"The 'silly question' is the first intimation of some totally new development."
-Alfred North Whitehead

        Urlich and Lita chose a table against the wall almost to the back of the dining area and settled into it to wait for Zelgadis and Sylph to arrive. Url sat in a chair that would put his back to the wall and let him see both the room and the door. Lacking Urlich’s hangups about leaving his back unguarded, Lita sat on his right with her back to part of the room but with a good view of the door. She shivered and looked for the fireplaces to see if there actually were fires in them. There were two—one halfway between Url and the door on the wall against which he sat and the other on the wall across from them—and each had a nice fire blazing in it. She shivered again.
        "Why didn’t you bring a coat or a cloak? Or at least buy one!" Url asked in mild annoyance. "It’s only going to get colder."
        "I, um," Lita blushed, "forgot and I didn’t have enough money if I still wanted to be able to buy food—"
        "Oh for crying out loud!" Url muttered. He took off his long coat and draped it about Lita’s shoulders. "I know you won’t go back in there and buy a damn cloak all by yourself, but one of us has to stay here and wait for Zel and Sylph—who may or may not arrive in the next few minutes, but both of them can move pretty fast, so who knows—so you can borrow that until they get here, ok? Then Sylph can help you pick out a cloak. Does that work for you?"
        Tears welled up in Lita’s eyes and she started to shrug out of his coat. "If it’s that much trouble, just take it back!"
        Urlich sighed heavily and put the coat back over her shoulders. "Ok, ok, I’m sorry. I’m just a little annoyed at Zel for making me get out of bed at a stupid hour of the night."
        Lita wiped her eyes. "You know, there’s nothing wrong with being chivalrous, even for the son of Xellos."
        Urlich flagged down a waitress. "I don’t have a problem with being chivalrous. What makes you think I have a problem with being chivalrous?"
        The waitress arrived, cutting off the conversation with a bored look and an almost disgusted: "Yeah, what’ll it be?"
        Urlich smirked at Lita and muttered: "That’s what I like: Service a smile. Lita? Coffee, tea?"
        She smiled hesitantly up at the cranky waitress and requested coffee with cream and sugar. Urlich took his black.
        "Anything to eat?" The waitress asked with an annoyed-sounding sigh.
        Urlich was in no mood for other people’s attitude problems since he would shortly have his fill of them from Zelgadis and Sylph (though he could deal with it from Sylph). He gave the girl his best evil Mazoku look, let his eyes trail down her body then back up to her eyes then licked his lips and showed his fangs. He didn’t have to say a word. She gulped and all but fled from their table.
        Url grinned at Lita. "Sometimes looking like Xellos comes in pretty handy, don’t you think?"
        "You looked so…" she gulped and hugged his coat more tightly about her shoulders, "evil. Does Xellos have fangs, too?"
        "Not like these," he showed them to her with pride in his eyes. "I got them from my mother the dragon."
        Lita gulped again and gave him a shaky smile. "They’re, um…"
        Urlich wiggled his eyebrows at her. "Sharp? Wicked? Intimidating?"
        "Actually, I think they’re sort of cute," Lita admitted in an embarrassed voice. She blushed and looked out into the room, so she wouldn’t have to see his astonished face.
        "You think—" Url sputtered. "That was a joke, right? Fangs are NOT cute! I can tear your throat out with these ‘cute’ fangs!"
        "Well," she pushed her glasses higher up her nose and brushed her hair behind her ears, "they’re cute when they’re just sort of peeking over your lip a little. I didn’t mean they’re cute in general. I mean, they’re really scary when you look like…like you did at that waitress."
        Urlich glared at her until she blushed and looked away again. "’Cute’ my ass…" he grumbled and took out a dagger to play with on the table in an attempt to recover his confidence in his ability to terrify mortals.
        "I-I didn’t mean they’re cute in a cuddly, teddy bear way," Lita stammered, her eyes on the shiny blade of his jeweled dagger. "I just meant they’re cute in a sort of…um…"
        Urlich glared.
        "Never mind."
        THUNK!
        Urlich and Lita startled when the big, muscular man with a great, big broadsword strapped to his hip slammed down a pot of coffee and two mugs and growled. Lita cleared her throat and told him very timidly: "Um, I think I asked for cream and sugar…?"
        Growl.
        Urlich rubbed the bridge of his nose and sighed. "Yes, you did. Bring her cream and sugar," he ordered the man, who glowered down upon him in what Url was sure the man figured was a very intimidating fashion. Url was not intimidated. He was the son of a dragon and the most powerful Mazoku outside of the five Lords created by Shabranigdo. He was one of (if not the) best blades in the land, not to mention his "cute" fangs that could tear out the average human throat with very little effort, and the claws he could make appear if he wished (and which Lita would no doubt find adorable, or something—but not in a teddy bear way). Urlich remained cool. He met the man’s gaze with a steady one of his own and repeated his order.
        "You get what I bring you, Pretty Boy," the big guy growled. "I don’t like people threatening my girls!"
        "Threat?" Urlich blinked innocently at Lita. "Did I threaten that extremely rude woman who took our order, Lita?"
        The man’s hand flew to his sword hilt. "That ‘rude’ woman is my daughter—and she’s not rude! Take it back…or else!"
        Url frowned. "Sir, although I’m in the mood for a fight due to events that are none of your concern, I’ve decided to generously ignore your threat and allow you to fetch cream and sugar for my companion."
        "I can drink it black," Lita interjected in a shaky voice. "Really. It’s no—"
        "It’s the principle of the thing, Lita," Urlich told her sweetly and showed her his cute fangs, which she suddenly didn’t find very charming at all. "This man has insulted you and now he’s threatening me. If he draws, I’ll have to fight him, so let’s hope he’s a lot smarter than he looks, shall we?"
        That sat about as well with the innkeeper as one might expect, which is to say…
        "DRAW, YOU PANSY-ASS, PRETTY-BOY BASTARD!"
        Urlich sighed. "I can’t believe this is happening. You really don’t want to do this."
        The man jumped back and drew his monstrous weapon, then commenced waving it at Urlich. "Yes I do, coward! Now draw!"
        Urlich licked his lips and turned to Lita. "Did he just call me a coward?"
        Lita nodded and turned a shade paler. "Please don’t fight him, Urlich…"
        "Don’t be silly," Url assured her. Lita was not reassured, so he explained: "This man is clearly my inferior. Look at the way he’s holding that sword, and his stance—ugh! Don’t even get me started!"
        Lita looked. The dozen or so other people in the place looked. The man looked down at himself, rearranged his feet a little, then returned to scowling at Urlich.
        Urlich got up and in a flicker of wine-colored silk was standing beside his opponent with his hands on each of his. The man jumped, but Urlich’s supernatural strength kept him from going too far. "Here," Url adjusted the man’s grip on the broadsword’s giant hilt, "this kind of grip will give you better control over a such a large weapon. And what is with this stance?!" He kicked the man’s right foot. "What are you thinking, man?! I can come in like this," he moved to face the startled innkeeper at the same distance he would have been in a duel, "and take you out like this!" He put all of the strength and speed his combined heritage lent him behind a roundhouse kick to the innkeeper’s jaw. He let the momentum of the kick turn him about, switched feet and kicked him again with his other foot.
        The big man looked confused for a second, then the sword slipped from his hands to land on the floor with a loud clang. He tottered, groaned and fell backward onto the wooden floor, sending up little puffs of dust. Urlich and everybody else watched for a few moments to see if he would get up again. When he didn’t, Url straightened his clothes and snapped his fingers at the nearest waitress. "Cream and sugar," he called to her. She nodded and hurried to bring some. Urlich waved a bored hand at the innkeeper: "Get him out of here."
        The crowed looked at the fallen innkeeper, then at Urlich with his fancy, clothes and jeweled knives (and cute fangs), then remembered how fast he moved. They did the math and decided they’d rather do as Urlich said than see if he could take them all in a fight.
        "Well!" Url chirped at Lita with a smug grin. "That was cathartic. Was it good for you, too? Oh, no, I guess not since you couldn’t see my cute fangs."
        Lita poured him a cup of coffee then filled her own cup. "I’m sorry, but they really are cute when you’re not trying to be terrifying."
        "Cute, my ass," Url mumbled into his coffee, then looked over the rim at Lita with a big grin and asked: "Or do you think my ass is cute, too?"
        Lita blushed and fumbled her coffee cup, sloshing liquid onto the table. "Excuse me?"
        "I thought you wanted cream and sugar with that," Urlich reminded her with a twinkle in his eyes that only made her blush more. "I can’t believe how different your personality is from Lara’s," he observed suddenly. "She’s got balls, and you…you’re this little mouse. Maybe if you’d gotten that piece of—"
        "Don’t underestimate me," Lita told him sharply, but the tremble in her hands and the blush on her face betrayed her lack of confidence. "I’m a very powerful sorceress, too, you know. I just don’t use my power very much."
        "No?" That piqued his interest. A sorceress who doesn’t use her magic. That was unusual. "Why not? Does it scare you?" Urlich thought about the tomb paintings and realized that was probably the reason: Her magic scared her. Hell, if he could paint as well as she could, he’d be taking commissions, not suppressing his talent.
        The waitress left a little jug of cream and a jar of sugar on the table and scuttled away without a word. Meanwhile, the men in the place dragged the innkeeper in the direction of the swinging door at the back of the room. He’d be back for more when he woke up, Url knew, but by the time that happened, he figured Sylph and Zelgadis would have arrived to give him the advantage of numbers, which may or may not make a difference to the big moron. His type rarely cared about odds.
        He realized Lita wasn’t answering him and asked his question again. "So why don’t you use your magic?"
        "It scares me," she told him, confirming his suspicions. "It’s like I become a different person—don’t say it!"
        Urlich bit back on the obvious joke and stifled his snicker in his coffee. "Go on…"
        She glared at him a moment, then continued: "It’s different from Lara… Meaner, if you can believe that."
        "I don’t think she’s mean, as such…" Ulrich interrupted.
        Lita cut him off before he could finish his thought. "Of course you wouldn’t: You’re half Mazoku. You probably think she’s great."
        "Annoying, actually, but point taken."
        Lita seemed surprised to hear that. "Oh. Really?" She looked hopefully into his lavender eyes.
        He shifted uncomfortably beneath that look. How long had this girl lived under her alternate personality’s shadow? Had she lived under the real Lara’s shadow before that? Urlich’s gaze dropped to his coffee. Had Lita killed Lara, as they’d all thought back in Seyruun before she became the woman, herself. And was Lita the original personality and Lara the alternate…or the other way around? Was she a copy, or the real thing, and the dead Lara Sorez was the copy? Urlich rubbed his temples. No matter who or what she was, she had a piece of Garv in her, a piece whose power she could access to cast spells. Not good. "Are you afraid to use your magic because of Garv?" He asked her, ignoring her question. His feelings about Lara were irrelevant.
        Lita’s face fell, and she looked away. "I feel a terrible power whenever I use magic," she told him in a voice that was barely louder than a whisper. "It might be Chaos Dragon, but I don’t know. I never knew him to know what he feels like. I just know there are certain spells that draw on his power, like a Garv Flare, but I don’t use those kinds of spells."
        Url narrowed his eyes at her. "By choice, or because you can’t?" Was there really someone else in the world who was physically incapable of casting attack spells?
        Her reply disappointed him. "I choose not to. The last time I cast an attack spell of that level, I destroyed an entire village. I can’t…" her eyes misted up, and she seemed to shrink into his coat. "I won’t let that happen again."
        Urlich couldn’t look at her. The sort of power he craved, she voluntarily put away. How could anyone do that, he wondered bitterly. He’d kill for such power! Even an Astral Vine to power up his mundane blades! But no. He couldn’t even cast something that simple. Now, if it healed someone, he could cast it better than anybody. He just couldn’t harm anyone with his magic.
        Lita saw the look on his face and came out of hiding to ask cautiously: "You think I’m doing the wrong thing, suppressing my power, don’t you?"
        He shook his head, no. "I just envy you. I’m a healer," he explained, still not looking at her, "to the point that I can’t cast any kind of harmful spell. I can thank my mother for that."
        "But Dragons can cast attack spells, can’t they?" Lita prodded, trying to bolster his spirits a little.
        He sipped coffee. "It was her vengeance against my father," he told her in a cold voice. "When I was born, she saw I was his very image, so she cursed me. I can’t hurt people with my power. What could be more infuriating to a Mazoku like Xellos?"
        "What about your sister?"
        "Zhara’s his pride and joy," Url snorted, then amended: "Used to be. We all turned on him after he killed my son. I think he likes my attitude, though."
        "Well, there’s something, I guess," Lita mumbled hopefully.
        Urlich shrugged. "I don’t fucking care what he thinks of me."
        His tone sent Lita back into the depths of his coat, with her coffee mug clutched between her trembling hands. She let him brood for a while, then offered quietly: "I’m sorry about your son, Urlich."
        "Thanks," Url replied in an equally quiet tone. "His mother will be here shortly, but I suggest you not bring up the subject in her presence."
        Lita blinked. "Sylph?"
        "No, Zelgadis," Url shot back with a little of his former pluck. "Of course Sylph." He poured himself some more coffee, then offered to top off her cup. When she refused, he put down the pot and sighed. "He was a Knight of Seified."
        Lita put her mug down on the table and leaned forward with interest. "Really? I wish…" she cleared her throat and looked away, leaving the thought unfinished.
        Urlich tapped her hand. "You wish what?"
        She looked at him with eyes brimming over with tears, and Urlich wished he’d just left it go. "When I use my magic, the power I feel is totally evil. Now I know why. I always wished it was Seified’s power. I wish I was a Knight of Seified…than I’d be strong. Maybe strong enough to keep the Lara part of me—maybe even the Garv part, too—from taking control."
        "Let me get this straight," Url sneered, "you think having a piece of Seified in you would’ve made you strong, when having a piece of Garv in you doesn’t? Do you even know who Garv was?"
        "Yes!" Lita shot back defensively. "He was one of the five Lords of Shabranigdo, but he was sealed into a human form by the Water Dragon King a thousand years ago during the War of the Monster’s Resurrection. He kept getting reborn into human bodies until he was strong enough to challenge Phibrizzo, who destroyed him before being destroyed by the Lord of Nightmares."
        "A battle that happened just over a year ago," Urlich told her, leaning his elbows on the table and giving her a level stare. "For Garv to have been reborn into your body, you would have had to have been created after his death. You told Lina you’re at least four years old, right? Yet you have a piece of Garv in you, meaning you’re much—"
        "Younger," Lita finished for him in a shocked whisper. "But that can’t be…I mean, the evidence would support my being a year old or less…but I have almost five years of memories! How do you explain that?"
        Urlich shrugged, even more interested in the conversation than before. "Programming?"
        "How can you give someone memories without there being gaps in them?" Lita insisted. "I don’t have gaps in my memory!"
        Urlich sat back to consider that. "I don’t know how a copy can be implanted with memories like yours," he admitted. "I’m out of my depth, here. I don’t know any of the science behind copy-making. What I do know is Mazoku and I know for a fact that you can’t have a piece of a dead Dark Lord in you unless you were born or created after said Dark Lord’s demise. That’s just a fact of nature."
        Lita bowed her head. "I know that, too. I just…it doesn’t make sense."
        They were silent for a little while, then Url asked: "How long did you say that monster has been chasing you?"
        "I left Lara not long after I emerged," she replied slowly, "so almost four years."
        "And you’ve managed to stay alive with a Mazoku assassin on your tail all that time?" Url snorted. "There’s another continuity problem for you, my dear: If you’re a mere human, and a Mazoku wants you dead, it won’t take four years to kill you."
        "If I’m just human," Lita mumbled.
        Blink-blink. "You’re not…"
        Lita wiped tears off her cheeks and reached for the pot of coffee. "I don’t know what I am, remember? She put something extra into me and wouldn’t tell me what it was. I could be anything!"
        Url had to admit she was right, though the possibilities were extremely unsettling. If she was part Mazoku, she hid it well because he didn’t feel Garv’s power coming from her until she’d cast a spell. However, he’d never heard of anyone being able to call an errant piece of a deceased Dark Lord into themselves or a copy. That didn’t mean it was impossible, it just meant he’d never heard of it happening. He could ask his father, but if Xellos was even willing to give out information it would be incomplete and probably suspect, as well.
        Lita’s mind was going down the same track his was. "Do you think Lara was able to put that piece of Garv in me?"
        "I don’t know," Url admitted. "I’ve never heard of it. Was she that powerful?"
        She shook her head. "I don’t think so. Anyway, I don’t think a Lord like Garv would let a human do that. I mean, she was a brilliant scientist, but what do Mazoku care about that?"
        "They let her experiment on them," Url reminded her, then just stopped in mid-thought and had an epiphany. "Holy shit…I think I just figured out why she was experimenting on Mazoku: She was trying to call dead Dark Lords into her copies!" He closed his eyes and listened to his heart race in his chest. She was crazy! What human in their right mind would want to put a piece of a Mazoku Lord into a copy of themselves? The answer came to him instantly: A human who couldn’t call the piece into themselves because they’d been born before the Lord died. So the copies hadn’t been made as decoys, they’d been made as hosts for Garv or…Urlich’s eyes flew open as the big picture hit home. Or Hellmaster, or Shabranigdo. Ruby Eye had twice before shown himself inclined to be born into humans, and Garv had been sealed into a human form for centuries. Of course, Phibrizzo had been destroyed by the Lord of Nightmares, herself, so it was unlikely that a piece of him was floating around. Unless L-Sama was even more capricious than anybody thought, something that wouldn’t surprise Urlich one tiny bit.
        "You mean…" Lita gasped, "she was trying to put Garv in me?!"
        Urlich buried his face in his hands as his brain tried to wrap itself around this new concept. If he was right…"Oh shit. Didn’t Dad say there was a copy out there that was unaccounted for?"
        Lita blanched. "There might be…but…"
        "But what?" Url demanded.
        "I don’t think there are," she stammered back. "But I don’t know exactly how many copies were made. I mean, I thought there were just three, but maybe there were more, or they might still be alive. I don’t know!"
        "I think this is information we need, don’t you?" Url all but screamed at her.
        Tears spilled onto Lita’s cheeks as she nodded. "I don’t know how to find out!"
        Urlich sighed. "Getting upset about it won’t help you think."
        Another nod. Lita wiped away the tears with the back of her hand and tried to put on a brave face.
        "That’s better," Urlich said tightly. "My sister can research it back in Marrigan while we carry on with our little quest." He pointed at his coat. "There’s a pouch with a crystal ball in the inside right pocket of my coat. If you wouldn’t mind?" He held out his hand.
        Lita hurried to fish up the pouch in question and laid it in his palm. "Right," said Urlich as he dumped the crystal out of its velvet pouch into his hand. "You watch the door for Zelgadis and Sylph while I call Zhara. Oh, and if Stupid comes back here wanting to kick my ass, you’ll have to handle it, since I plan to ignore him."
        "WHAT?!"
        Url chuckled. "Just kidding."

Chapter 23