After attempting to read on her stomach and finding that it was no longer possible to get comfortable putting so much pressure on her belly, Lina flipped over to her back, and was confronted with how to hoist the heavy book up and hold it without wearing out her wrists. She eventually put a giant pillow on her stomach and propped the book against it. Not her favorite reading position, but it looked as though it would have to do for the remaining months.
Beside her Gourry started to snore, and she took a moment to run her hand through his soft hair before she continued to read. She pulled the blankets more tightly around her as the room grew colder, and it took a moment for her to realize that it was not normal. Then Gourry stirred, sat up in bed and stared straight ahead. At first Lina could see nothing, but then the cold became tinged with a feeling of rage as a red light appeared and an otherworldly voice screamed, "Gourry Gabriev, what did you do!?"
Gourry stood up, hand on his sword as an apparition of Guloisa appeared. She seemed larger than usual and surrounded by a reddish hue as the room seemed to vibrate with her anger. However she had come to be here, it was obvious that her vengeful spirit was visiting them. Lina put her hand over her mouth. If Guloisa was a ghost, then…
The chandelier overhead started to sway ominously. "Sylphiel!" Lina called, feeling unusually paralyzed. She was bedbound for the next three days. But if Guloisa started attacking, then she would need to weigh the risks of running versus staying in place. And they needed someone who could perform an exorcism spell. While Lina could handle a low level one, given the special nature of their house, Lina was sure that something more complex would be needed.
The ropes holding the chandelier started to creak ominously as the candles perched upon it started to lose their balance. Thankfully Lina had been reading by a light spell so they were unlit, but they were large candles that would definitely hurt if they landed on her. Before she could move, Gourry lunged and pulled her off the bed and into his arms. She wrapped her arms around his neck as he somehow managed to grab the Blast Sword and hold it before him and he charged for the door.
Guloisa's ghost continued to wail and scream as Gourry cut through it, and finally she was silenced, if only but briefly. As he pulled the door open to the hallway that adjoined their rooms, her spirit materialized behind them and started following them through the narrow passage. Lina had hoped that they would run into Sylphiel along the way, but it wasn't until they reached Gourry's room and opened the door that they saw her. Slouched on the floor and bleeding profusely as Xellos stood over her wielding a bloodied sword.
Xellos grinned menacingly when he saw them, and Lina wondered if the situation could get any worse. But rather than attacking he simply said, "Next time." And then he vanished.
Gourry hastily sat her on the bed as he knelt down by Sylphiel to check for a pulse as Guloisa wailed pitifully, "She's alive, but I think we need Amelia."
As if on cue, the doors flew open, and Amelia and Zelgadis came in, "What's going on?"
"Guloisa's a ghost and we came in and we found Xellos attacking Sylphiel." Lina explained. "Zel, get one of the students who can perform an exorcism spell, or a Resurrection spell."
"Right," Zelgadis said as he set off downstairs as Han and Leia came in.
Amelia started performing Resurrection on Sylphiel as Leia got in front of Lina. Once assured that she was safe, Gourry walked over to his mother's spirit, an indecipherable expression on his face. "What happened to you?" he asked.
"Don't you play dumb with me!" she shrieked. "You cut me down!"
"That's not possible! Gourry's been with me all night. He's not left my side once." Lina said.
The room grew colder, almost as though Guloisa was sucking all of the heat from it to fuel her rage as she screamed, "Lies!"
An intense energy filled the room as objects started to rise from the cabinets and tables they were stored upon. Lina started to wonder if Sylphiel could hold on long enough for Amelia to contain Guloisa first, but decided not to risk it. "Look, I get that you're mad!" Lina said, "If someone killed me I'd be mad too! And you can bet I'd come back as a ghost to haunt them. But first I'd make sure I got the right person."
"You think I wouldn't know my own son?" Guloisa shot back.
"What makes you so sure it was Gourry?" Lina replied as several ambassadors, as well as the Eternal Queen, appeared at the door to see what the commotion was about. "Take me through what happened."
"I was woken by the sound of someone throwing rocks at my window. When I went to check I saw Gourry standing on the grounds."
"What time was it?" Lina asked.
"Ten past two."
The ambassadors started murmuring to each other, and Lina glanced at the water clock in Gourry's room. It was only two twenty. The Eternal Queen had said that she'd taken Guloisa to the small village near Maninstit, but it took about thirty minutes to walk to it. Simply put there was no way Gourry could have been at two places at once. "It's two twenty now." Lina said.
"He made real good time then!" Guloisa screamed as the room grew colder and more menacing. One of the ambassadors screamed.
"Okay, fine, what happened after you saw someone who looked like him on the grounds?" Lina said.
"I started to follow him. And he wouldn't answer me! That was so rude of him! And then, when we got to the outskirts of town, he grabbed his sword and cut me down!"
"Are you sure it wasn't someone who altered their appearance to look like Gourry?" Lina asked as Zelgadis came in with Susan and Marcus. "Did you notice anything strange about him?"
"He wasn't speaking to me."
"And could that be because whoever it was couldn't imitate Gourry's voice?" Lina asked.
"Who would do that?" Guloisa asked, and then as the children started chanting a spell she screamed as she rushed towards them, "Don't you dare attempt to seal me away!"
Susan yelped as she stopepd chanting while the color drained from Marcus' face as the ghost moved through them, and into the ambassadors behind them, who all shivered as though a bucket of ice had been dumped on them. Guloisa laughed as her disembodied voice mocked, "Is that the best you can do? Is this the best this pathetic little school has to offer?"
"They're kids," Gourry said as Guloisa continued to laugh.
Marcus ran up to Gourry, "We need a lock of your hair."
Gourry didn't question the odd request. He grabbed a fistful from the lower part of his head where it wouldn't be very visible and cut it off and handed it to Marcus, just as a breeze started to move through the room. Marcus nodded as he ran back to Susan, and together they started chanting. Gourry's hair started to glow like freshly spun hay, and then tendrils of light started to spread from it. People started exclaiming in shock as Guloisa started screaming in protest. But soon the tendrils locked on to her and pulled her into view as they wrapped around her tightly.
"Where should we keep her?" Susan asked, obviously straining to keep their otherworldly visitor under control.
"The room she was staying in is still empty." Lina said.
"You can't hold me here forever!" Guloisa yelled in protest.
Zelgadis, meanwhile, said, "Follow me, I'll show you where the room is."
Susan and Marcus pulled, and gradually they were able to move Guloisa's begrudging spirit out of the room and into the hallway. The room warmed up as she left and they got further away. A few ambassadors left to watch, but several stayed as they looked at the scene in Gourry's room in shock.
Lina took a deep breath as she leaned against the pillows as clutched her stomach. Was she finally feeling the baby move, or was it just butterflies in her stomach? She glanced at Amelia and Sylphiel and saw that Sylphiel was stirring. She was fairly sure that Susan and Marcus would be able to seal her into her room. They'd been able to do it with the Sad Lady, after all. Morbidly Lina wondered if Maninstit would become a home for the spirits of the deceased.
"What happened?" the Eternal Queen asked.
"My best guess? Xellos attempted to kill Sylphiel." Lina explained.
"Xellos!?" Leia exclaimed.
"Yes. Gourry and I saw him when we were running from Guloisa and caught him in the act. Here's the thing I want everyone in this room to remember. Xellos could have easily killed Sylphiel with his powers, but he ran her through with a sword. Why would he do that unless he was attempting to frame Gourry?" Lina said as Gourry stared awkwardly at the floor, as if unsure how to react.
"But why kill Sylphiel?" one of the ambassadors asked.
"Sylphiel, I would say, was in the wrong place at the wrong time. I may be going out on a limb, but I would bet you anything that Xellos killed the Baroness but wanted it to look as though Gourry had. He probably wanted to plant evidence of the crime in Gourry's room. Gourry never uses this room at night and he had every reason to expect it to be empty. Sylphiel was staying here to keep a close eye on me in case I ran into anymore complications, though, so he was likely startled when he found her here and attempted to kill her as well." Lina explained as she rubbed her stomach, which wasn't settling down. What if no one believed her? "As for why he would want to kill the Baroness, I can think of several reasons, none of them good."
People started murmuring again as Sylphiel sat up. "Is it true that Xellos attacked you?" one of the ambassadors asked.
"It was a man I'd never seen before." Sylphiel said as she put her hands to her temples, "Black, chin length hair. From the bloodlust he generated I don't think he was human."
"That's Xellos." Lina confirmed.
"Come," the Eternal Queen said as she turned towards the ambassadors, "Let's go downstairs for drinks. Sir Gourry has suffered a horrible shock, and Dame Lina needs her rest, and Ambassador Lahda needs to recover from her ordeal."
"Right." Several people murmured.
"I'm going down with them to see what the vibe is." Han whispered to Leia as she nodded.
"I'll make sure everyone here gets settled in." Leia replied, and then she turned to her daughter, "And let's get you back to your own bed so Sylphiel can rest more comfortably."
"Right." Gourry said mechanically as he lifted Lina up. Under different circumstances she might have given him a hard time over treating her like an invalid. But given the expression on his face, it was obvious that silence was the best thing for the moment.
"How are you feeling?" Lina asked Gourry as he stared out the window leading out to the balcony.
"I don't even know." He said as he squinted. "Someone is coming."
"Who?" Lina asked as Leia came over to look.
"Looks like an official sort." Gourry said. "Probably here to have my hide."
"There's a house full of people who saw you here tonight!" Lina shot back. "They can't have you."
He walked towards her and gently kissed her. "I'll handle it. Don't worry, just take care of yourself."
He put a hand on her stomach, and for the first time, Lina resented being pregnant. Stay in bed for three days. It should have been so easy. But then, when in her life had she gone three straight days without an emergency? She hated having to stay put and let other people do the work! "Bring me down with you." She demanded.
"Well, damned if I can see a thing out there, but I'll take your word for it." Leia said as she sat on the bed and put an arm around Lina, "Gourry, go and find the Eternal Queen and follow her lead. Lina, don't force me to sit on you. Stay put and rest up, no one is taking Gourry away."
Gourry nodded, "I'll be back." He said.
Lina watched him leave pensively, and as the door closed behind him Leia said, "Look, your quick, logic thinking has already helped him so much. The Eternal Queen will be able to put that to good use. And if it helps, you can yell at me for keeping you up here."
Lina sighed, and leaned her head against her shoulder, "I guess there are times where it is good to have people around to shoulder the burden. This still sucks."
Gourry could barely feel anything, other than an intense desire to sleep, as he walked to the foyer. The man he had seen earlier was knocking and, since Jeeves still refused to stay overnight, the ambassadors and the Eternal Queen as well as Zel, Amelia and Han, had come out to see who was there. Gourry took a deep breath, and tried to work up some energy as he joined the crowd. Somehow he would have to get through this confrontation.
The doors opened and Kara and Bruce, who had guard duty that night, came in, obviously surprised by the crowd already gathered in the foyer. "Good evening." The Eternal Queen said as Gourry stood beside her. "Welcome, Constable Finley."
"Your Majesty." The Constable said, "I hate to bother you so late, but I'm here on a very serious matter. There was a murder in the village earlier."
"We are aware. The ghost of the victim has already visited this manor to inform us of the circumstances of her death."
"Ghost?" The Constable said as the color drained from his face, "There's a ghost here?"
"Two ghosts, but they are both contained in certain rooms of the house and will not bother us, unless you would like to interrogate Ambassador Gabriev."
"If anyone else knew the name of a recently murdered woman before I came to discuss it with them, I would be mighty suspicious. I suppose you know who murdered her."
"I do, though I have come to a different conclusion you have, as you are here under a case of mistaken identity." The Eternal Queen said, "Which I shall prove if you follow me to the parlor."
"There's nothing mistaken about it. Sir Gourry was seen by the whole village." Constable Finley said even as he moved with her, and the others followed.
"In this world of magic, Mazoku and demons, is it so hard to believe that there are creatures who can assume the appearance of an innocent man to do a horrible deed?" The Eternal Queen countered. "Multiple witnesses saw Sir Gourry here at the same time that you allegedly saw him in your village. Ambassador Gabriev did create quite a stir with her appearance. And I will prove it."
"How do you propose to prove that?"
"A man can't be in two places at once, can he?" The Eternal Queen said as they entered the parlor.
"No, I suppose not."
"Kara, could you grab some parchment and tear it apart so everyone gets a piece, as well as some quills?"
"Right, your majesty." Kara said, and she rushed to the school room.
"Everyone who was at Maninstit will write down the time that they saw Sir Gourry here. Once that is done, Constable, you will write the time that Baroness Guloisa was murdered. And we will compare them. For the record, how far is the village from Maninstit?"
"Thirty minutes." The Constable said. "Though someone running could probably make it in fifteen. And with all of the magic users here…"
"He wouldn't be able to get here much faster than fifteen minutes." Zelgadis said.
"Right," the Constable said as Kara returned and started handing out the parchment. The ambassadors started writing on it, and when they were done everyone looked at the Constable expectantly, who wrote down his own time.
"Let's see what we have, then." The Eternal Queen said. "I have two twenty."
Several ambassadors murmured in agreement with two twenty as the Constable shook his head, "But he was seen in the village at two fifteen!"
"Or something who resembled him." The Eternal Queen said. "I think we can all agree that it would have been impossible for Sir Gourry to have traveled here from the village in five minutes, and to have cleaned himself of the blood that would have resulted in such a horrible deed. Kara and Bruce, did you see anyone leave or come in before Constable Finley tonight?"
"No, your majesty. It was quiet."
"Sir Gourry's wife, who is currently indisposed, also insists that he was with her all night and never left her side. Considering she is with child and nearly lost the baby I have a hard time imagining that Sir Gourry would want to be far from her in case further complications resulted." The Eternal Queen said.
The constable took off his hat and scratched his bald head, "OK, you've convinced me that Sir Gourry was here tonight. But if he didn't do it, who did?"
"Shortly before two twenty an ambassador who was staying here was attacked by a Mazoku named Xellos. Unlike humans, Mazoku can teleport between two places nearly instantaneously. Xellos would have had no reason to attack Ambassador Lahda, unless she'd caught him planting evidence to incriminate Sir Gourry."
"That sounds preposterous!" Constable Finley exclaimed.
"She is currently recovering from the ordeal she suffered tonight, but I will bring you up to talk to her about the attack she suffered tonight."
Constable Finley looked at the Eternal Queen warily, "I won't see the ghost, will I?"
The Eternal Queen smiled, "You have my assurance."
"Fine."
"In the meantime, based on the fact that several witnesses can vouch for Sir Gourry's presence here near the time of the murder at a location at best fifteen minutes away, can we conclude that you have no reason to hold him?"
Constable Finley sighed, "No. But I don't know what justice there will be if the culprit was a Mazoku." What he said next actually pierced the shock that Gourry was feeling as a tendril of dread wrapped around his heart, "But I don't know how you'll ever convince the Elmekians that this wasn't an assassination and avoid a war!"
The Eternal Queen smiled sadly, "One thing at a time, Constable. One thing at a time."