Chapter 4 - Dear Friends Meet Again

"What was that?" Amelia asked suddenly.

"What was what?" Zelgadis replied irritably.

"I thought I heard something."

"What?"

"I don't know. An explosion, maybe."

Both fell silent and listened hard. They were on a broad, paved highway framed by grain fields. The only things interrupting the view to the horizon were a few groves of trees. There was a town in the distance off down a side road.

"Amelia," Zelgadis said guardedly. "Do you see smoke rising from the town?"

The girl narrowed her eyes. "Yes, that's definitely smoke."

Suddenly, a dome of red flame engulfed the town and an earth-shaking noise like thunder but much, much louder rolled over them.

"And that was a dragon slave!" Amelia shouted. "Come on!"

Zelgadis was already running up the road. Amelia caught up with him a moment later and they raced neck and neck toward the town. Before long, they met up with two figures running the other way as if a horde of mazoku were on their heels. In fact, their pursuers were merely townspeople armed with pitchforks and butcher knives.

"Miss Lina, Mr. Gourry!" Amelia exclaimed incredulously, halting abruptly. "What did you do to that town?"

Lina nearly tripped over her own feet in surprise. "Amelia? Zel? What are you doing here? No, no time to talk. Let's just get out of here fast!"

With an exasperated snort of laughter, Zelgadis wheeled to match Lina and Gourry's direction. Pursing her lips in disapproval, Amelia did the same.

Once they were safely away from the angry townspeople, Lina asked, "So, uh, what are you guys doing here?"

Zelgadis and Amelia quickly outlined their mission to Borgia. Then it was their turn to ask questions. "What are you and Gourry doing here?"

"We're still looking for a replacement for the Sword of Light, of course! Or at least a sword this over-muscled oaf can't break in less than a week." Lina punched Gourry in the arm and he laughed and rubbed his head bashfully in agreement.

"And what happened to that town back there?"

"It got attacked by a pack of rabid chimeras while we were passing though so of course we stayed to help defend the town." Lina said virtuously. "Ungrateful jerks," she added under her breath. "They never even paid us."

Zelgadis rolled his eyes. "You never change."

"Would you want me to?"

He just shook his head bemusedly.

"So, what's the next stop on our itinerary?" Lina asked when the group finally stopped for dinner.

"Our itinerary?" Zelgadis repeated warily.

"Yeah. We're going to Borgia, right?"

"We are?" Gourry asked, surprised.

"Amelia and I are going to Borgia. Since when are you coming with us?" Zelgadis asked, equally surprised.

"Since you told me about it. If you're going with Amelia, we might as well come too. The more the merrier, right?"

"No!" Amelia said firmly. "This is my mission and I don't want you messing it up!"

"Us, mess it up?" Lina repeated, insulted.

"Yes, you! The first diplomatic mission I went on was to Xoana. You levelled the city! The next major diplomatic event I was involved with was launching the ships to the Outer World. You destroyed the fleet and levelled the city! Then there was the Ruvinagald Kingdom. Do you know how many cities it has left? Less than half! Now I'm going to work out a treaty with Borgia and I don't want you levelling the city! At least not before I know they're guilty!" Amelia shouted, thrusting a finger vindictively in her friend's face.

"Sheesh, most of that stuff wasn't even my fault. Not really," Lina pouted.

"This mission calls for subtlety and stealth and your idea of subtlety is dragon-slaving everything in sight!"

"Well then, I won't wreck your precious mission," Lina said angrily. "Come on, Gourry, let's not stay where we're not wanted." She stalked away from the table.

"Lina, wait!" Zelgadis called, running after her. "Amelia didn't mean that. Did you, Amelia?" he asked pointedly.

"Yes, I did," Amelia muttered rebelliously. Then she rose to her feet and walked over to the other three. "I'm sorry, Miss Lina, Mr. Gourry," she said humbly. "I didn't mean to make you feel unwanted. I would love it if you would travel with us until we get near Borgia. Friendship is an eternal bond between people! We must not let it break just because I don't want you anywhere diplomacy is required!" She ended the speech posing dramatically on top of a bar stool with her cape flapping in the breeze from the door.

"I don't know," Lina said, still not completely mollified.

"Look, the food's ready!" Gourry called, pointing to the waiter just staggering out of the kitchen doors under a load of platters.

"Oh, it looks delicious!" Lina shouted with glee, rushing back to the table right on Gourry's heels.

"Don't start without me," Amelia called, running after them.

"Well, I guess that takes care of that argument," Zelgadis said wryly to himself and followed them at a slower pace.

"So, what's the next stop on our itinerary?" Lina asked again once dinner had been reduced to gnawed bones and dirty plates.

Zelgadis pulled out a map. "We can either go through Xoana or take the longer road to Atlas City and then curve back this way. Or we could head for these mountains but I'd rather not."

"Atlas City," Gourry said thoughtfully. "I think I've been there."

Lina slapped him upside the head. "Only about a dozen times! It was the first city we went to when we started travelling together, remember?"

"No."

"Do you remember working for a crazy sorcerer named Tarimu? Bald? Smoked cigars? Or the guy who was searching for the secret to eternal life? Or a bunch of people trying to throw us in jail for blowing up the mayor's house?"

"Blowing up the mayor's house?" Amelia echoed. "I don't remember that."

"Eheh," Lina laughed nervously. "That was our last visit to the city. You weren't there."

"You blew up the mayor's house?" Zelgadis asked incredulously.

"Oh yeah, that was the big house with all the pillars! Right? And the blue flames coming from the wine cellar?" Gourry suddenly recalled.

"Miss Lina, the mayor's house is an important civic symbol, not to mention somebody's home. You shouldn't blow it up!" Amelia scolded sternly.

"I had to! It's a long story so I won't give you the details, but let's just say Atlas City isn't the best place for us right now. They probably still have a warrant out for our arrest. What was the other place again?

"Xoana," Zelgadis replied.

Lina tapped her chin thoughtfully. "Hey, wasn't that Martina's kingdom?"

"Yes," Zelgadis sighed. "I hear that they've rebuilt enough of it that it's almost habitable."

"I'd like to see Queen Martina again," Amelia said unexpectedly.

Lina stared at her. "Why? That girl was a complete loony! Why would you ever want to see her again?"

Amelia thrust her chin up boldly. "We princesses have to stick together."

"Fine, fine. Xoana it is," Lina agreed with a sigh.


They knew without any doubt when they entered the city of Xoana. There was a huge gate marking the entrance with a giant mask like a hideous, asymmetrical face hanging at its apex. The mask looked as if it had been pieced together out of an ill-matched assortment of geometrical shapes, horns and pieces of bone.

"That's Martina's work alright," Lina snickered. "All hail Zoramelgustav."

"Zoramil-who?" Gourry asked blankly as they walked through the gate.

Lina groaned. "Zoramelgustav, you moron. Martina's imaginary god. She made him up. She's his one and only, but extremely devoted, worshipper."

"Maybe not his only worshipper," Zelgadis opined thoughtfully. "I believe Zangulus joined the cult when he married her and, from the looks of things, she may have converted the rest of the city too."

"Some city," Lina snorted.

Beyond the gate, they found themselves walking down an unpaved and deeply wheel-rutted road between two dilapidated painted facades. The wooden panels depicted a splendid city full of tall buildings and happy pedestrians. The painted city looked a lot like the old city of Xoana but even bigger, brighter and happier. However, the panels now showed the marks of a few years' weather. The paint was starting to fade, peel and even, in some places, grow moss.

"That's pathetic," Amelia said.

Where panels were missing from the facade, they could see the true landscape: a broad plain covered with grass, weeds and the occasional small shrub. It had the gentle slope of a large crater.

Finally, the facade ran out and they found the real city. The outer edge consisted of half-finished but promising buildings. When they were finished, they would be quite respectable houses and shops. A little bit further in, the buildings were finished although still shiny-new. As they walked towards the center of the city, the buildings became steadily smaller and shabbier. Instead of shiny-new, they began to look haphazardly thrown together, and they had already acquired a thin coating of dirt.

Once the trend became clear, Lina halted her horse. "Forget this. I think I saw a restaurant back in the good neighbourhood. Let's go eat. I'm starving!" The other three quickly agreed.

The sign hanging over the door depicted a steak and a mug overflowing with beer foam, and that turned out to be a pretty good advertisement of what the restaurant served. As soon as the group sat down, Lina and Gourry quickly ordered enough beef to feed a pack of trolls plus side dishes. Amelia ordered one dish from each category. Zelgadis rolled his eyes and ordered a single steak.

Lunch quickly turned into a battle complete with free-for-all food stealing, impromptu fork duels and insults shouted through mouthfuls of food. In other words, it was pretty much like every other meal Lina, Gourry and Amelia shared. Zelgadis shielded his lone plate with his free arm and tried to ignore his friends' complete lack of table manners. Unfortunately, it had been so long since the last time he was forced to witness their disgusting gorging that he was no longer desensitized to it. Still, he managed to seethe in silence until a flying piece of meat hit him in the ear.

Zelgadis stood up, slamming his hands down on the table on either side of his plate. "I have had it!" he snarled. "You people are complete pigs and I am not going to sit here watching your disgusting eating habits a moment longer. I'll find my own restaurant."

He whirled (narrowly avoiding tripping over his chair) and stalked away. After a few steps, he paused and threw back over his shoulder, "Would you like to join me, Amelia?"

Amelia froze halfway through pouncing on a pile of dumplings and turned her head guiltily to stare at him.

Lina protested angrily, her words only slightly muffled by the food in her mouth, "Hey! Why her and not us? Amelia..."

"...has perfectly good table manners when you two aren't around," Zelgadis interrupted. "Coming, Amelia?"

Amelia quickly ran to join him. They walked out of the restaurant side-by-side.

Lina blinked several times. "Well. What do you think of that?" she asked blankly. "Hey, Gourry, that steak is mine! Take Zel's if you're still hungry."

Zelgadis and Amelia found their new restaurant on the other side of the main road. Its sign featured a chicken drumstick and a bunch of grapes. They gave their order to the pretty waitress and sat back to wait.

Zelgadis tried to think of some kind of smalltalk to fill the silence. Amelia's company had given his walkout an air of moral victory that stomping off alone wouldn't have had, but it meant that now he had to make at least a token attempt at social niceties. "So, uh, what do you think of Xoana?" he tried as a conversation opener.

Amelia hesitated. "It…looks a lot better than the last time we saw it."

"Better than a smoking crater, you mean?" Zelgadis replied dryly.

"Well, yes." Amelia grimaced. She added, with a painful attempt at optimism, "It seems to be to recovering. It's almost the size of a town."

"Yes, but it could have been a lot larger by now."

"Yes. We've completely rebuilt the sections of Seyruun that were destroyed and those fights were much more recent than Xoana."

"Even Sairaag is almost this big even though there were far fewer survivors."

"Speaking of Sairaag, I ran into Miss Slyphiel the other day and she..."

"Excuse me," a female voice interrupted. "Are you Amelia Wil Tesla Seyruun and Zelgadis Greywords?" The voice belonged to a girl about Amelia's age with pinkish-white hair and a dramatic black and crimson dress.

"Yes, we are," Amelia said curiously.

The girl's magenta eyes lit up so fiercely they almost glowed. "Then I want vengeance on you."

"For destroying your city? Amelia and I may have been part of that whole mess, but we did nothing to cause it," Zelgadis protested.

"I did nothing to cause it. You allied yourself with villains," Amelia corrected him. She leapt up onto her chair and stabbed an accusatory finger down at him. "I hope you're thoroughly ashamed of your actions. Kidnapping a princess is such a stereotypically bad-guy thing to do!"

"I don't care about any city," the girl snarled, her eyes shining with rage. "You killed my beloved master."

"Who?" Amelia asked guiltily, running through a mental list of possibilities.

Instead of answering, the girl threw a bolt of crackling black energy at them that reduced Amelia's chair to splinters and would have done the same to Amelia herself if she hadn't thrown herself quickly (if gracelessly) off of it.

Zelgadis yanked Amelia back to her feet and dragged her at top speed past their screaming fellow customers to the plaza outside.

"It's completely irresponsible to use black magic inside a restaurant! You might have hit someone!" Amelia shouted back over her shoulder angrily.

Zelgadis tried to catch their adversary in the doorway with a "Freeze arrow," but she was too quick. The spell only coated the door frame behind her with a slick sheen of ice as she levitated up onto a parked wagon.

The girl's next bolt of energy barely missed the as-yet-waterless fountain in the center of the square.

Amelia drew herself up and proclaimed, "Fighting us will not bring back the one you loved! If his spirit still lingers here watching you, he wouldn't want you to be filled with hate like this. He would want you to be happy! The best way to honour his memory is to live your life fully, taking joy in everything that you still have!"

The girl winced and swayed as if Amelia's words were blows. "Is she always like this?" she growled.

"Sometimes even worse," Zelgadis confided. He sounded amused but there was an odd look on his face. "She's right you know," he added with a sudden, manic grin. "Life is a wonderful thing, full of joy and happiness. You shouldn't waste your time on vengeance when you could be rediscovering love and other such life-affirming emotions."

"Mr. Zelgadis?" Amelia breathed incredulously.

The girl muttered her next spell invocation and dark mists shot from her fingers filled with the sounds of wailing as if hundreds of souls were crying in torment. The mists quickly spread through the whole square, turning the sunny day into haunted night.

Fortunately, Amelia managed to throw a shield of the purest white magic over herself and Zelgadis before the black magic spell hit them, and the few other people who had been in the square at the beginning of the fight had all fled.

"You could have hurt an innocent bystander!" Amelia shouted angrily. "Casting wide-area black magic spells in a densely populated place like this, that is what I call evil!" She ran straight at the girl. "Pacifist Crush!"

The pale haired girl stared in surprise at Amelia's strange attack for almost too long. Just as Amelia charged up the tailgate of the wagon, the girl leapt out of range of the physical attack, straight into Zelgadis' "Elmekia lance!" The girl crashed into the ground, clutching at her wounded shoulder.


Having ordered a relatively light meal by their standards, Lina and Gourry finished quickly. Then they went sightseeing.

"This place is a slum," Lina commented acidly as they wandered toward the center of town again.

"Yeah," Gourry agreed, gazing around with interest.

"They ought to take lessons from Prince Phil. That section of Seyruun that they had to rebuild is now the nicest part of the city."

"You mean the section you destroyed?" Gourry asked not-so-innocently.

"You remember that?" Lina cringed. "Of all the things for him to remember…"

A man stepped out of an alleyway just ahead of them. "Did I hear you say that we ought to take lessons from Seyruun? I wouldn't say things like that if I was you, little lady."

"Why not? Seyruun's gorgeous. This place is a dump." Lina said provocatively. She thrust her chin up feistily and grinned.

"We don't like Seyruun lovers around here," the man from the alley said, "do we, boys?"

A pack of other dark-clothed, vicious-looking brutes materialized from other alleyways, from behind houses and even out of a flowerpot in one case. "Right, boss," they chorused, showing sharp, shiny teeth.

"It's good to know that this is all about politics. Otherwise I would have mistaken you for common muggers," Lina said with breezy irony. "Tell me, what do you do on the weeks when no passersby happen to compliment Seyruun? It must get awfully boring lying in wait."

"Shut up," the lead thug growled, drawing a knife. He rushed at Lina so fast that he almost impaled himself on her companion's sword. A moment later, he found himself sitting in the dirt with his clothes in tatters and only the faintest idea of what just happened.

"Lina is under my protection," the blond swordsman said firmly.

"Go, Gourry!" Lina cheered.

"Get them!" one of the thugs shouted and the whole gang attacked at once.

Lina and Gourry moved back-to-back. Lina gathered energy into her hands while Gourry settled into his favourite guard position. After that, the fight went just like any other battle of Lina Inverse and Gourry Gabriev versus a bunch of thugs. Lina and Gourry barely even worked up a sweat. They were just chasing down the last few of their attackers still standing when a new gang rushed onto the scene.

The new arrivals were dressed in an assortment of light armour but all of them had a pin in the shape of the Monstrous Zoramelgustav's face pinned on to their chests. "Stop!" one of them shouted and another added, "You're under arrest! All of you!"


"You're under arrest! Don't move!" a man's voice shouted.

Amelia froze on top of the wagon. Zelgadis grabbed his fallen adversary by her good shoulder and turned his head to stare at the men who had just entered the square. Like the ones who had arrested Lina and Gourry, these men were wearing light armour and Zoramelgustav badges.

"You must be the local police," Amelia said gratefully and then stopped, not sure whether she should be glad to see them or not.

"Did this man attack you, girls?" one of the policemen asked in a tone of paternal concern.

"No!" Amelia exclaimed, surprised at the suggestion.

"Yes!" the pale-haired girl cried vindictively and broke into loud sobs.

One of the policemen helped the wounded girl to her feet. "Yeah, it looks like he did quite a number on her shoulder. It's a mess."

"She started the fight. We were just defending ourselves," Zelgadis said coldly, never taking his eyes off the girl.

"Likely story," the youngest of the police scoffed.

"Maybe so, maybe not," an older one said repressively. "We'll let the king sort it out."

Escorted by the police, Zelgadis, Amelia and the strange pink-haired girl followed the radial roads to the very center of Xoana. There was a building the size of a large house there with tiny, nailed-on turrets, detachable pillars and walls painted to look like stone.

"This is a police station?" Zelgadis snorted with amusement.

"No," the policeman beside him said stiffly. "This is the royal palace."


"I can't believe this," Lina muttered sullenly. "Me, arrested? The great Lina Inverse dragged before the law like a common criminal? We were the ones who were attacked! Why arrest us?"

Gourry absentmindedly gave her a comforting pat on the back. He had long since tuned out her complaints. They were sitting in a kind of waiting room just inside one of the less impressive entrances of the 'royal palace.'

"Why did we agree to come with them? We could have easily gotten away from those lame poseurs. Police indeed! They look more like cheap mercenaries, or maybe bandits." Lina made a face at the nearest policeman, who fingered his short sword longingly and glared back at her. "I bet we could still take them. If they don't let us go in the next five minutes, let's…"

"Look, they're bringing someone else in," Gourry interrupted.

Lina straightened up on her bench as a pair of very familiar faces walked in the door.

"Miss Lina?" Amelia exclaimed. "Mr. Gourry? What are you doing here?"

"I could ask you the same question," Lina returned.

"We were arrested for public brawling," Zelgadis said wryly. "You?"

"Same," Gourry admitted cheerfully.

"This city sure has a lot of thugs. I wonder what the police are doing?" Lina said spitefully.

"We were challenged by a single girl," Zelgadis corrected. "She's right over…damn. I wanted to ask her some important questions."

"Hey, the second girl's gone!" the policeman she had been leaning on shouted. "She was here just a second ago!"

Half the policemen scattered to search the area while the other half remained in the room to guard the remaining prisoners.

At that moment the king entered the room. "Who are the troublemakers, today?" he was asking wearily when he caught sight of the people sitting on the nearest bench. His jaw dropped. "Gourry? You've come to visit?"

"Uh, yeah, something like that," Lina laughed, rubbing the back of her head nervously.

"Zangulus!" Gourry exclaimed with real pleasure. He rose to his feet and clasped the king's arm warmly.

The two swordsmen grinned at each other. "Want to duel?" King Zangulus asked eagerly.

"No." Gourry sighed mournfully. "I lost the Sword of Light."

"You lost it?" Zangulus' eyes nearly bulged from his head. "How could you loose it? It was the greatest sword I've ever seen! You should have been more careful!"

"Chill." Lina stepped in between the angry king and her protector. "He didn't loose it. He sent it back where it originally came from for safe keeping."

Zangulus paused in mid arm wave. "Where?"

Lina sighed. "It's a long story."

Zangulus recalled his manners with a cough. "Martina will be delighted to see you. Would you like to come in?" He waved toward the inner door that he had come through.

"These people were arrested for public brawling," one of the braver policemen said. "But if they're your friends…"

Zangulus looked around at the other people in the room. "Shade's gang again? Dismiss all charges against Gourry and Lina and lock the rest of them up. Maybe it will finally teach them a lesson."

Zelgadis cleared his throat meaningfully.

Zangulus looked at him and then at the girl beside him. "Oh. Sorry, I didn't notice you. Dismiss charges against Amelia and…what's your name again?"

"Zelgadis," Zelgadis sighed.

"Dismiss charges against Amelia and Zelgadis too."

He waved all his former allies through the door into the inner palace. Inside, the 'palace' looked pretty much like the interior of an ordinary house except for the shoddy craftsmanship – the walls didn't quite meet at right angles and were occasionally held in place by nailed-on boards – and the mini-shrines to Zoramelgustav in all the wall niches. All four guests found the interior decorating completely tasteless but none of them said so in front of Zangulus. After all, it probably wasn't his fault and he had to live with it all the time.

"Darling, look who's come to see us," Zangulus called softly.

A cat-faced young woman with her pale hair in thick ringlets emerged from a slightly tilted doorway. Upon seeing the group, her large eyes widened still further.

"Lina?"she exclaimed very quietly. Her low volume didn't hide her surprise or pleasure.

"Martina," Lina replied with a transparently false attempt at equal enthusiasm.

"Hey, it's Martina!" Gourry exclaimed in surprise, a beat behind the action.

"Queen Martina, it's good to see you again," Amelia said with a happy smile.

Martina drew herself up proudly. "Welcome, Princess Amelia," she replied with regal formality but still at a mysteriously low volume. Then she looked eagerly back and forth between Lina and Gourry. "Are you two…"

"No," Lina cut her off firmly, her face reddening.

"Not even…"
"No," Lina said even more firmly.

Martina shook her head. "Pathetic! You still haven't admitted your feelings for him even after all this time? When you were willing to sacrifice the whole world for him? Lina, you are such a child!"

Lina's face was the colour of a beet. "Marrrtinnaaa," she growled, reaching out to strangle her adversary.

"Aaah," Martina cried. "Don't touch me! You might hurt little Zoe!" She placed her hands protectively over her belly.

The implications of that slowly sank in.

"You're pregnant?" Lina screamed in horror and Amelia in delight.

"Hush!" Martina and Zangulus both hushed her urgently, but it was too late. A thin wail rose from the room Martina had come from.

Zangulus groaned. "Did you have to wake the baby?"

Martina vanished into the room and came back out holding a squalling infant with rumpled green curls. "This is my son, Precious Gift of Zoramelgustav," she announced proudly.

"We call him Gus," Zangulus added, smiling dotingly at his wife and child.

"You're a father, Zangulus? Congratulations!" Gourry pounded his ex-rival on the back.

"We're so far ahead of you that you'll never catch up, Lina," Martina gloated.

"Who would want to?" Lina replied in a disgruntled tone, looking deeply disturbed.

"He's so cute!" Amelia exclaimed. "Can I hold him?"

Martina hesitated for a long moment before handing over the still screaming baby. Amelia cuddled him and kissed the top of his head. Gus screamed even louder. Amelia quickly handed him back to his mother.

Martina rocked her child in her arms and crooned, "Hush, my Precious. There's no need to cry. The world will belong to Zoramelgustav by and by." She carried her now-quieting son back into the bedroom still singing her unusual lullaby.

"That is the weirdest thing I have ever seen," Lina muttered.

"What, a lullaby about Zoramelgustav?" Zelgadis asked.

"Martina as a mother," Lina replied, starting after the departed pair in shock.

"My Martina is a very good mother," Zangulus declared, slightly offended.

"I can see that," Amelia said politely when none of the others spoke up.

There was an awkward silence.

"How long are you planning to stay in Xoana?" Zangulus asked, trying to play the polite host.

"Just over night," Amelia assured him. "Then we'll continue on towards Borgia."

"You're going to Borgia?" Zangulus sounded alarmed.

"What's the problem?" Zelgadis asked in his best paranoid bodyguard mode.

"There's a lot of anti-Seyruun feeling coming from the west," Zangulus admitted. "One rumour says that Seyruun is plotting world domination with international councils as the first step. Some of the others are even worse."

"That's why we're going there to try to find out who's behind it and straighten things out," Amelia explained.

"I know your father is too honourable to seek world domination," Zangulus said, "but many of the other rulers around here believe the rumours, and the common people are even worse."

"Yeah," Lina said thoughtfully, "the gang that attacked us was very anti-Seyruun. I thought it was just an excuse to mug us but…"

"As you go west it will only get worse," Zangulus continued. "At least, that's what travellers tell me." He looked pensive for a moment at the thought of travelling but quickly shook off any regrets. "If you're planning to go all the way to Borgia, Princess Amelia, you should either go in disguise or take a small army with you." He considered for a moment. "On second thought, you have Gourry and Lina with you so you should be fine."

Zelgadis scowled. "She also has me."

"Of course," Zangulus brushed him off.

"Well, uh, if there's nothing else, we'll leave you to your domestic bliss." Lina started edging toward the door.

Zangulus looked in no hurry to get back to his normal duties or domestic bliss. "I would invite you to stay in the palace with us, but we only have one guest room," he said regretfully.

"That's okay. I saw a nice inn in town," Lina said quickly and the others nodded in agreement.

"Yes, the Demon's Nest," Zangulus agreed proudly.

"That's the one. Bye!"

"Come back and fight me sometime, Gourry. No one here is a challenge."

"As soon as I get a new magic sword," Gourry promised. He clasped the other swordsman's arm in farewell.

"I can't believe Martina's a mother already!" Lina exclaimed as they left the sad excuse for a royal palace.

"Almost twice over," Zelgadis muttered.

"It can't have been long enough!"

"Over two years," Zelgadis pointed out.

"Yes, but…Martina can't be much older than I am," Lina protested.

"Maybe even younger," Amelia agreed. She sighed, "I want children."

"Me too," Gourry told Amelia, "Someday." They smiled at each other.

"Not any time soon, I hope," Lina scolded her protector. She tried to sound off hand and firm but the words came out plaintive and worried.

Gourry gazed down at her with a look in his eyes that caused her to glance away uncomfortably. "I can wait," he said simply.

"Good," Lina managed.

"What did you think of Zangulus' advice?" Zelgadis asked to change the subject.

"I thought he acted like a true king," Amelia declared. "I wouldn't have expected that from someone who dishonourably pursued us across a dozen lands and worked for such evil people when we first met him."

Lina nodded in agreement. "I expected Martina to be running everything and Zangulus to be cowering in a corner like a whipped dog."

"Maybe that explains the two children in as many years," Zelgadis murmured to himself thoughtfully. When everyone stared at him, he cleared his throat. "I mean, um, perhaps the baby is taking up most of her time and energy right now so Zangulus had to take over the day-to-day running of the city."

"You mean he nobly stepped into the breach?" Amelia asked.

"Something like that."

"It sounds like we could be walking into trouble," Lina said with a frown.

"I think we should take Zangulus' suggestion about travelling in disguise," Zelgadis agreed.

"Disguise, huh?" Lina looked Gourry over appraisingly with a wicked grin.

"Just as long as you don't make me dress as a girl again," Gourry agreed easily.

Lina's wicked grin got slightly wider.

"Uh, Lina?" Gourry edged away uneasily.


Canon check:

- Martina and Zangulus getting married and setting off to rebuild Xoana is canon. It's fun to imagine what the results would be.