyph for the Knight of Seified?"
        Urlich scanned the nearest characters though he didn’t think he’d find one for the Knight. "There was no Knight of Seified in that first battle. In fact, I don’t think any of the Knights ever fought Shabranigdo directly, so I don't know why a Knight of Seified would've been in Amelia's vision, unless it only had to do with Zelgadis. But why would it be cutting him in half? To separate his monster part from his human part, perhaps? What else did the Princess see in her visions?"
        "I'll tell you later" Lina replied. "It'll take a while, and I'd rather not talk about it on an empty stomache."
        Urlich gave her a strange look but didn’t press her further. "This style of hieroglyphics is almost as old as the world," he explained as he tried to read the story of the ancient battle. "No one but L-Sama, herself, knows their origins, and I’ve only seen a few examples—nothing as extensive as this!" Lita was standing so close to him that he only had to turn his head to ask in wonder: "How do you know of them?"
        She blushed and backed away, giving him more space. "I don’t know anything about them," she stammered and gave Lina and anxious look. "I only meant to paint something cheerful to make this awful tomb more tolerable, but when I started painting…" she trailed off, bringing a trembling hand to her lips at the memory, then she got that same euphoric look on her face she’d gotten the last time Lina had heard her describe her experience painting the tomb. "It was as if someone was painting through me, someone very powerful. I knew I was doing something of great importance while I was working, then when I was finished…" she gave the ceiling a frightened look and bit her finger. "That was there. I ran away and didn’t come back until Princess Amelia asked to be let into the mausoleum. My family agreed that I should do it, since the Princess would surely wonder about the artwork."
        Urlich waited for her to say something else, but Lita just hugged herself and trembled. So he went back to reading the walls. "I wish I knew more of the characters," he lamented to Lina, who stayed scant inches behind him as he walked around the mausoleum. "I’ll get Jessica. She can probably read a lot more of them than I can."
        With that, he disappeared, scaring Lita half to death. "Omigods! He’s Mazoku, isn’t he?" And she collapsed to the floor in a sobbing, quivering heap.
        Now, Lina knew monsters were pretty scary, and the average mortal was lucky if he could go through his entire life without ever having to deal with one in any way, shape or form. However, most mortals didn’t know enough about the monster race to have the sort of reaction Lita was having, which lead Lina to one conclusion: Lita Sorez had dealt with monsters before, and it hadn’t been pretty. In order to find out for sure, Lina swallowed her distrust of the woman for the moment and knelt beside her to offer comfort.
        "Url’s only half Mazoku," she told Lita and realized that probably wasn’t very reassuring. "His other half is dragon. He’s an ok guy, really. I’ve dealt with him before."
        Lita sniffled and gave the sorceress an incredulous look. "Dragon?"
        Lina nodded. "It’s a long story. Let’s just say the dragon wasn’t too happy about—"
        "Xellos is his father?" Lita squeaked. When Lina’s jaw dropped, she hastened to add: "He’s the only Mazoku known to have mated with a dragon—you know, to humiliate the dragon race! Because, of course, a monster would never fall in love, right? So he’d just do it to make them all hate him more, because then he’d have more negative energies to…feed…off…of…and…Lina, that hurts!"
        Lina’s grip on the other woman’s shoulders had grown tighter throughout her explanation and her fingers were now digging into Lita’s flesh through her light jacket. The sorceress’ eyes burned as she asked carefully: "How do you know that story?"
        "B-b-because L-Lara w-was studying th-them *gulp* to-to s-summon them," Lita wriggled in Lina’s grasp but couldn’t free herself. "I t-told you that before, remember? Don’t hurt me!" She turned her head away and wept, her sobs shaking her entire body. "Please don’t hurt me! P-please! I’ll d-do anything you ask, Lina, just please d-don’t h-hurt me!"
        "Geez, you’d think I was the monster!" Lina thought sourly. When she let go of Lita, the woman curled up into a little ball on the floor and sobbed. "Why would I hurt you?" Lina asked testily. "I just want to know how you know about Xellos and the Dragon Queen. It was just a question!"
        Sniffle. "Lara told me."
        Lara, or Xellos as Lara? Hm. Well, it had to have been long before Lara’s death, if Lita’s story about her fight with her sister was true. But why would Lita be so terrified of monsters? Had she dealt with them before? "Did Lara summon a monster while you were working with her?" Lina asked. "Is that why you fought with her?"
        Lita sobbed and nodded. "She *sob* said she’d never speak to me again if I didn’t help her! And I wouldn’t, so I-I-I had to leave! B-but her monsters chased me!" Lita sat up and wiped her eyes.
        "Why would they chase you?" Lina wondered with a skeptical frown. "Did Lara sic them on you? Why?"
        Lita hugged her knees to her chest and cried some more. "She told them they could have me if they’d tell her where the Source of All Power was."
        "Have you? For what? Food?"
        Lita shook her head emphatically and pointed at the ceiling. "Because of what I can do. They like really powerful people, and I was more powerful than Lara because I could channel higher powers through my artwork. Like this." She waved her hand around to indicate the whole mausoleum. "Only this time, I think *sniffle* it’s more than just that. I mean, this is the most powerful work I’ve ever done, and I don’t even know who spoke through me, or what it means."
        Lina leaned her back against the sarcophagus with an amazed sigh. Yes, the monster race was attracted to mortals of great power. That was what had drawn more than one monster to her, Xellos most notably. Lina shook off the memory of Xellos’ kiss the night they’d had dinner with the Lord of Nightmares in Marrigan. Was Lita telling the truth about her falling out with Lara? Had she killed Lara, thinking that would break her pact with the Mazoku? Lita said she’d run away. Had she run after killing her sister, and the monster thing was just a cover story? No, she’d been genuinely frightened when she thought Url was a monster, even half a monster. Maybe it was a monster who had killed Lara for failing to give them Lita.
        "You know Xellos is in town, don’t you?" Lina threw at Lita casually, just to see the woman’s reaction. Knowing Urlich was the product of Xellos’ union with a dragon hadn’t seemed to bother her as much as thinking Url was a full-blooded monster. Lina wanted to see if that was because Xellos didn’t scare her, or because she found Url’s dragon half reassuring.
        "Xellos is here?!" Lita fainted.
        Interesting. "So, did Lara cut a deal with Xellos?" Lina asked the unconscious Lita. She shook the other woman by the shoulders, trying to wake her up to answer her question, to no avail. "Great. And just when I was getting somewhere, too!"
        And speaking of enlightenment, why hadn’t Urlich returned with Jessica yet? Presumably they could both teleport, since that’s how they’d gotten to Seyruun. So all Url had to do was go to the dungeon, collect Jessica and pop back to the mausoleum. What was keeping them? Lina sighed and decided she’d give it a few more minutes before she went looking for them. Maybe Lita would wake up before then and tell her why the idea of Xellos being in Seyruun had scared her into a faint.

        "Keep away from him!" Jessica snarled at Xellos, who aimed his staff at Zelgadis and giggled.
        Zelgadis pushed Jessica behind him. "Don’t worry. He doesn’t want to hurt me. He just wants me to go away with him, don’t you, Xellos?"
        The Trickster grinned. "Why don’t you call me ‘Daddy’? It’s so fitting, don’t you think?"
        Jessica began a shield spell under her breath, meaning to protect herself and Zelgadis with it, but Xellos caught her at it and dissipated it with a wave of his staff. Frustrated, but not deterred, Jessica fell back to see what the enemy would do next.
        "Nice try," Xellos chuckled, "but you should know a kitsune is no match for Beast Master’s chief servant."
        "I’m no ordinary kitsune," Jessica reminded him. She gathered power to herself as she spoke, allowing it to build inside of her, ready to be unleashed through her fingers if Xellos made another move toward Zelgadis. "I’m the oldest, one of the First Born! You’re a fool to challenge me when I have allies at my side!"
        "What allies?" Xellos snorted and pointed his staff at Zelgadis. "Him? He’s mine."
        Zelgadis begged to differ. He planted his feet and rifled through his arsenal of attack spells, deciding which might have the most effect on a monster. None of them could destroy Xellos or really do significant damage, but Zel could think of a few spells that would make terrific distractions so he and Jessica could make a break for it. Once they got through the bars of his cell, of course, but that was a simple matter of blowing them up.
        "I’m not yours," he growled under his breath, "no matter what you did to my body!"
        Xellos twirled his staff like a baton and shook his head. "I didn’t want to have to resort to this, but—" The staff locked upright with a snap, and its red jewel glowed with power. "Zelgadis. Come."
        Zel’s eyes went blank, and he went to stand beside Xellos. "Zelgadis. Kill her."
        Jessica’s eyes went wide and she barely had enough time to construct a protective barrier before Zelgadis’ Dil Brando left his hands and zoomed toward her face. It broke over her shield like waves against a rock, but the shield held. The rest of the cell didn’t. Jessica had only built her barrier to protect her from a head on attack and had to scramble to keep from being buried under the collapsing ceiling. She exploded the rock into dust and whipped it into a whirlwind that she threw into her attackers’ faces.
        Xellos cocked his staff forward, and the dust blew harmlessly away to either side of him and Zelgadis.
        That’s when Urlich arrived. He put himself between Jessica and Xellos and reinforced her barrier with his own power. One look at Zelgadis’ slack expression and empty eyes and he knew exactly what was going on. "Sorry, Zelly," he muttered and launched a large rock at Zelgadis. "Nothing personal."
        Xellos easily smashed the stone, but while he was distracted with that, Jessica blasted Zelgadis with a fireball that knocked him almost to the back wall of the dungeon, several yards away. Xellos spun to face Jessica, thinking she’d attack him next, but both she and his son were gone. A look behind him confirmed they’d absconded with Zelgadis. Xellos chuckled. "Well played again, Son. Bravo."
        He disappeared before the royal guard arrived to investigate the explosions. This was only a minor setback, and Xellos was consequently only mildly irritated by it.

        Amelia and Gourry were just grabbing a quick breakfast on the fly when the explosions shook the palace. "That felt like it came from the dungeon!" Amelia exclaimed and ran from her room with her heart in her throat, hoping she was wrong. Those explosions could only mean Zelgadis had escaped, in spite of Jessica’s presence. Or maybe Xellos had tried to mess with Zelgadis again, and they’d fought! Oh no! Even with Jessica for an ally, Amelia wasn’t so sure Zelgadis could beat Xellos, especially with that piece of the Trickster Priest he had inside of him. What if Xellos could control him through it, and the explosions had been Xellos and Zelgadis attacking Jessica? Ooh! Where was Lina when she needed her?
        Prince Phil beat them to the dungeon. Amelia and Gourry arrived in time for Phil to cover Amelia’s eyes so she wouldn’t see the mangled an charred bodies of the two guards as they were carried past. Gourry set his jaw and went around the Prince and into the dungeon to look for some sign of Zelgadis or Jessica. The place looked like it had been caught in an earthquake. Huge chunks of rock lay everywhere. There was a trail of blackened rock that led from what was left of Zelgadis’ cell, almost to the dungeon entrance. Some of the rock appeared to have been moved, so Gourry surmised that was where the dead guards had been found. There were big holes where the ceiling used to be, and broken furniture amidst the rubble from the rooms that had been above the dungeon. He followed the trail into Zelgadis’ cell, which to his surprise was almost clean, as if the cell had been the eye of the storm. Of Zelgadis and Jessica, he could find no trace.
        Amelia and Phil joined him shortly, both royals looking grim. Amelia walked around the cell, her hands glowing, palms downward as she did a magical investigation. "There was a fight here with strong magic," she reported, though it was nothing they hadn’t guessed. "I feel…Mazoku…Xellos!" Amelia quivered with rage at the very thought of the Trickster daring to enter her home again after what he’d done to her. "Jessica and Zelgadis were here…and Urlich."
        "Are you sure?" Gourry asked. "I thought Url went with Lina."
        Amelia nodded. "It feels a little bit dragon-y, so it has to be Url. He must’ve come back here for some reason." She frowned. "But if Urlich came back, wouldn’t Lina have come with him? Why else would he come here, unless he sensed Xellos was fighting Jessica and Zelgadis?"
        Gourry shrugged. His mind was on Lina. "We better check the mausoleum, just to make sure she’s alright."
        Amelia nodded and led the way back over the debris and out of the dungeon. Finding a convenient window, she cast a Raywing, grabbed Gourry’s hand and headed for the cemetery.
        Xellos watched her go from a rooftop, then disappeared with a giggle. All of his eggs in one, ugly, marble basket. How convenient.

        The Lord of Nightmares ran a fingertip around the top of her giant crystal ball, the cigarette pinned between her first two fingers sending spirals of smoke to the gilded ceiling. She’d sworn not to get involved with Zelgadis’ problem after leaving him a cure in the world but she hadn’t anticipated Xellos’ persistence. Hm. Why was Beast Master’s boy so obsessed with that ill-tempered chimera? It wasn’t as if Zelgadis actually had anything substantial to offer—nothing more than any other powerful sorcerer might have. And since she’d removed the Dark Lord part from him, Zelgadis was just that: A powerful sorcerer with bad skin and an attitude problem.
        So what was Xellos’ deal? True, Zelgadis now had a part of Xellos in him, which gave him lots of Mazoku cravings, a weird sense of humor and enabled Xellos to control him like a puppet. That last bit was unexpected, but made sense when L-Sama thought about it. What didn’t add up was why Xellos was doing this. Was he just messing with Zel’s head, per usual? Or was there something else going on that wasn’t clear yet? L-Sama sat back in her throne and took a long drag off her cigarette. She would’ve thought his goal would be the unusually talented Lita Sorez, who couldn’t even cast a decent attack spell and would be easy prey. Why go at her through Zelgadis? What a waste of time for Xellos to amuse himself with Zelgadis instead of snatching his quarry and being done with it. If he didn’t act quickly, some other monster might make a play for her.
        The Lord of Nightmares’ painted lips twitched into a little smirk as she summoned a messenger to her hand. The tiny dragon alighted with a soft chirp and bent its head to be scratched. "It’s been so long since Zellas and I have taken tea," she cooed to her pet, "tell her to have a pot and some scones ready by two-o’clock. And make sure Xellos is there. No excuses." The little beast flew from her fist and disappeared.