I don't own The Slayers.  I do own Varrie, Darick, and Master Garneon.  Please review!

The Next Morning

The next morning, at the Red Rose Inn around 7:30 am we see the slayers group sans Lina at a table already piled with food (and coffee mugs).  Gourry and Amelia where happily stuffing their faces full of the R/R Inns delicious breakfast, well Zelgadis had all ready downed his fifth cup of coffee.  It was only when Amelia looked up to pick up another plate of breakfast that her eyes fell on the still empty chair.  "Hmm I wonder where Miss Lina is?"  She wondered out loud.

It was then that Zelgadis noticed the rare quite around the table.  With no Lina there was no food fights, course this didn't prevent Gourry from picking off of Amelia's plate when she wasn't looking.  The peace and quite in the morning was nice but still…  "I haven't seen her which is odd because she's usually the first one here stuffing her face.  You'd better go see if she's up yet Amelia."

"I guess so," she got up from the table and walked to the stairs.  As she went up the stairs to the rooms she wondered why Lina was sleeping so late.  "She's probably just starting to relax a little, that's all."  She smiled to herself as she opened the door to Lina's room.  "Miss Lina?  Are you up yet?  Your breakfast is getting cold."  When no answer came she stepped inside the room.  The room was empty except for Lina's cape. 

In a panic she ran down stairs and made straight for her friends.  "Miss Lina's gone!" She blurted out.

The Innkeeper who had been talking to a man dressed entirely in dark blue and red.  But upon hearing the out burst both men had walked quickly over to the strange groups table.  "What's wrong Miss?"  Asked the Innkeeper.

"A friend of ours is missing!"  Cried Amelia as Gourry attempted to cheer her up by telling her that Lina was probably fine.

"Lina, is she the one with red hair that eats twice her weight in food?"  Asked the Innkeeper.

"Why yes that's her exactly."  Said Amelia.

The Innkeeper turned to the man in blue and red and said.  "She was talking to Varrie last night, and they left the Inn together."

"Thank you Innkeeper."  The man said before he turned to the little group around the table.  "I need to talk to you, in a quite place.  Do you still have rooms here?"  He asked.

"Yes we do."  Answered Zelgadis.

"Good let's talk in one of them."  He said.

"Alright we'll talk in my room." He turned towards Gourry and Amelia and said.  "lets go!"  Together with Zelgadis leading the way the group walked up the stairs to one room.  When they were all in the room with the door closed Zelgadis looked at the man.  He was maybe thirty years old and had a very serious expression on his face.  He was wearing blue boots with red, loose blue pants with a red belt and a white shirt. The strange things was that the red was a deep crimson in color and the blue was also dark.

The man looked straight into each of their faces in turn and studied them for a time and finally said.  "Hello Zelgadis Greywords, Gourry Gabriev.  I am sorry but I do not know you Miss."

"Umm… I'm Amelia Wil Telsa Seyruun."  Amelia answered the man and then asked him, "But who are you?"

Gourry looked at the up at the man and said, "Hello Master Garneon, long time no see."  He greeted the man like and old friend.  "How did you know Zel any way?"

Master Garneon shock his head and chuckled, still the same old Gourry,  "Well Gourry he is a Red Flame."

Gourry looked at Zelgadis, like he had grown anther head.  "Really?  Hey Zel why didn't you tell me?"

Zelgadis looked at Garneon then at Gourry then at Garneon.  "…"  Was all he could think of to say.

Garneon laughed and said, "I make it my business to know all of the Flame clan.  In fact I trained Gourry myself, he's now a blue."

"Gourry's a Blue Flame?"  He looked at Gourry and asked, "When did you start training?"

"Well Lets see…" He stopped to think about it for a second which quickly turned into a minuet

"Well if I remember, Gourry was around eight years old when he started training with me."  Once that was said the blond swords man stopped trying to think and paid attention to his old teacher.  "But enough small talk.  What can you remember about your waitress yesterday?"

"I remember that her uniform had light purple trim, and her hair was caught up in a clasp that looked like and open fire but had a small blue jewel on the bottom of it."  He thought a little harder and continued.  "And her manner was wrong for a waitress.  But above all she looked very familiar was she a Blue Flame?  A new Blue perhaps?"

"Yes, she was a new Blue and was very proud of herself.  Something has happened to her, the innkeeper saw her talking to your friend and then they left together."  He stopped when he saw the accusing looks from Amelia.  "No princess, your wrong!  She would never hurt any one in less they attacked her first."

"Who is she besides a Blue Flame?  And why is she so important to you?"  Asked Amelia.

"Amelia it doesn't matter who she is in our clan we help each other, we can't turn our backs on one of our own."  Gourry told her. 

"But I would still like to know who it is."  Zelgadis said gently.

"Her name is Varrielle, I was training her."  Garneon told them, he was about to say more when Gourry interrupted him.

"Varrielle, as in Varrie?  Little Varrie?  She made it up to blue!  And what about Darick?  Is he a Blue too?"  Gourry asked excitedly.  Then doing a 180. as only he as only he truly could he turned deadly serious.  "Why do you think something happened to her?"

Garneon looked very proud of his old pupil, it appeared that Gourry had not lost his edge.  But as he spoke his face changed too, "As you both know, it's the policy of Flame trainees to report in twice daily."  He paused, "Once in the morning and once at night.  They weren't hard for Varrie to do because she lived in the Espouse, (that's the country that their in.) clan home.  As you now know Varrie worked as a waitress here.  When she failed to come home last night we were all a little worried, but…"  His voice trailed off and he sighed before he continued.  "She's fifteen years old now, and as a Blue she could take care of herself.  But when she didn't show up and check in this morning, well we came here."

Gourry, Amelia and Zelgadis nodded their heads silently because all of this made perfect sense.  Even Zelgadis felt sympathy for the older man.  But the silence stretched on, for a few more minuets to become uncomfortable.  Eventually it was Amelia who broke the silence by saying, "Who's Darick, and would he know where Varrielle is?"

"Darick is Varrie's brother, Amelia." Gourry answered her question.  "That reminds me How is Darick handling this?"  He paused waiting for a response, when none came he went on.  "What, you mean he doesn't know?  No one told him?"  He demanded.

"We have no idea if he knows or not.  And if he knows then he's probably responsible for this."  Snorted the old trainer.  "It was about a year and a half ago, before Varrie became a Blue that it all happened.  Darick, became a rogue Blue, a renegade if you will a few weeks latter He betrayed Flame to join the Shadow clan."

"He couldn't have!  He was a Blue Flame and he knew his sister would be…" He trailed off knowing what it sounded like.  "No he loved his sister, to much to hurt her.  And he would never want to betray Flame, his mother was a Flame and not to mention his father."

"Then what happened to Lina and Varrielle?"  Asked Amelia before there was any chance for an uncomfortable silence to form.

"Varrie, she liked to be called Varrie and we don't know we just know that where ever they are their together and probably in trouble!"  Garneon stated, "Varrie had a way of attracting trouble, she and Lina Inverse would have been good friends in other circumstances." 

He chuckled to himself for a second then seemed to brace himself before saying.  "There is one clue, this morning when we did an area sweep for Varrie we found an area where a fight had taken place.  Flame has keep every one else out and I went to talk to the Innkeeper.  I would like all of you to come down and check out the area with me!"