After staying up all night, lessons were even worse than usual. Zelgadis nearly fell asleep during his history studies, and he didn't even try when it came to learning new spells. Come nightfall, Zelgadis was wiped out. Again, he went to his room and flopped onto his bed. He grabbed his blanket, and tucked it up around his shoulders before falling asleep.

It seemed only minutes before he was being shaken awake. "Zel? Zel?" someone asked.

Zelgadis opened his eyes, and knew that whoever it was, was standing behind him. They'd called him Zel. Maybe it was Zolf or Rodimus? Zelgadis sat up, and turned to face them. When he saw who it was, he stared, a foolish grin on his face.

It was Jemmy.

Zelgadis smiled, and stood up. "Jemmy, what--"

"Who are you?" Jemmy asked, backing up slowly. "Where's Zel? Please don't hurt me!"

"Jemmy, what are you talking about?" Zelgadis asked. Then he stopped, and realized that Jemmy had never seen him as a chimera. She didn't recognize him. "Jemmy, it's me, Zel."

"But... But..." Jemmy stammered. "Zel?"

Zelgadis nodded, and quickly told her what happened that day in the woods. He couldn't tell, but Jemmy was actually staying as far away from him as it was possible to be, and still look normal.

"Well, actually, Zel," Jemmy said. "I-- I came here to tell you that I think... I think we should stop..."

Zelgadis stared at her in confusion. "Stop? Stop what?"

"Seeing each other," Jemmy told him.

"Why?" Zelgadis asked. He put so much sadness into that one word that Jemmy had to turn away and brush a tear from her eye.

"It's just..." Jemmy said, struggling for an answer.

Suddenly, Zelgadis understood. "I get it," he told her. "It's the way I am now, isn't it? You're afraid of me, now, a chimera. That's it, isn't it?"

When Jemmy didn't deny it, Zelgadis shouted, "I didn't ask to be like this! It's not my fault!"

"I'm sorry, Zel," Jemmy said quietly.

Zelgadis turned away, and said, "Fine. Go. Leave. I don't care." That was all lies. He did care. He cared about Jemmy. He didn't want her to leave.

"Zel, I--"

"Leave!" Zelgadis shouted. "You don't want to see me anymore, so just leave! You'll never have to look at me again!"

There was a moment of silence, and then Jemmy turned away and climbed back down the trellis outside the window.

Zelgadis clenched his fists, and for the first time in years, he cried. He felt hot tears stream down his cheeks. He realized that it was because of his body now that Jemmy left. With a sharp shove into reality, he knew he was a freak-- a monster. He couldn't be accepted by anyone because of the way he looked. They'd never try to know him, they'd avoid him. True, Zolf and Rodimus had been okay with it, but they had stared openly when they first saw him. From then on, everyone would be constantly staring at him.

There must be a way to reverse it! Rezo was the one who changed him, and so he could undo it. He didn't care if he wasn't strong. What was the point of strength if there was no one to protect with that strength?

Angrily, Zelgadis forced himself to stop crying. He couldn't go soft now. He had to confront Rezo. Zelgadis stalked out of his room, and through the mansion. He went to the resting room where Rezo usually was, and found the red priest sitting before the fire. "Rezo," he said, coming into the room. "Rezo, I want this undone. I don't want to be strong anymore, I just want to be human."

"I told you, Zelgadis, that you would have to live with the consequences," Rezo said. "You were greedy for strength, and I gave it to you. This form is the consequence of your greed. Live with it."

Zelgadis gritted his teeth and locked his jaw to keep from doing something foolish. He instead stormed out of the resting room and back up to his own bedroom. So Rezo wouldn't undo it. That didn't mean there wasn't a way. He'd read in his studies that many long-term spells went away if the caster died. He'd just have to kill Rezo. It didn't matter if he was family or not, he'd have to die. But how would he kill Rezo, the Red Priest, one of the wise men of the age? It'd take more than a simple spell to do it.

Slowly, Zelgadis drifted off to sleep, trying to think of how he could kill that cursed priest.