AN: For the record, this is anime continuity, but I'm not sure where in the continuity it is yet. Slayers NEXT happened, but as for TRY, Revo/Evo, I'm not sure. Usually at some point in writing these things it becomes clear, but there have been a few times where it hasn't.
"Daddy!" Amelia exclaimed as she shot up in bed, fully flooded with fear and panic. For a moment she was so discombobulated that she could not make sense of the fact that she was in a bedroom and not the throne room, yet as the seconds ticked by and Amelia tried to make sense of where she was she started to wonder if it had just been a dream. "Lighting!"
Her light spell illuminated the room, and Amelia gradually started to calm down as she saw that she was at an inn and not the palace. And then she remembered that while they had crossed the border into Seyruun they were still a day or two away from Seyruun City and the palace. "So it was just a dream." Amelia said to herself firmly.
Or was it? While the panic faded it did not disappear completely, and the sense that something was not right continued to cling to her. Was it her finely honed intuition? Or the fears of a child who had already lost one parent? Suddenly she wished for a way to check in with her father to make sure he was okay and to quiet the fears in her mind.
"It was just a dream." Amelia told herself firmly as she looked out of the window and at the position of the stars. It was too late to go back to bed but too early to be up and about. But being up and about was better than lying in bed and worrying about what was happening back at home. Besides, she really had to use the bathroom.
She threw the covers off of herself and stood up and walked over to her bag to grab her toothbrush. It was a quick walk to the door, and even though she did not expect to run into anyone else so early she took a moment to put on a big smile and remind herself that she was following the path of justice and nothing bad could happen to her now. Then she opened the door to her room to walk to the communal bathroom at the end of the hall. As she did the door to Gourry's room shot open and Lina stepped out dressed in a short bathrobe and nothing else. And least there be any doubt as to what they were doing, Lina blushed.
"Amelia! Um, what are you doing up this early?" Lina stuttered as she closed the door behind her.
"I don't know why you hide it, Miss Lina." Amelia said as her smile turned genuine. Catching them at the end of a romantic rendezvous was almost enough to drive the sense of unease away. "You would save a ton of money if you and Mr. Gourry just bunked up already."
Lina looked at the ground as she folded her arms across herself, "If you can fool your friends, you can fool your enemies."
"But Miss Lina, you aren't even fooling your friends!" Amelia pointed out.
Lina chuckled nervously, "Um, point made."
Amelia patted her on the shoulder as she walked by, "It does make it rather illicit, doesn't it? Which makes it even more hot and romantic!"
"Shut up." Lina muttered as they walked down the hallway together. "Well, I guess the secret is out."
"It's been out long before now!"
"Well, you can't blame me for trying."
"I guess I can't." Amelia said with a knowing smile. She was being truthful about that much at least. After all, she had fooled all of her friends into believing that she had always been a force of righteous justice.
Amelia hummed to distract herself from her sense of unease as she walked beside Zelgadis as Lina and Gourry took the lead. They had been traveling together for months now and while Lina and Gourry were as chatty with each other as they always were, Zelgadis was quieter now than he had been than when they had first regrouped. By now Amelia knew not to take it so personally. He just needed more quiet time then traveling in a group in such close quarters with three other people provided.
And the fact that Zel was still traveling with them was encouraging. Used to be he would leave once she was safe within the borders of the kingdom, but now he felt comfortable enough to travel with them to the palace. Surely it meant that he could grow comfortable in Seyruun with her, and that Seyruun could embrace him, even if he never found his cure.
"Someone is about to get slugged." Zelgadis muttered as Gourry grabbed Lina's hand. But then Lina leaned in closer to him and Zel's mouth fell open, "Well I'll be."
"I caught them in the act this morning." Amelia said proudly. "I guess they've decided to give up the pretense as a result."
"Amelia, she's been going to his room every night for a month and a half now." Zelgadis said, "I know you don't have my sensitive hearing but I still thought that you would have noticed!"
"Wow, I was right next to Mr. Gourry's room several nights and I never heard a thing! Your hearing must really be sensitive…" Amelia said as her voice trailed off as she started to wonder if he heard Lina and Gourry's bedtime shenanigans then what had he heard from her room?
"What?" he asked.
Could she really ask? But she looked up ahead at Lina and Gourry, so happy in their newfound intimacy, and felt emboldened as she said, "Well, you've never heard me engaging in pleasurable pursuits alone in my room?"
Zelgadis turned purple as he looked away for a moment before he said in a measured tone, "Well, that is a secret." For a moment Amelia felt sick with anxiety, but then he gave her a sly smile and added, "And a delectable one at that."
Warmth spread through Amelia like a fire, but before she could bask in it an anvil of panic hit as a news crier yelled, "Extra! Extra! Read all about the assassination attempt on Crowned Prince Philionel!"
"What!?" Amelia cried as Lina, Gourry and Zel stopped in their tracks while Amelia changed directions so fast she tripped over her own two feet. She dusted herself off quickly as she ran through the growing crowd and shoved people out of the way as she cried, "Daddy! Is my daddy okay?"
"Who are you?" The news crier asked as he looked at her in shock as she broke through the front of the crowd.
"Princess Amelia!" she replied as she brought herself up to her full height and pointed her finger at him, "And I command you to tell me how my daddy is doing!"
"Princess Amelia," he said as he bowed down to her and everyone in the immediate vicinity follow suit, "Your father is alive, thank Ceiphied. He was saved by two of his subjects."
"Oh thank goodness," Amelia said as she relaxed as she handed him some money, "For the paper."
"Yes, Princess." He said as he handed it to her. "Is there anything else I can assist you with?"
"That will be all." Amelia said as she walked away and rejoined the group as she scanned through the paper, her eyes stopping at one name. "Huh?"
"What is it?" Lina asked as Amelia re and re-read the paragraph as a sense of unease flooded her.
Amelia shook her head as she explained quietly, "It says that one of the people who rescued my daddy was a woman named Maxine."
"Maxine?" Lina repeated, "Do you know her?"
Amelia felt her stomach twist as she said, "Well, I know someone named Maxine. But I don't think she knows how to fight or do sorcery! It's probably a different Maxine."
"You don't seem happy at the thought of one of Phil's rescuers being that Maxine." Zelgadis commented, and Amelia felt as though he had just hit her with a lance of ice. Was she so transparent in her guilt? Could he smell it on her?
Nonsense, Amelia! She told herself as she forced her face into one of her biggest smiles. After years of perfecting it even she had a hard time telling when it was fake, "Oh, I'm happy and eternally grateful to anyone who rescues my beloved daddy! I just don't see how it could be Maxine is all."
Amelia put the paper under her arm and tried to appear unperturbed and ignored the looks of skepticism on their faces. "But who is Maxine anyway?" Gourry asked.
"Oh, she was my companion when I was a little girl." Amelia explained as she fumbled to change the subject, "So, should we eat before we make with all due haste to Seyruun City?"
"Of course we're going to eat. And with Maxine around it's not as if Phil is in imminent danger." Lina said as they resumed their trek to the restaurant.
"But I still don't understand. What's a companion?" Gourry asked.
Usually Amelia did not mind Gourry's denseness. Now she only hoped her annoyance did not show as she explained, "Well, you know, a girl from a noble family that was recruited to keep me company."
"So you didn't just play with other kids on the street?" Gourry asked.
"Of course not, you idiot. She's a princess! They couldn't just let her play with anyone." Lina said.
"Well, I guess since they let her travel all the time I thought that they weren't as strict as other kingdoms." Gourry said.
"Well, it's all about the stage of life you're in." Amelia explained. "Babies and young childhood are kept in a safe cocoon. Teenagers are supposed to go on a journey to help expand their knowledge of the world. It's the time of a royal princess's life when she has the most freedom! And adults are supposed to marry, rule wisely and produce children."
"That makes sense I guess."
"Anyway, we were just planning to drop you off in Seyruun, but if you want we can hang around for a bit and make sure that no shenanigans are going down." Lina said.
"That would be nice." Amelia said, though she wasn't sure if she was relieved or nervous. What if it was that Maxine? Would she still be mad at her? And would any of them look at her the same if they knew how she had treated Maxine?
It can't be that Maxine! Amelia thought to herself, And once we get home and I see that it is a different Maxine I can put the matter to rest.
They had almost reached the restaurant when Zelgadis asked, "Did you recognize the name of the other person who saved your father?"
"Oh," Amelia said as she realized she'd not given it a second glance. She picked the paper back up and looked at it, "It just says that it was someone named General Sherra. I don't know him."