The fountain in the village square had stopped working just moments before Xellos' arrival. Rhodia's antiquated sewage system had been damaged to a great extent by the warfare that had plagued the countryside for the last two years. To the mazoku's disgust, the broken spout still had brown, discolored liquid trickling from the clawed face of the cherub.

It was a shame. Xellos leaned against the edge of the basin and looked into the contaminated water with a frown. He had hoped to wander into the small town looking like a weary traveler. Though he knew as a mazoku the water would cause no harm to his fashioned body, Xellos also figured that any reasonable human being would not drink from a public water source such as this. It would only give his identity away.

Which was really at the heart of the current matter. The priest stifled a harsh glare when an elderly woman carefully peeking out from her window squeaked at his appearance. Instead of causing her home to crumble around her he casually walked up to the window feigning exhaustion.

"Excuse me, but I require assistance." He said, tapping at her window. But the curtains were furiously shut. It dawned on Xellos that perhaps the fair humans of this town remembered him from his last visit before the war.

Well, that would make things difficult.

"GO AWAY!" The old woman's hoarse voice called out. "We have nothing for you here!"

Aaah. Xellos thought, suddenly remembering an incident between himself and another which resulted in the destruction of three buildings in a heated argument. Must be old lady Grazie.

One of the buildings demolished had been her flower shop. Though he recalled it had been rebuilt on a subsequent visit for tea to his favorite dragon. The mazoku priest examined the current buildings for any sign of business but was dismayed that the signs were replaced with something about rations.

That meant the woman ignored a weary traveler. He was sure that was illegal in this county during war.

"Now, now!" He said with mock cheer. "You can't pretend that a weakened priest such as I do not require assistance! I am quite thirsty. Perhaps a bit of tea or-"

Grazie, with the force he remembered, flung the front door open and pointed a broom at his face.

Because that was so going to work. However, Xellos could tell by the sweat on her forehead that she knew her threat was quite pointless. But she was not that careless, he remembered, so he wondered why she was even trying to confront him. Everyone else seemed to be holed up inside their homes for some reason.

"I know your kind, and I know what you want." She said. "I had no idea what you were until Miss Filia warned us after the war began. I thought you were just a friend of hers from before she settled down. I was mistaken."

Xellos' brows rose in slight agitation. He felt a monologue coming on; elderly humans' stories were almost as bad as dragons in the last few moments of their lives before Xellos made work of them. He hoped it would not last too long. The Mace and Vase shop was still two buildings and streets behind this one. At this rate, in his irritation, he'd blast the woman's head off and hint to the owner of the shop that he was in town. Or something. It had been a trying week.

"-but I have no idea why you are here now." She said, after exhausting quite a few other dialogues. "Did you come to kill our dragon?"

If Xellos had any intention of doing so in this war between her kind and his she would have already perished.

"Of course not!" He spoke cheerfully. "I just came for tea!"

It had been difficult enough ensuring that no other monster came upon this village while he dealt with the dragons inside the barrier. After all, she had made no allegiance to her kind after the death of Val by their hands, so there was really no reason executing her alongside her kin.

It would be pertinent to have at least a few dragons around. Not a population large enough to allow for out of control breeding of course, but a manageable number should their prophecies ever prove fruitful again. Deep Sea Dolphin was hardly reliable in her foresight or sanity even when she chose to will herself to his mistress' side.

But this village, in Xellos' absence, had fallen under hard times from the effect of war; human civilizations fell into a state of panic and began to fight amongst themselves. Yet he cared little for Rhodia or its residents, he came merely to visit the dragon he chose to tolerate for his own humor while drinking tea. It had been a rather taxing summer season of dragon slaying, especially this last week, and he had plenty of taunts at his disposal. Two years going unused...

Perhaps it would cause her to feel something other than blank and boring emptiness. The death of Val was rather recent. She still teared up even a year after his passing; just months before the war. Xellos hoped to agitate her enough to cause a riot. Perhaps he should not have abstained from seeing her for so long; he just did not want to have to deal with an angry dragon he had no need to kill.

Grazie's frown unsettled him. "You really don't know?"

Xellos blinked.

"Miss Filia is gone."

"She left?" Well, that was news to Xellos. He had been sure the spells he left on the town went unnoticed by the golden dragon; he specially crafted them so she could not trace or undo them without him knowing and skip town. And to do so in the middle of a war?

It bothered him immensely that she was able to one-up him on something he took particular attention towards.

Now where was he to have tea? Xellos was not sure he had the time to track her down today.

Grazie's wrinkled lip quivered in what appeared to be the pesky emotion of heartbreak. He recalled it well when he had visited Filia shortly after hearing of Val's death. The look was hardly as becoming on this hag as it had been on the golden dragon priestess.

"Filia did not say goodbye?" He nearly chuckled. Was the woman that close to her neighbor? Xellos knew that she had been a sort of celebrity in this village, but really. Affection was quite silly; it allowed for ill judgment and tears, something his kind never had to worry about in war.

"You fool!" Grazie howled, bawling into the sleeve of her tunic. "They took her!"

Xellos' eyes parted and shone with such malice that the old woman was taken aback. "Who?"

Had lesser of his kind decided to tempt his crueler ways of murder? To disobey his orders was madness. Xellos did a cursory background check on the spells he put upon this village. There was simply no way that a mazoku could have undid them without his notice; and any mazoku of power capable of doing so would not bother with Filia anyway, as it would require an extensive probe while being within the borders of his detection. The only beings who could do that without his notice were humans and-

"Dragons!" Grazie sputtered suddenly. "Dragons took her! Her own kind! They kidnapped poor Miss Filia and destroyed half the town in the attempt!"

Xellos clenched his fist, in complete disbelief that this could happen. That dragons would dare. While they could certainly get in without his notice they could only dispel it or remove Filia bylooking for it. And no simple dragon such as Filia could manage that level of magic.

"I thought you were a mazoku!" The old woman stammered. "But why are you so angry? Do you intend to save Miss Filia?"

Xellos turned away from Grazie without a word.

What would he do? Xellos had not the time to go seeking her out, to go and save her. What was the worst that could happen? She was not an ancient dragon so her existence was not a threat to her kind and it was not in his nature to go rescuing dragons in distress.

But he did feel slighted. It was as if, and it was even ridiculous to consider this, that the dragons were trying to bait him by using her.

"You must hurry!" Grazie said. "They took her just last week, and I think they were considering execution for some crime!"

Hmph. Xellos figured he'd have to deal with this unexpected intrusion upon his dragon slaying with prompt.

Filia owed him two years worth of tea.