Zelgadis sat in a hard, stiff chair in the cavernous Throne Room of Seyruun, pinioned by a paralysis spell cast upon him by Amelia and reinforced by Jessica. He was trying to unravel it while he ignored the glowering Crown Prince, who sat upon his grandiose throne, elbow on the arm of the great, gilded chair, chin on his fist and contemplated his prisoner. Thanks to the spell, Zel had no choice but to look up at Phil on the dais like a supplicant to a priest. Lara stood among the guards to Zel’s right, while Amelia stood on the dais at her father’s right hand looking like the very incarnation of vengeful justice. Jessica and Lina were behind him. He could smell Jessica’s musky perfume and hear Lina’s low, angry growl, though he couldn’t see either woman. Urlich stood with the line of guards to Zelgadis’ left and smirked at the helpless chimera, a smug glitter in his lavender eyes. Url was enjoying this, Zelgadis was certain. Just wait till he got free… He couldn’t see Gourry, so Zel guessed he was probably in Lina’s vicinity, ready with Firedrake to subdue him should he manage to break the restraining spell. What did they think he’d do? Go berserk with all these guards and sorcerers around? Amelia’s sleep spell had worked easily enough, but she’d taken him by surprise. Still, there was enough magical firepower in the room at the moment to make him mind his manners, so they didn’t have to restrain him like this. It was humiliating! (Which was probably what they’d had in mind.) His protests had fallen on deaf ears, so there he sat, fuming and wishing terrible fates upon everyone in the room.
        When he felt the suspense had built up enough, Phil sat up on his Throne and sighed, a deep rumble that foreshadowed terrible doom. "Zelgadis Greywers," he pronounced ominously, "I knew your nature was altered by the addition of material from the monster Xellos to your new copy body. I was aware that these…alterations…could make you an entirely different man from the one I’ve known and trusted these past few years, and whom Princess Amelia has counted as one of her closest friends. However, I’d hoped your old, honorable nature would enable you to control the monster inside you."
        Phil bowed his head with another rumbling sigh. "But I see now that I was wrong, and you can no longer be trusted not to do harm to others. In deciding your sentence, I have taken into consideration certain recent events that might lead to changes that could remove the monster part of your nature. I understand there is a cure that awaits you after you have gathered seven pieces of a spell left for you by the Lord of Nightmares, herself, and that one of those pieces rests here, in Seyruun. It is our judgement, therefore, after considering the evidence against you, which I and the Princess have seen with our own eyes, that you be banished from Seyruun until you have gathered the other six pieces of the spell. Then and only then will we allow you to return to our city and only for the purpose of finding and using the seventh piece of the spell. You will leave immediately."
        "Don’t I get to say anything in my defense, Your Highness?" Zelgadis asked mockingly. "It’s hardly just to condemn a man without hearing his defense."
        Phil’s expression hardened, but it was Amelia who spoke. "I know you’re only mocking us, but you’re right. A condemned man has a right to speak in his defense."
        "Very well," Phil sighed, "speak."
        Zelgadis grinned. "Farewell and good riddance."
        Pause.
        "That’s it?" Amelia growled. "Is Seyruun so distasteful to you now?"
        "It was distasteful to me before…"
        "And it’s even more distasteful to him now that he’s a white magic-hating monster," Urlich interjected. He inclined his head to the Throne. "With all due respect, Your Highnesses, I’m inclined to agree with Zelgadis. Your city, exciting metropolis though it is, isn’t a pleasant place for those of us with Xellos’ blood in their veins."
        "At least you have self control, Mr. Urlich," Amelia told him with a dark glare at Zelgadis, who snickered at her in return. "Zelgadis has lost his desire to control himself. What conscience he had left to him in the past few days, is obviously gone. It is my hope that you will accompany Zelgadis on his quest and teach him to control himself."
        That was so unexpected that Urlich couldn’t immediately think of anything to say. He didn’t want to travel with Zelgadis from one end of this room to the other, much less go traipsing across the countryside looking for puzzle pieces to cure him. Zel’s cure wasn’t his problem but Url had to admit he was in it up to his ears. This was Zhara’s fault, he decided. If she hadn’t wanted him to come here and rescue Amelia from their father, he wouldn’t be in this mess. Who was he trying to kid? It was his own damn fault that he was here and even more his fault that he’d stayed as long as he did. Still, he didn’t want to hang around with Zelgadis if he could avoid it, and if Amelia decided to tag along…ugh. Justice speeches AND Zelgadis? What a pain in the ass.
        He opened his mouth to politely decline, then Prince Phil said the magic words: "Of course, you would be rewarded for your vigilance."
        "Reward?"
        Phil and Amelia grinned, and Amelia explained: "I wish to hire you and Queen Jessica to watch over Zelgadis. You are to keep him from terrorizing people beyond what he needs to stay alive and healthy enough to continue his quest."
        "You won’t be coming along, Your Highness?" Url asked hopefully.
        Amelia frowned. "I haven’t decided yet."
        "We are willing to offer you a sum of one thousand gold pieces each," Phil said. Seeing the sparkle in Lina’s eyes, he quickly added: "To Urlich and Jessica only. The rest of you have a vested interest in Zelgadis’ quest and would be going along anyway. Urlich and Jessica have the sort of knowledge and power needed to control a creature like Zelgadis has become."
        "So I’m a creature now, am I?" Zel huffed. "I was a man a few minutes ago."
        "Knock it off, Zel," Lina scolded him and cuffed his head from behind. "This is serious."
        "And me being downgraded from a man to a creature isn’t serious?!"
        "Zelgadis!" Amelia barked. "All living things, including intelligent life forms, are creatures. No insult was intended."
        "Yeah, Zel," Gourry chimed in under his breath, "don’t get your shorts in a wad."
        Oh yes, his friends were definitely not willing to put up with his crap anymore. No more pity for the poor victim of Xellos’ capriciousness. From now on, he was completely responsible for his own actions, and they’d punish him if he got out of line just as they’d punish any other monster. Well, he didn’t want them along, anyway.
        "I don’t need anyone’s help," he told Amelia in a cruel tone, "not yours, not Urlich’s, not anyone’s. Nor do I need a babysitter. My cure is my business, not yours, so keep your gold and your charity and let me be on my way. Anyone who follows can expect a hot reception."
        Lina bonked him in the head again. "Ooh, we’re so scared. Come off it, Zel! You’ve pulled this on us before and you know you get a lot more done with our help."
        "I get nothing done with your so-called ‘help’!" Zel shot back viciously. "You make sure my plans get put on hold while I have to help you with your plans! And whatever goodies we find along the way always end up in your pocket! Forget it, Lina. This time, I’m on my own. It’s the best thing for everybody, since I won’t have to kill you for following me!"
        Lina came around his chair to look deeply into his hard blue eyes. Zelgadis gulped. He’d forgotten how scary she could be when she was mad. Dragon Spooker, she was called in some circles, and right then Zel could see why. "You think you can kill me? Lina Inverse? I’ve Dragon Slaved people for less than this, Zel. Wanna try me?"
        "NOT IN THE CITY!" Amelia and Phil pleaded at once.
        Lina looked over her shoulder at them and chuckled menacingly. "I wouldn’t dream of it."
        Gulp. Sure she wouldn’t, thought more than one person in the room. Lina turned her terrible gaze upon Zelgadis once more and told him firmly: "I’m going with you, Zel, because you’re still my friend and I want you to find your cure. Gourry’s coming with you, too, because Xellos is much too interested in you these days, and Firedrake was made to fight him. Since Phil’s feeling generous, I guess Url and Jessica will be coming with us, too." At that, she turned her gaze of painful doom upon the Royals, and said: "If Url and Jessica get paid, so do the rest of us. A thousand in gold should do for each. Right, Gourry?"
        Gourry sighed and shrugged. "I kind of agree with Phil, Lina. We’d go along whether anybody paid us to, or not. I don’t want any money to help Zelgadis out. We’ve been through so much, it’d be wrong to accept money to help him."
        Lina blushed and laughed in embarrassment. She could feel everyone’s eyes on her, especially Zelgadis’. "Heheh, ok, so maybe Gourry has a point. Make that five hundred gold pieces, each—a bargain!"
        Amelia growled: "Miss Lina…"
        "Oh, come on, Amelia, it’s only fair!" Lina argued, ignoring the fact that the Princess looked like she was going to explode.
        "It’s a moot point," Zelgadis sighed, "since none of you is going with me, anyway."
        Prince Phil slammed his fists down onto the arms of his throne and stopped the argument right there. "The only people who will be paid are Urlich and Jessica, if they wish to accept our offer! However, if Zelgadis wants to do this alone, then, yes, the point is moot. I won’t force anyone’s company on you, Zelgadis, but if you make trouble for any of our citizens, rest assured that I will not hold back in punishing you as you deserve!"
        Zel laughed. "Is that a challenge?" At that moment, he unraveled the restraining spell and stood up to face the Prince on his own two feet. "You’ll have to catch me first!"
        In a blur of blue, he was gone.
        Urlich pointed a finger at Prince Phil and asked: "Is that offer firm?"
        Phil nodded. "Get him!"
        With a wicked chuckle, Urlich collected Jessica and disappeared.
        "Oh no you don’t!" Lina snarled. "Phil, we’ll discuss payment later! C’mon, Gourry!" She grabbed him by the arm and together they ran from the Throne Room in what they hoped was the direction Zelgadis had gone.
        Lara looked to Phil and Amelia. "I’m going, too, You Highness," she told them. "It was good to see both of you again." She ran after the others, leaving Phil looking thoughtfully at his daughter, and Amelia unable to do anything but stare at the door.
        "Amelia," Phil began carefully, "if you want to go with them, I won’t stop you. I only beg you to be careful and try to control these new hateful emotions within you. The monster Xellos will no doubt try again to use them to twist you into one of his evil plots—"
        "I know, Daddy," she interrupted quietly and stepped down one step. "I don’t know if I’m strong enough, but…" she stepped down the next step, "I still love him, so…" she descended the last two steps and turned to look up at her father with tears in her eyes, "so I have to go, Daddy," then she turned and ran from the Throne Room after the others.

        Urlich caught up to Zelgadis in his bedroom, rightly assuming the chimera wouldn’t want to leave without his sword, which he hadn’t been wearing when Princess Amelia apprehended him and hauled him off to the Throne Room. Url leaned against the window, holding Zel’s weapon in his arms, a smug smirk on his face. "Figured you’d want this," he said and spun Zel’s sword like a baton.
        "Give me that," Zelgadis snarled and dashed at Urlich, full speed.
        Url disappeared and reappeared behind him, leaving Zelgadis to smack into the windowsill. He tapped the chimera on the shoulder with the sword. "Where are you looking? I’m back here."
        Zelgadis spun about, hoping to grab Urlich before he could disappear again and failed. "Give me my sword, so I can leave, Urlich," he spat and sat down on the sill with a very cross look on his face. It was then that Zelgadis noticed Url wasn’t accompanied by Jessica, per usual. He found that vaguely troubling.
        Urlich reappeared near the door. He leaned casually against the frame and twirled Zel’s sword again. "Not until the gang’s all here, so just relax for a little while."
        Zelgadis crossed his arms and looked away in disgust. "I told you, I don’t need or want anyone’s company! Why can’t any of you accept that?"
        "I’m getting paid to not accept that," Url told him with a shrug, "I can’t speak for your friends."
        "A thousand gold pieces is chump change to you, Url," Zelgadis sneered. "What’s your real reason for doing this?"
        Urlich chuckled and shook his head, still twirling Zel’s sword. "You don’t know?"
        Zelgadis thought about it, then remembered something Sylph had told him in Marrigan: Ever since the battle with the Sons of Chaos eight hundred years ago, Zhara and Urlich had dedicated their lives to messing up Xellos’ plans. "What a coincidence," thought Zel, "that’s my new pet hobby." Maybe having Urlich along wouldn’t be such a bad thing, after all. He grinned, turning glittering ice-blue eyes on Xellos’ son. "You’re doing it to mess up your dad, aren’t you? And still taking Prince Phil’s money, you greedy bastard."
        Urlich grinned and winked. "Very good."
        "You know, Urlich, this could be the beginning of a beautiful friendship."
        The sword stopped spinning in a snap. "You’re not my type."
        Zel shrugged. "Well, you’re not the looker your dad is, anyway."
        "Now I know you’re joking," Ulrich laughed. "Nobody’s the looker I am."
        "Enough with the humility, Url," Zelgadis complained, "you’re making me sick. So what are we waiting for? Jessica?"
        Urlich nodded and resumed twirling the sword. "She’s collecting your friends, so we can all leave Seyruun together. I’m thinking of sending her back to Marrigan to brief my sister before we go, however, since one of your clues is in her city."
        Ah yes, back to Marrigan. Since it held the closest of the pieces, it would be their first stop. Zelgadis giggled. "I can’t wait to see Sylph again. You know, she and I had a little bit of thing going last week."
        Url didn’t take the bait. "She liked the old Zelgadis," he replied coldly. "I don’t think she’ll like this one, since he’s too much like the monster who killed our son."
        Zelgadis winced as if he’d been hit. He hadn’t expected remembering Sylph’s story would hurt him so much, but there it was, giving him the same twist in the gut that it had the first time he’d heard it. Sylph and Urlich’s son had been a Knight of Seified, set up by Xellos to fight the Sons of Chaos in his place. As it turned out, one of Xellos’ bolts that had been aimed at Zhara’s boys hit Sylph’s son instead and killed him. After that, Zhara and Jessica had sealed Ullan and Zellan out of the world. Zelgadis really had developed a relationship with Sylph as they’d struggled through the cavern to get to Marrigan, while Zel’s body tried to turn into a Dark Lord. His own stubbornness had nearly killed the kitsune, then Xellos had attacked them.
        "What’s wrong with you?" Url asked with a cruel snort.
        Zelgadis clenched his fists and glared at the floor between his boots. "I’m not that different," he growled, then looked up into Urlich’s eyes with a cruel stare, "and Sylph isn’t that shallow! You of all people should know that, since you were married to her for so long."
        Urlich’s fist tightened around the hilt of Zelgadis’ sword. He was right: Sylph wasn’t that shallow. She was the best judge of people he’d ever met, good enough to see through his crusty exterior and find a man she’d loved for centuries. Why had they drifted apart after their son’s death, he wondered. More importantly, why hadn’t they drifted back together after eight hundred years. Well, he was with her sister now, and Urlich was nothing if not loyal to the people he cared about. Sylph seemed cool with it, too, so what was he worried about?
        "So," Url finally replied quietly, "hit a soft spot, did I? She has a way of doing that to a guy."
        "It’s not like that," Zel admitted, his tone just as quiet as Urlich’s, and his gaze fell to the floor again. "She just…she almost died because of me, but she still took my side. There aren’t too many people who would do that for somebody under those circumstances."
        He hadn’t noticed when the others arrived outside the door, led by Jessica and Lina, so Lina startled him when she said in a hurt voice: "How can you say that, Zel? There are three people standing in this hallway who would and have done that for you dozens of times. Why do you think we’re going with you, anyway?"
        "For five hundred gold pieces, each?" Zel guessed with a sly grin.
        Lina blushed. "That was just a joke! We’d do it, anyway, because you’re our friend. Isn’t that right, guys?"
        "Right!" Gourry agreed.
        Amelia pushed into the room between Lina and Jessica. She hesitated halfway between the door and Zelgadis and tried not to cry as she looked into his face. There was a flicker of the old Zelgadis in his eyes right then, but she knew a sappy speech would destroy it. "You know…I’m not going for money. It’s because you’re, um…" she took a deep breath, then lost the battle with her tears and threw herself into his arms and cried. "I’m sorry, Zelgadis. I know you hate it when I get like this. I’m trying not to feel the love, I really am!"
        Zel felt his knees getting wobbly and adjusted his position on the window sill. He wanted to push Amelia away, to get her and her true love out of his personal space before it made him dizzy but he held her instead. Amelia had stood by him the most out of all of his friends, even volunteering her body to host his spirit when the Lord of Nightmares gave him a second chance at life. Then he remembered the meeting his spirit had had with Amelia’s in her mind as he’d waited for his copy body to finish growing, and blacked out into Amelia’s arms.
        "If he keeps doing that," Urlich sighed, "this is gonna be a long trip."

        Zelgadis awoke on the back of a horse about a half an hour outside of Seyruun. Someone tall was riding behind him, with an arm about his waist to keep him from falling off. Looking down, Zel saw Gourry’s usual blue glove and shirtsleeve. "How long was I out this time?"
        "Hey, you’re awake!" Gourry exclaimed.
        "No kidding," Zelgadis muttered. "So how long was it?"
        "Um…almost an hour, I think," Gourry told him. "We packed up some stuff and got these horses, then finally left Seyruun about a half hour ago. We’re going to Marrigan."
        Zel knew that from what Urlich had told him earlier. Someone was making werelight, little glowing balls that floated around them and ahead of them to light the roadway. Just like the lights Sylph made in the cavern, he thought. Zel looked around to find Lina riding on his right, with Amelia next to her. Urlich rode on his left with a black fox curled up on the saddle in front of him. As he rode, Url scratched the fox behind its ears and scanned the countryside. Zelgadis assumed the fox was Jessica, and the werelights were her doing. Lara Sorez rode beside Urlich, a distant look on her face as she stared into the night.
        At the sound of Zelgadis’ voice, Urlich’s attention had turned there, so Zel found Urlich staring at him when he looked that way. "Good morning, Sunshine," Url joked humorlessly. "We really need to work on your stamina."
        Zel nodded. "So do I get my own horse, or do you guys not trust me that far?"
        Url replied: "We don’t trust you that far but we brought a horse for you, anyway."
        "Urlich…" Lina growled. "I thought we agreed that you wouldn’t get on Zel’s nerves and make him want to run away again."
        "You agreed," Urlich retorted sourly, "I didn’t. It’s good for him to be annoyed. He won’t faint that way. The person you need to be talking to is Princess Peace-and-Love, over there."
        Amelia blushed and looked away. "I don’t do it on purpose…"
        "Leave her alone, Url," Zelgadis sighed. "She can’t help it. She’s just perpetually perky."
        Amelia couldn’t decide how to take that. Was Zel defending her, or just making fun of her? "I really can’t help it. I’m sorry."
        "It’s cruel of you to do that to me, you know," Zelgadis pressed on, feeling a little stronger the more guilty the Princess felt. "That’s twice your warm, fuzzy feelings have made me faint in front of everybody. Don’t you think that’s embarrassing for me?"
        Lina started to berate him for milking a meal out of Amelia, then remembered Urlich’s admonition about self-control and bit her lip. Amelia had to learn to control herself, just as Zelgadis did. "Well!" She exclaimed instead, trying to change the subject. "You guys’ll finally get to meet my old travelling buddy Naga! Bet you can’t wait."
        "Yee-haw," Zelgadis grumbled.
        "I already did meet her," Gourry moaned, "and it was traumatic. I thought I’d like looking at breasts that big, but…those aren’t natural! She’s a freak, Lina!"
        "Are you saying mine are normal?" Lina half-joked, half-threatened.
        Gourry gulped. Ok, walking on eggshells, here. Gotta choose his words carefully. "Yours are…a, uh, size a guy can handle!"
        Lina wasn’t really sure how to respond to that. "Uh…is that good?"
        Whew! "It’s very good," Gourry assured her. "Really, really good!"
        Zelgadis smiled and said: "Meaning, your breasts aren’t big enough to really distract him."
        "THAT’S NOT WHAT I—"
        "Gourry…"
        "I didn’t mean it like that! He’s just trying to get a rise out of you, Lina," Gourry stammered, adeptly turning Lina’s focus from himself to Zelgadis. "Don’t fall for it!"
        Yummy.
        Lara finally snapped out of her reverie to throw in her two cents as a psychiatrist. "Are you people always fixated on women’s breasts?"
        Lina and Gourry coughed. Zelgadis giggled.
        "Hm," Lara mused, "usually it’s penis fixation. Tell me, Gourry, why is breast size important to you? Did your mother have large breasts?"
        "My mother?!" Gourry gasped. "You don’t think I felt like that about my mother, do you?! That’s sick!"
        Lara rolled her eyes and sighed. "What it means is, you’re looking for a woman who reminds you of your mother, not that you had sexual feelings towards your mother."
        "Oh," Gourry breathed a sigh of relief. He scratched his head and looked to the stars as he gave her question a think. Finally, he replied: "No, my mom didn’t have large breasts. I guess I just like them, is all." He shrugged. "A guy can like something without it having some kind of deep meaning. Anyway, that’s not the most important thing about a girl. What’s important is her personality and her brains, ‘cause—haha—I kind of come up short in the brains department, if you know what I mean."
        "If her personality’s so important," Urlich grumbled, "what do you see in Lina?"
        Lina growled at him but refrained from actually throwing a fireball, since he had Jessica in his lap at the moment, and her ire would only feed Zelgadis—which she’d made up her mind not to do. "Obviously, my brains," she shot back through her teeth. "Which, unlike you, I keep in my head, not my ass!" So much for not feeding Zelgadis.
        "Kids, kids," admonished Jessica the fox, "enough already! Zapheth is just an hour away, and we can all get some sleep then. For now, let’s try to get along or just shut up."
        After a few moments grumbling, Lina returned the subject to Marrigan and Naga. "Anyway, we can see how the hot spring spa is coming along when we get to Marrigan. I’d like to see Ullan and Zellan again—"
        "Or just Ullan," Gourry muttered.
        Lina sighed. "He’s just a nice guy, Gourry. You know your the only one for me."
        Oh gods, love. Zelgadis shook his head. It was hopeless. These people cared about each other too much to expect angst for very long. Worse, they cared about him just as much. "So we’ll see Ullan and Zellan and your busty friend Naga…"
        Lina nodded. "Right. Don’t let her annoying laugh and bad taste turn you off, though. Naga’s actually ok once you get used to her. Or fireball her, one or the other."
        Zelgadis chuckled. That was more like it.
        "So what are we looking for in Marrigan again?" Gourry asked. "Was it the bird or the knight or—"
        Lucky for him, Lina wasn’t riding close enough to hit him. "One more time, Gourry, and pay attention, ok?" She took a deep breath and recited what they knew so far. "There are seven pieces of the spell. One’s in Seyruun for sure, and another one’s at the place where Seified and Shabranigdo fought. Remember? That’s where you lost the Sword of Light."
        He nodded. "I remember. So why are we going to Marrigan?"
        "Will you let me finish?!" Lina tried to kick him but wasn’t close enough. "Ok, we’re going to Marrigan because it’s the closest place that we think has a piece of the spell. We’re not sure which piece, just a piece. The bird and knight come from one of Amelia’s visions that she had when she fainted after looking at that fresco in the tomb too long. You know, the one that changed Lita into Lara?" She added with a wicked look in Dr. Sorez’ direction. Lara refused to look at her, so Lina sallied on without the gratification of getting a dig in on that score. "Anyway, we also saw the knight in the fresco, so he’s a definite clue. Maybe he’s a Knight of Seified, maybe he’s something else. We haven’t figured that out yet. We don’t know what to look for in Marrigan, we just know to look there because—"
        "There was writing on one of the pieces of Shabbydingo!" Gourry crowed, delighted to have remembered something important.
        "Shabranigdo," Lina correctly tightly, "and it was a symbol, not writing, as such."
        Jessica took up the narrative at that point. "It was a rune of the Gold Dragons, meaning, roughly, pairs or sometimes the duality of nature—light and dark, male and female. However, it’s most commonly used to describe what is a rare occurrence among dragonkind: Twins."
        "Like Urlich and Zhara," Amelia interjected. "They’re not just twins, their mother was a gold dragon, and they live in Marrigan. So…"
        "Off to Marrigan we go," Ulrlich finished dryly, "looking for we know not what. Hi-ho."
        "There were no other clues as to what we should be looking for in Marrigan," Lara added with a scolding look at the grumpy Urlich, "so based upon Zelgadis’ claim that only he can find and use the Lord of Nightmares’ special cure, I assume he’ll be able to lead us to it."
        Zelgadis’ hand tightened around the saddle horn, and he turned an icy glare on her. He had no regrets about almost killing her before. Something about her felt terribly wrong, but he couldn’t figure out what. A chilling feeling of danger and foreboding had clung to him while he’d argued with her about whether or not she should accompany him on his journey. It had been…dark, cold, angry…but before he could pin it down, the feeling had disappeared, leaving him desperate to know what it was and why it felt like it came from her. He wondered if she was even human.
        "Zel?" Gourry tapped his thigh and tried to see his friend’s face around his spiky hair. "You can find the spell, right?"
        He nodded but said nothing. If the Lord of Nightmares said he was the only one who could find the spell, then he assumed he could—but what was he looking for? A spell? A talisman? A person? A book? A weapon? What? He supposed his path would become apparent once he started poking around Marrigan. Hopefully. Assuming they had even been right to interpret the symbol on the piece of Shabranigdo to mean dragon twins. Maybe it had literally meant twin dragons, not twin children of a dragon. No! If he kept thinking like this, he’d only lose hope and never find any of the clues. What if it took him years to find all the pieces? His heart sank. Oh good gods, years in the company of these people… He had to make a plan to lose them. It would be tough, since they had the same clues he had, but he Zel was determined to find a way. "The search will go much more quickly if I don’t have other people to burden me," he thought. "But fate always seems to throw me in with Lina, whether I like it or not." With a heavy sigh, he resigned himself to the fact that no matter where he went or how hard he tried to ditch her, Lina Inverse would catch up to him. They’d run into each other by accident somehow, as they always did, and she’d have Gourry and Amelia with her, as she always did. "I hate my life…"

        They arrived in the town of Zapheth an hour before midnight. After seeing to their horses and unloading their packs, they dragged themselves into the inn and arranged for a room for the rest of the night. One room, so everybody could keep an eye on everybody else. Specifically, the immortal Jessica would keep an eye on everybody and a spell on anyone (Zelgadis) who thought to go kiting off on their own while the others slept. She needn’t have worried. Even Zelgadis was so exhausted, he fell directly into a deep sleep.
        Out in the common room of the Inn, Xellos found a table in a corner and ordered coffee. He wasn’t ready to let Zelgadis’ merry band know he was tailing them yet, so he figured he’d spend a pleasant night, buzzing on caffeine and watching the amusing antics of the town’s drunks…and hope that shadow creature showed up again. Now that would be worth staying awake. Hm, so would playing around inside a certain Princess’ head, he thought and licked his lips. He’d almost had her last time, so close it was definitely worth another shot. But he knew he had to be careful, lest she realize her brain hadn’t conjured the nightmare on its own.
        He stretched out his legs under the table, folded his arms across his chest and closed his eyes. In a moment, he was inside Amelia’s dreams…
        Amelia lay on her back in the grass, her naked body soaking up the warm sunshine of a cheerful Summer day. Ah, this was the life. No cares, no worries…just blue skies and a field full of pretty daisies. She looked over as someone lay down next to her, then smiled when she saw Xellos, just as naked as she was, grinning up at the sunny sky.
        "Beautiful day, isn’t it, Princess?"
        She smiled. "Oh yes, it’s wonderful!"
        A dark cloud crept across the sun. It was followed by another and another, until the sky was blackened with the threat of storm.
        "Oh no you don’t!" Amelia growled. "This is my dream, and I say it’ll have sunshine, happy daisies and love!"
        And it did with a vengeance.
        "Very well, Princess," Xellos chuckled, "you win this round, too. See you in the morning," and with that he disappeared, leaving her to her annoyingly happy dream and the knowledge that he could find her anywhere, anytime.
        Amelia opened her eyes and looked around the dark room until she found Jessica’s glittering, golden fox eyes near the window. "Xellos is here," she whispered to the fox. "He was in my dream."
        Jessica whispered back: "I felt him when he arrived and I’ve already sent Urlich to have a talk with him. Go back to sleep, Princess. We won’t let him hurt you."
        Amelia gave the ancient queen a grateful smile and rolled over. Just before she fell asleep, she thought she heard Xellos giggle.