As usual, I don't own anything. I'm just a fan writing some fiction. Please enjoy!

10- Only Children and Fools Tell the Truth

"Lizzie, Mama was acting kind of strangely earlier. You wouldn't know why, would you?"

Gourry watched Lizzie scribbling away in the notebook, creating all kinds of abstract shapes and designs on the paper. He couldn't help thinking that Lina's odd behavior could be attributed to more than just the Mazoku attack, and he wondered if perhaps Lizzie would know something about it. Lizzie stopped drawing and seemed to ponder his question before answering.

"No."

A very thoughtful answer, to be sure.

"You're sure you don't know? Did she say anything about being upset?" Gourry shifted closer to Lizzie and leaned over her shoulder to see her artwork. She waved a hand in his face to push him away.

"Don't look 'til it's done."

"Okay, okay. I won't. But what about Mama? What did she say?"

Lizzie shrugged her shoulders. "I don't know. I told her what it was that you told me, and I told her it was secret too."

"Wait, secret? What secret?" Gourry stiffened, a flash of panic running through his mind. "It wasn't what I said in the kitchen the other day, was it? The thing about marriage and stuff? That was-"

"I told her, I told her-" Lizzie raised one hand, interrupting. "-I told her about lots of stuff."

"But Lizzie, I told you that stuff was a secret."

"That's what I told Mama. Shh. Secret."

Defeated, Gourry buried his face in his hands. "That's not how it works, Lizzie."

"That's what Mama said too." Lizzie nodded as she happily returned to her work, oblivious to Gourry's reaction. "Keep a secret, can't tell anybody."

"Exactly!"

"Ta-dah! It's done!" Lizzie turned around and showed Gourry the picture that she'd finished.

He couldn't make out exactly what it was… a bunch of triangles, maybe? Spiders with too many legs? A very hairy animal that filled up the page? "That's a really nice… uh…" He faltered with his words. It would be no good to insult her by incorrectly guessing what was on the page, but his mind was too muddled by the situation to fully comprehend the child's drawing. Thankfully, Lizzie was unfazed by his lack of comprehension.

"See, see, Mama's fighting the monster here- with big magic, boom- and then me and you are hiding here 'cause it's scary, and then in the corner is us at the end after the monster goes away and we're happy and have cake. Got it?"

Gourry saw none of the described events within the scribbles, but he figured it was probably something like that "abstract art" that he and Lina had seen in art galleries before and he just couldn't understand. Still, the sentiment behind the picture was something that made him happy. "Why are we hiding while Mama does all the work?"

"No, Mama said to hide, 'cause her magic is all over the place and she doesn't want us hurt."

"Oh, I see. You really thought this through." She was handing the notebook to him, so Gourry took it from her. "That's a… what… Burst Rondo?"

"What?" Lizzie laughed.

"Never mind. Mama will teach you about magic spells sometime in the future… maybe." Gourry's face fell as he mentioned the future, suddenly reminded of the secret that Lizzie had revealed. "The thing is, if Mama stays mad at me like this, we may not be able to stay together. That's why I asked you to keep the secret." He solemnly handed the journal back to Lizzie.

"Did I do something bad?" she asked, taking it back.

"No… it's not your fault. I'm the one who messed up everything. All you did was tell the truth."

Lizzie frowned. "But I thought telling secrets was bad."

"It is. Yes. But it's not your fault that Mama is mad at me. That's my doing."

Lizzie seemed somewhat dissatisfied with his answer. She stared at her feet as she responded. "You're gonna make her not-mad, right?"

"I don't know if I can."

"I'll help!" Lizzie had suddenly jumped up onto her chair, and Gourry had to reach over to make sure she didn't fall.

"I appreciate your enthusiasm, Lizzie, but… I think this is something I have to do on my own."

She looked over at him in concern. "You sure?"

"I'm sure."

By late afternoon, the sky had clouded over and begun to drop a light rain onto the countryside. The weather, along with the incident that had happened earlier with the king, didn't hamper the activity in the palace as workers milled about, trying to finish up the last of their duties before returning home for the evening. Lina had stayed by Philionel and Amelia, who moved to one of the large common rooms in order to talk over what had happened. Philionel was trying desperately to calm Amelia, who was understandably shaken up by the whole thing. Phil's reassurances of "it's not your fault" and "you heard what the doctor said; he'll be alright" seemed to be falling on deaf ears.

Lina was standing guard, since Zelgadis wanted to go check on something. It was easy to tell the kind of answer that Eldoran had given Amelia- a vehement enough "no" that he worked himself up close to the breaking point. Lina, who'd never had much experience with the ailing and elderly, didn't know what to say. She simply sat a short distance from where Phil and his daughter were, watching the scene in concern. It was agreed that Eldoran would be alright, but even so, the fear that Amelia had felt and the anxiety the encounter had stirred up made Lina's anger at Gourry seem so petty.

"Lina?"

She looked up to see Zelgadis standing beside her chair, a thin folder and an envelope clutched in one hand. "Zel! Oh, thank goodness." Lina stood up and pointed over to where the prince and princess were seated. "Amelia will be so happy to see you-"

"Wait." Zelgadis grabbed her wrist with his free hand. "I want to talk to you first."

"Me?"

"Sit back down for a minute or two. I want to discuss this with you before I take it to Prince Phil and Amelia." Zelgadis sat down in one of the chairs across the small table from Lina. She glanced nervously over to where Phil and Amelia were, but they hadn't seemed to take notice of Zelgadis' return, so she turned back to him and nodded.

"What is it?"

"I started going through the criminal records again to see if I could find any others that had been moved to Class A."

"I take it you found one? Another Mazoku conspirator, perhaps?"

"Not that I knew…" Zelgadis shook his head and passed the folder over to Lina. "What do you know about the murder of Princess Sophia?"

"Philionel's wife, you mean?" Lina accepted the folder and glanced over it. As soon as Zelgadis had mentioned the late princess, one name had come to mind, and Lina was unsurprised to find that name written over the top of the file. "Booley. He's the one who murdered her. Don't tell me that he- why would his file be moved? Wasn't that a closed case? He tried to murder Gracia, murdered her mother instead, and got killed."

"Killing Princess Gracia was supposed to be an attempt from a source outside the government to destabilize the monarchy in preparation for a grab at the throne. That's what I was always told." Zelgadis nodded his head. "Because Booley was killed in the attempt, it was never discovered who hired him. Many high-ranking officials in Seyruun came under fire for their potential connection with the assassin, but the official ruling declared that it was outside government influence, so no evidence was ever found linking any of them to the case."

"So why the classification…?" Lina opened the file and glanced over it. "Do you have Archer's file? I think this may be the same handwriting-"

"It is. The same person wrote both the notifications, meaning that, at the very least, the information in both files was classified at the same time."

"You think there might be a connection?"

"It's hard to say. Besides being a famed assassin, not much was known about Booley- how he worked or who he worked for. His death meant that he took his secrets to his grave. No one would've known about him except for his victims…" Zelgadis placed the envelope on the table. "…and, perhaps, his killer."

"This is a letter for the king, from Gracia." Lina snatched up the envelope. "Where'd you get this?"

"It came in the mail today. Amelia was worried about what secrets her grandfather and sister might be keeping from her, so she put in a request that an employee of the palace screen her, her father's, and her grandfather's incoming mail."

Lina raised an eyebrow. "She officially asked you to snoop in her grandfather's mail?"

"Her conscience got the better of her, and she decided she wanted someone else to do it." Zelgadis took the envelope back from her. "I'm a little worried- this is the only letter that came in from Gracia today. Normally we receive letters for Amelia, Philionel, and Eldoran all at once."

"Do you think that Gracia and Eldoran know something more about Sophia's death than Amelia and Phil do?"

"It's possible. My worry is that she knows who hired Booley, and that person had found out that she knows. It could put her in grave danger." Zelgadis turned to place the letter in the bag he had slung over his shoulder. "I'll open that later, in a private place where there's not so many people around. I wanted to talk to you to get your opinion on whether or not I should tell Amelia and Philionel about Booley's file."

Lina glanced uneasily over at the prince and his daughter. He had pulled out a large book, and the two were looking through it, appearing to be pointing out pictures or bits of text. It was the first time Lina had seen Amelia smile that afternoon, and it was comforting to see. She hated to think of Amelia's smile being shattered again by the mention of her mother's death."

"Maybe… you should wait a while. See what Gracia's letter says and then decide. I'd hate to bother them right now."

"That sounds about right. But speaking of being bothered…" Zelgadis leaned in a little closer. "…you seem to have been in a pretty foul mood since this morning. I'd say it's because of the Mazoku attack, but it doesn't feel that much like a Mazoku-attack kind of foul mood."

Lina gave a scornful laugh. "And you're some kind of expert on foul moods?"

"I am. You doubt my credentials?"

"…oops. I forgot who I was talking to." Lina rolled her eyes. "If you must know, I'm angry with Gourry."

"Ah. What did he do this time?"

Lina glanced around before answering. "Can you keep a secret? Oh- what am I asking? Of course you can! You're not five years old."

Zelgadis stared in confusion. "Does this have something to do with Lizzie?"

With a defeated sigh, Lina rested her head in one hand. When she finally did speak, her voice was much lower, taking advantage of Zelgadis' sharp hearing to keep nosy passersby from picking up on the conversation. "Gourry said that he wanted to marry me. Marriage- can you believe that?"

To her surprise, however, Zelgadis was unfazed. Were Gourry's feelings that obvious?

"What did you say to him?"

"I didn't say anything. I didn't get a chance to say anything. He told Lizzie, and then told her not to tell me!" Lina had obviously stopped caring about the volume of her voice. "Can you believe that guy? Not to tell me something so important! He promised me- I made him promise that he'd tell me if there was someone in his life he cared for like that. Gourry looked me in the eye and promised. And now he goes and does something like this!"

"So…" Zelgadis frowned and stuck out his bottom lip the way he did when he was thinking hard about something. "…you're not upset about what he said, you're just upset that he didn't tell you."

"Yes."

"So, if he did ask you to marry him, what would you say?"

"That's kind of a moot point, since he didn't. Lizzie said he thinks I don't reciprocate his feelings."

"He said so to Amelia and me as well. Have you given him reason to think that?"

That question gave Lina pause for a moment. "…I've never said anything to that effect."

"You don't have to say things to Gourry. He's very in-tune to reactions and body language," Zelgadis replied. "I didn't ask you if you said you didn't love him, I asked if you had given him reason to believe so."

"I…" Lina looked down at the table, going over things in her mind. Now that she thought about it, Gourry had given a lot of hints about the way he felt. And how did she respond? Not positively, that's for sure. "…I may have responded poorly to some of his casual flirting. He was being silly and annoying, and I didn't think it mattered that much. But still, I'd have hoped he'd be honest with me anyway."

"Why would he confess his feelings if he knew he was going to get rejected anyway?" Zelgadis shrugged his shoulders. "That's just asking for trouble."

Lina crossed her arms on the table and leaned forward to rest her chin on them. "So what? Are you telling me that I have no reason to be mad at him?"

"No. You're perfectly justified to be unhappy about your best friend keeping a secret from you. But you need to understand that he had his reasons too before you blow up at him."

"I suppose…"

"Miss Lina? Is everything alright? I heard you yelling."

Lina jumped at the sound of Amelia's voice behind her. She and Zelgadis both reached for the file folder on the desk at the same time, but Zelgadis got to it first and pulled it over to his side of the table.

"S-sorry about that. I was yelling 'cause I'm angry at Gourry right now. I should be talking things through with him instead of venting like this. We'll work it out."

"That's a relief. I had a feeling you were upset about something earlier, but I couldn't tell what." Amelia glanced over to Zelgadis. "What was that?"

"The folder? I'll talk to you about it later." Zelgadis waved one hand. "Where did your dad go?"

"He went to go check on Grandfather."

Zelgadis gave a nod and picked up the envelope he'd been showing to Lina. "Well, your grandfather received a letter from your sister today. As per your request, I'm going to look it over for anything suspicious or that I think might put him or you in danger."

"You guys can take care of that," Lina waved to them, gathering her own things and pointing toward the staircase. "There are some things that I need to discuss with Gourry. Last time I saw him, he was watching Lizzie in the tea room in the south wing. If you need to track us down for any reason, look there first."

"Thank you for everything this evening, Miss Lina." Amelia waved back. "We'll find you if something else happens."

"When something else happens." Zelgadis corrected.

Lina gave a little knock on the door before she pushed it open. "Gourry? Lizzie? Are you two still here…?"

She already knew what the answer would be, however. She could hear Gourry snoring from down the hall and wondered how he'd fallen asleep at this time of day. It was obvious, however, once she walked in the room and caught sight of the large sofa sitting in one corner. Gourry was stretched out along the length of the sofa wish his head resting against the arm and a children's book turned over in his hands. Lizzie was curled up against his chest as though she'd been looking at the pictures as he read to her, but she was also fast asleep.

All the anger Lina still had against Gourry after her discussion with Zelgadis suddenly melted away. She found herself reaching over and taking the book from Gourry's hands- gently enough not to disturb either of them, of course. Once she was sure that they were still sound asleep, she tugged the blanket off the back of the sofa and placed it over them.

Gourry had been taking the "pretend to be Lizzie's father" idea a little too far, it seemed. Lina wanted to scold him, but she couldn't deny getting too comfortable in her role as "mama" as well. How had this happened? All she'd wanted to do was find out what was going on with the mysterious potions and save a little girl from further harm. Instead, she and Gourry might've uncovered a serious government cover-up and become parents… all while Gourry still thought she didn't love him.

"We can never do anything simply, can we?" Lina murmured. She got up and kissed Gourry on the top of his head, the way he'd done for her a few times before. He didn't stir, so she decided that the best thing to do would be to seek out Zelgadis and Amelia and find out what was going on. She left the room and started down the hallway, not totally paying attention to where she was going, and nearly blundered into Amelia.

"H-hey!" Lina exclaimed. "Sorry about that! I wasn't looking where I was- …Amelia? Are you okay?"

The last time Lina had seen Amelia, it had seemed as though the princess had calmed down. Now all of a sudden she was pale and wide-eyed again.

"Miss Lina, you need to come to the conference room with me."

"Why? What's going on? Is it about your sister?"

"Yes," Amelia reached out and grabbed Lina's hand, surprising Lina with her firm grip. "but it's also about you."