Riding by carriage was much faster than walking, and unlike other carriages Lina had been in, Amelia's was actually comfortable! All told, when her manor appeared in the window Lina was in a very good mood. All she needed now was the assurance that dinner would be ready. As she stepped out and got a few steps towards her mansion, Gourry came up behind her and swooped her up and off her feet. She laughed a little as she wrapped her arms around him, "You already did this once."

"But it's official now." Gourry said as Jeeves opened the door for them. Then he whispered in her ear, "And I get to feel you up. You don't mind?"

"No, I'm not complaining." She said as Amelia came up behind them as they crossed the threshold, and Lina felt relief was through her, "And it's better this time. No melancholy burst from the Sad Lady!"

"Welcome home, my lady." Jeeves said, "I will go to the carriage and take your bags. Alona will unpack. Nellie almost has dinner ready, you're just in time if you want to clean up and wait in the dining room."

"Thank you." Lina said, still marveling at not having to do any of this for herself as Gourry sat her down.

"Oh, your mom found some interesting information on the Sad Lady while she was going through the old library." Amelia said.

"Oh?" Lina said.

"I'll let her share it over dinner. I'm going to find Zel and let him know we're home."

"See ya in a bit," Lina said as Amelia raced off down the hallway. Lina put her hand on her stomach as she started to walk to the dining room, "I'm so hungry!"

"Me too!"

"I wonder what's on the menu." Lina said as they entered the dining room.

He wrapped his arms around her from behind and brushed her hair from her neck and leaned down to nuzzle on it. "Hope you don't mind if I snack a bit before dinner."

She grasped his hands as she smiled, "What makes you think I've forgiven you for earlier?"

"It's your loss too if I stop!" he pointed out.

"For once, you make a good point." She said as she turned around and wrapped her arms around him as she reached her face up to kiss him.

He lifted her up a bit, and then sat her on a counter to make their height difference less of an obstacle as he moved his kisses down to nuzzle at her neck, before pulling away abruptly as he whispered, "Your parents are coming."

"How do you do that?" she asked as she hopped off the counter and straightened her shirt.

Gourry shrugged, "Do you give a lot of thought to how you know things? I just do."

"I'm not complaining." Lina said as she finally heard the footsteps he'd already discerned, "It's saved our asses plenty of times. But your senses are superhuman!"

Before he could respond, Han and Leia walked in, trailed by Zel and Amelia.

"Welcome back!" Leia said as she hugged Lina.

"So the honeymoon is over and you're ready to work?" Han asked.

"Never stopped working really." Lina said, her voice trailing off as she saw the look on Amelia's face. "You okay?"

"Oh, I just got a letter from my daddy." Amelia said as she sat at the table.

"Is Phil okay?" Lina asked as one by one everyone joined Amelia at the table.

"He's fine." She said, her voice unusually dejected as she added, "It's just that he's getting married."

"Oh!" Lina said as she turned a little blue. "They found someone willing to go through with it?"

"Oh, Daddy was a valuable prize on the marriage market! Every month he was flooded with offers. I mean, he's the Crowned Prince of Saillune!" Amelia said, and Lina had to bite down that no one who made those offers must have ever laid eyes on him, "So it wasn't for lack of interest that he never remarried. It was because of me. He didn't want to risk putting me under the charge of a stepmother who didn't have my best interests at heart. But now that I'm married he bowed to pressure."

"But your sister isn't married." Zelgadis said.

Amelia chuckled a little, "If you'd met Gracia you would understand. Sis can take care of herself. I'm the youngest and Daddy was always so protective of me."

"So who's the lucky princess?" Leia asked.

You wouldn't think she was lucky if you'd ever seen him! Lina thought.

"She's a duchess from one of the smaller kingdoms in the Alliance of Coastal States. I've never met her, but he says it will be a good opportunity to expand the program we are doing for training Mazoku hunters to the Coastal States."

"You don't sound too happy about it." Zelgadis pointed out.

"It was to be expected, I guess." Amelia said, "And I bet he's been so lonely since I left. I'm just being silly, really. I hate the thought of his affection being shared with others, and the affection any children I produce being split among new siblings. It's selfish of me, really."

Jeeves came in with the wine. Thank goodness. Lina thought, I don't think I can stomach this talk of Phil's affection without it!

"When is the wedding?" Han asked.

"I'll be leaving tomorrow, actually. I'll be back before the school opens, though it will be close."

"That's fast." Lina said.

"Oh, people in Saillune are wanting to see him married and producing heirs as quickly as possible!" Amelia explained.

Lina didn't think she couldn't stomach anymore talk of Phil producing heirs, especially as she did want to eat her dinner, so she turned to her mom and asked, "What did you find out about the Sad Lady?"

"That poor woman." Lina said once she was alone with Gourry in the seclusion of their room.

"Well, looks aren't everything."

"There's a difference between someone who looks plain or even a little unattractive, and then there's someone who is just purely repulsive." Lina said as she walked to door to the balcony.

He followed her as she opened the door and walked out. "Phil is a decent man at least. He'd treat his wife well. I mean, if one of my sisters had to marry him I wouldn't worry too much."

"You have sisters?" Lina asked.

He looked uncomfortable, as though he wished he hadn't brought it up. "Three."

"They still in Elmekia?" Lina said as she stared at the view.

"As far as I know." He replied as he leaned against the railing.

"Any of them close to the Emperor?"

"Why are you asking."

Lina put her hand on her stomach. "Hellmaster's device. This bug in my gut won't rest until it's out of his hands."

Gourry instantly became quiet and stony. "Out with it, Gourry." She said.

He shook his head, "The Eternal Queen was very firm about our orders."

"I can live with a displeased queen more easily than I can with a city whose inhabitants are annihilated because I did nothing!"

"We got the information about what the Elmekian Empire was doing to Zefiel City. And we alerted them to weaknesses on the border. Just because we're not on it doesn't mean that no one is on it."

"But I'm not on it, so I don't know how it is progressing." She said.

"And you don't know how ugly these situations can get, from a diplomatic viewpoint. You heard Amelia."

"I can't believe you're not going to back me!" she said.

He bit his lip. "I'll back you. I'll never let you set foot in there alone. And you maybe right, and the Eternal Queen maybe wrong. But Lina, we can't be everywhere. Everything I know about the workings of the Elmekian Empire and who the Emperor's favorites are is way out of date. I don't even know which residence he's in right now. We'd be going in against orders, without a plan, and without enough information, and if we're caught, it would be a diplomatic nightmare."

Lina leaned forward on the banister. He was right, and she hated that he was right. He put a hand on her back, "You want to spar?"

"Huh?" she asked.

"We're going to have students in two weeks, right?"

"Well, yeah."

"And you have some pent up frustration." He said, "You've not even sneaked out to attack bandits since we got to Zeferia."

She chuckled, "Oh, bandits don't come into the kingdom. The Eternal Queen manages the kingdom so well they don't even think about it."

"Oh," he said, as though a light spell had gone off in his brain. "Well, we need to keep our skills sharp and practice teaching them to someone else. So why don't we go down and spar for a bit? I can sharpen your sword skills, you can teach me a spell."

She laughed, "Well, if I can teach you a spell with your memory, then I can teach spell to anyone. You're on!"

"Lighting." Gourry said, and a ball of light appeared in his hand. He smiled a little as he released the spell and it lit the darkening sky as the sun set.

"Well, it looks as though you do have a magical bone in your body." Lina said as she patted him on the arm.

"I just don't know how you memorize all of that."

Lina laughed, "If you think that was a lot of work, you should see the chant for the Dragon Slave!"

"I hear it."

"Well, I guess if I can't fathom your sensory abilities, then my ability to memorize should be just as unfathomable to you. It's all fair. Though…" she said contemplatively, "Perhaps if I focus on mnemonics it might be good for those with high magical capacities but poor memories. I just never bothered because memorization was the easy part for me."

"It's good we did this, then." He said. "Occasionally I come up with a good idea."

"Only occasionally." She said as she gently pushed him.

"Let's get the wooden practice swords out." He said.

Internally, she groaned. While she had been wanting to vent frustration, she preferred to do it on people weaker than her. And sparring with Gourry reminded her too much of how much she sucked at swordplay. And she was always so sore after going a round or two with him.

Still, once they put the wooden swords away, she had to admit, she was glad she'd done it. As they weren't on the road and in imminent danger, he'd held back, allowing her to get her energies out and step up her game but not leaving her wiped. Still, she rubbed her arms as they walked back to the manor.

"Aren't you glad that we have that large tub now?" he asked.

"Hmm," she said, "And we actually have piped hot water!"

He wrapped an arm around her, "I'll even rub your back!"

She reached around to hug him, "Sold."

In the time Lina and Gourry had been gone, the downstairs portion of their manor had been transformed into a school. There were two dormitories, two classrooms, a dining area for the children, a room for recreation, and of course, the room the Sad Lady haunted (and that Lina was now sure would continue to haunt for some time).

With the physical changes in place, Lina and the others were free to attend everything else. There were lesson plans to write, information on the students that Luna had compiled to review, two libraries to catalogue, and missives to keep on top of. Lina had thought that sitting out on the action would be hard, but the fact was she was so busy she didn't have too much time to think about it.

"Saillune and several of the other countries are banding together with Zeferia to put the pressure on the Elmekian Empire to give up the weapon." Amelia explained over dinner the day she returned from Saillune for her father's wedding. It was also the day before the school was set to open. "And Saillune, Zeferia, the Duchy of Kalmaart and several other countries are forming an expedition to go and take the device from them."

"Any idea who will be in that expedition?" Lina asked.

"One of the Ceiphied Knights. The person they are sending for Saillune is a guard I would trust with my life." Amelia said. "Not sure about the people from the other places though."

"And hopefully, when the next big thing goes down, it will be the graduates from our school who will be going." Lina said.

Lina watched from her office as the wagons carrying her students approached, and she took a deep breath. Luna had been housing them at an inn in Zefiel City as they arrived and then, after likely giving them a stern talking to about the horrors that would befall upon them if they disappointed their country, had packed them up and sent them to Maninstit. "They look so young." Gourry commented as he stared out the window.

"Many are younger than I was when I left home." Lina said incredulously, "Though some are the age I was then."

"Well, it will still be awhile before they graduate."

"If life doesn't intervene before then." Lina said as she rubbed her back.

"What do you mean?" he asked as the children started climbing out of the wagon and entered the manor.

"Take your pick." Lina said, "Between Dils and the Elmekian Empire, versus just plain old Mazoku hijinks, the peace we enjoy now could be history tomorrow."

He wrapped his arm around her. "This is really worrying you."

Lina looked back out the window. "Most people that young don't know what sacrifice and loss is. So on the one hand, they're the perfect people to do this work. Fearless and convinced of their invincibility. I mean, if I hadn't defeated Shabranigdu by the time I was fifteen, well, it wouldn't have been something I could do for the first time now. I'd flinch. It's a short window of development, being old enough to be strong and powerful and smart enough, and young enough to be so daring and reckless."

Someone knocked on the door. "Come in." Lina said.

Jeeves opened the door. "They're waiting for you, my lady."

"Thanks." Lina said as she straightened her robes. "You ready?"

Gourry took her hand, and quietly they walked down the hall. Soon they were joined by Zel, Amelia, Leia and Han as they walked down the stairs and stopped outside of the main classroom, where the children were currently seated, the sounds of their whisperings carrying through the hallway. Lina squared her shoulders and entered the room and walked to the podium, silence following in her wake.

She turned to face her students, eleven boys and eleven girls between the ages of ten and thirteen, and began, "Welcome, to the opening year of Luke and Milina's School of Sorcery and Swordplay. I am Dame Lina Inverse, sorceress supreme, slayers of two fifths of the Dark Lord Shabranigdu as well as Hellmaster Phibrizzo, among others, and is there something you would care to share with the rest of us?"

Lina glared at a young blonde girl who was whispering to a redheaded girl with braided pigtails beside her. The blonde stared at Lina completely unperturbed as she said sardonically, "I'm sorry, ma'am, I just thought that given your accomplishments, you're rather tiny."

Lina heard a few people snicker as she drummed her fingers against her arms. What was it her mother had said about girls this age? "What's your name?"

"Maeve Connacht." She replied.

Lina smiled, "Well, Maeve, you just volunteered to be the first to pair against me on the sparring fields tomorrow."

Maeve went a little pale as some of the people around her laughed. Lina glared at them and a hush fell over the classroom. Once she was sure that she had everyone's attention she continued, "Three years ago I proved it was possible for a human to destroy Shabranigdu. And now I, along with my team, many of whom have fought beside me, are going to train you to do what I did. But let me caution you, it's not easy. It takes a lot of hard work, grit, smarts, and the belief that you can succeed. But it's doable."

The room was silent as the kids looked at her. Lina felt strange looking back at them. Especially when she considered that she wasn't even a decade older than them! "Let me take a moment to introduce our faculty. My husband, Sir Gourry Inverse, will instruct you in swordplay."

Gourry smiled warmly as he walked in and took a seat close to the podium. "Zelgadis, Duke of Tealblu will teach courses on Shamanist Magic, Reading Runes and Ancient Scripts, and Potions."

Zelgadis looked politely indifferent as he walked out and took a seat. "Duke Zelgadis's wife, Princess Amelia Wil Tesla of Saillune, will spend most of her time fulfilling her duties as Saillune's ambassador at the royal court, but occasionally she will give a class on White Magic and first aid."

Amelia was her bubbly self as she walked out and waved. "My parents, my first teachers, will also be your instructors. Leia Inverse will teach three classes, History, Folklore and Myths, and Curses. My father, Han Inverse, will help Gourry teach you swordplay and he has also put together an intricate Class of Hard Knocks as he calls it. Living on the road requires street smarts that they don't teach at most schools. Well, we aren't most schools."

Han and Leia took their seats, and Lina continued, "I will also teach three classes. Black Magic, Battle Tactics, and the Gods and Mazoku Lords. Through the year we will be evaluating your strengths, and determining how to divide you among us for advanced courses in our specific disciplines. There will be advanced courses in Swordplay, Black Magic, Shamanist Magic, and a fourth, very elite course in a little known branch of magic known as Chaos Magic that will start in the second quarter of the year. These courses will be offered on different days so some of you may be eligible for all four, but even if you aren't, there are benefits of specializing, and in fact some experts believe it is better to specialize rather than spread yourself out too thinly."

Lina paused for a moment to let them think about what she said before she continued, "Breakfast is at seven. Every day after breakfast no matter the weather you will meet Sir Gourry and Mr. Inverse on the sparring fields outside and spend your mornings there. Depending on the day and topic, either me or one of the other instructors will be there as well. After that we will have time for lunch, and then in the afternoon there will be two classes. All you need to do is meet in this room after lunch, the instructor will be waiting.

"Meals will be served in the student's hall. Three nights a week, one of you will join the instructors for dinner. We have the schedule planned out, each of you will get this opportunity for us to know you better. And the first student to have this honor will be Adam."

One of the younger boys' eyes widened, and the young girl beside him that Lina presumed was his twin sister, Adora, judging by the information Luna had given her in addition to their resemblance, punched him on the arm.

"The first floor of the manor is yours to use, with a few exceptions. Our cook, Nellie, asks that you stay out of the kitchen. Boys need to stay out of the girls' dormitory, girls need to stay out of the boys'. And be forewarned, this manor is haunted."

People started whispering excitedly as Lina continued, "The haunting is contained to a single room, and I ask that you stay out of that room unless you have permission. It is haunted by the ghost of a woman whose home was taken from her to build Maninstit, so unless you want to provoke her ire further, leave her in peace."

The children looked at her incredulously and murmured amongst themselves, "Unless there is an emergency, do not go onto the second floor, least you want to incite my wrath. Finally, it's time to appoint the dorm leaders. We chose the oldest boy and girls for this task. The dorm leaders will ensure the smooth running of the dorms, make sure that everyone makes their beds and has the lights off by ten and breaks up any squabbles that occur. The dorm leader for the ladies will be Honor. Please stand up."

A young girl with her hair shaved off stood up, and Lina could detect just how badly she was struggling to contain her excitement behind a mask of professionalism. Judging by the utilitarian nature of her clothing, Lina had to admire just how little this girl seemed to care for her appearance. She seemed pragmatic to the extreme! Not to mention a good choice to be dorm leader "And the dorm leader for the boys will be Owen." Lina said, and a tall, blonde boy stood up, and he seemed much less pleased with the task set before him, judging by his barely concealed smirk.

"Jeeves will give you a tour after dinner, and then you had best get to bed and be ready for a long, full day tomorrow as we're going to assess your strengths and weaknesses and learn why my sister decided you made the cut." Lina smiled as they squirmed a little, and then her thoughts turned to the food that Nellie and her recently hired staff had been preparing all day, "But that's enough of this stodgy office stuff, let's go to the dining hall and eat!"

AN: I wasn't sure if I was going to say anything, but I ended up spilling the beans a bit to Dragonfeathers about the theme behind the girls' name, which is badass female characters I grew up with. After wracking my brains I went ahead and did the same thing with the boys. Have fun guessing the references! First person to guess all 22 gets to made a fanfic request.