AN: guess what, kiddos! You get a treat with this fic! NO YEAR-LONG WAITS BETWEEN CHAPTERS! Why? Cause I finished it before posting much of it! YES! It's Finished before posting! Now, that doesn't mean you get it all at once. I'm gonna take my sweet time posting chapters, just to tease you, because I'm cruel (and unusual; I inherited that from my father). MWAHAHAHHAA!

I'd like to thank my mom for editing this for me. Yes, she does read my fanfiction, and plays video games with me. She's so awesome!

Also, if anyone can tell me why I do my best writing when I'm wonked out on cough syrup at midnight, that'd be appreciated.

On another note, anyone who's a really big fan of the Rezo's and Zelgadis can join my yahoo group: SlayersGraywords.

I'd post the link, but ff.n is having issues with it. Thanks for reading!

Afternoon was hot.

Very hot.

Sylphiel wiped her forehead once again with the back of her arm and panted. She'd already removed her cloak and gloves, she didn't have sleeves, and certainly couldn't remove her leggings, even though her current shirt turned into shorts that she could have taken her pants off and been decent in. Gourry had removed his shirt and armor, Amelia her cloak and armbands – which were a new matching set of pink gems on yellow bands, Lina had divested herself of cloak and gloves too.

Zelgadis was the only one who seemed completely unaffected by the heat, wielding his shovel like a pro as he and Gourry dug to find stuff that Lina could sense and Amelia and Sylphiel combed the dirt for anything and everything. Sylphiel had actually found that teddy bear that had been in Rezo's lab, and it was piled with the other things they'd found- she might ask Zelgadis if she could keep that one though... Books, scrolls, rocks, jewelry, and various odd implements that had no identifiable function were piled next to the clothes they'd all removed. In that regard, the search had been successful, however, this Mirror Breaker Zelgadis was looking for had not turned up.

"Lina," Amelia called, too sunburned and sweaty to deal with polite titles anymore, "I found something over here. It's big, and half buried."

Gourry shoved his hair back from his face once more, his bangs slicked back with sweat, and heaved his shovel to his shoulder, having been taking a moment of break after he'd finished digging up one item. "I got it," he called to Lina who looked over. She was with Zelgadis as they tried to figure out how deep a particular item was and whether they could use spells to get closer to it. Striding across the rubble, Gourry headed towards Amelia and set his shovel to where she pointed. It was a heavy oak chest, a little damaged, and buried enough that Amelia couldn't pull it out. Satisfied that her find was being taken care of, the princess moved off further into her quadrant of the area they'd picked to search in today.

Breathing heavily, Sylphiel swayed and landed on her rear in the dirt, "I ...can't..." she wheezed, "Go on! I need ...water..." Somehow, she found the strength to stumble to her feet again, "I'm taking a break," she announced, and didn't bother waiting for the answer, just turned and started off into the ruins, heading towards the lake that had once surrounded Flagoon's main trunk. Though she didn't remember the journey there, Sylphiel collapsed to her knees at the edge of the water and leaned down... and opened her eyes. Once again, Flagoon reflected back at her, but this time... This time, the strange image was made even stranger. This time, Sylphiel had a reflection. She was crouched on the other side of the pool with Flagoon above her, her body clad in a sleeveless white shirt of light material and a pair of dark purple shorts, her hair was tied back in a ponytail, and though they were seated across from each other, Sylphiel watched as her mirrored self sat back and covered her mouth with her hands, then slowly leaned forward, reaching out a hand to touch the water.

After a moment, Sylphiel shook herself and reached down too, placing her hand over the palm her other self held up. ...Their hands touched. "You're real!" the shrine maiden gasped. "Then- your Flagoon is still there! Your Sairaag is still there!" her eyes watered and overflowed, tears dropping down into the water. The Other Sylphiel looked concerned, her mouth moved, but no voice came back, her image rippling with every tear that hit the surface of the lake.

"Sylphiel! There you are!"

Looking back, Sylphiel blinked her eyes clear, "Miss Lina! Come here!" The sorceress, concerned, jogged closer and frowned, looking down into the water.

"Cephied..." she whispered, staring at the Other Sylphiel who still had her palm to the water. "And that must be Flagoon. You were right, Syl. There's something weird going on here." Just as she said that, the water flashed, the image was gone. "But what was that?" Slowly, the redhead crouched, arms resting on her knees as she gazed at the now perfectly normal lake. "You think it's safe to drink?"

Looking down at the water, Sylphiel lifted her hand, water dripping from her palm. "I touched, her," she said softly, "Our hands touched... It was like... I wish I could have seen what she was saying." In annoyance, Sylphiel wiped her face with the edge of her sleeve, then leaned down to take a drink from the water.

Taking the shrine maiden's cue, Lina got herself a drink as well, slurping up liquid greedily, as she did many things, then sat back and wiped her mouth. "Ah, that was good! We'll have to tell Zel about this." Sylphiel nodded her agreement, and after splashing her face to wash away the rest of the tears, Sylphiel got to her feet and moved to catch up with Lina.

Drawing a breath, the sorceress shouted, "Oi! Zel! We saw something weird!" Zelgadis looked over from where he was helping Gourry haul the trunk out of the hole the blonde had dug.

"What is it?" the Chimera asked irritably and the two men dropped the heavy trunk on the ground. It thumped with a bit of clinks and jingles.

Dusting his hands, Gourry took a seat on the ground for a well-deserved break and Zelgadis finally admitted to fatigue and settled on the edge of a nearby stone. Amelia wandered closer to listen as well. Lina flopped to the ground and gestured at Sylphiel. "Start from the beginning?" Lina prompted.

"Well I," Sylphiel blushed faintly as she knelt on the ground, "I went to get some water and leaned down to drink when I opened my eyes and saw Flagoon reflected in the water again. Usually... when I see this, I don't have a reflection, but this time... I did. My other self wasn't wearing the same clothes, though, nor was she moving in sync with me. It was as if I had a twin and we were looking at each other through a window. She saw me too, and reached out. I put my hand over hers and our palms actually touched. Then Miss. Lina came and saw it as well, but then the lake flashed and the image was gone."

Gourry was the first to speak, "Wow, that's a really cool dream."

Reaching over, Lina gave a token slap to his arm, "That wasn't a dream, I saw it too, at least the last part. They were sitting there with their hands touching, and then the lake flashed and she and the tree were gone."

Zelgadis rubbed his forehead with the back of his hand scrubbing his hair away from his face briefly, "There's definitely something strange going on here," he admitted, "though I'm not sure whether it's all these magical artifacts laying around or something else entirely."

Looking around, Gourry added, once more, since he hadn't learned the first time. "I dunno. It just seems like this place is out of balance."

"Actually, I've felt that way too," Amelia added tiredly.

Lina shrugged, "I feel fine," she admitted. "But then, I've been using my magic all day long to sense stuff, so maybe that's why?"

The Chimera shook his head, "I don't feel it either, and I haven't been using magic."

Amelia delicately pointed out, "You're inherently magical, though." Zelgadis decided to not take offence and nodded slightly in agreement to the statement. "But what about Sylphiel?"

Closing her eyes, Sylphiel simply sat there for a long moment, feeling... "Yes," she answered finally, "And...it seems connected with my feeling of not doing my job."

Lina nodded, as if she knew anything about the reason behind the situation. "Well, not much we can do about it at this point in time. Lets call it a day, haul what we've got back to Syl's place and get some lunch. I'm STARVING!"

The vote was unanimous (since Zelgadis's silence didn't count), and Amelia managed to call first dibs on the bath since Lina wanted food and Sylphiel had to make it, and Gourry wanted food, and Zel seemed disinclined to admit that he was hot and sweaty and terribly thirsty. Gathering everything together was a rather daunting task, but once they'd put most of the stuff into someone's subspace pocket or other, they trudged back down the road to Sylphiel's house where the stuff was dumped out in Sylphiel's back yard, as well as a few other items Lina graciously revealed her ownership of and told Zelgadis he could take a look at in exchange for letting her study some of his stuff. It was a regular Rare Items tradeoff, and Sylphiel sighed, mourning her poor grass.