Amelia sighed as she turned a page. These legal texts were as dry as dust. They even smelled dusty. Thanks to her education as a future ruler, she could at least understand what she was reading, but that did not make it enjoyable.
She had finished her guard duty at noon and then gone straight to Sairaag's civic library to look up marriage laws. Surprisingly, it was quite a large library. Apparently, more texts than people had survived Sairaag's destructions.
She skimmed through a few more pages and then slammed the book shut. After half a day of mind-numbing work, she still hadn't found anything that clarified her marital situation at all. She was almost ready to give up.
No, she scolded herself. You can do this. If you keep justice in your heart and never give up, you will always succeed. Sooner or later.
Maybe books weren't the best way to reach her goal, though. It would be a lot easier to find out the information she needed by asking a real person, if she could find one who knew the answer. She gathered up all her books and headed back to reshelve them.
Just as she pushed the fourth thick volume back into its place, a fight broke out a few shelves away.
"No, I will not explain it again, Jellyfish-brains! Next time listen when I'm talking to you," a high-pitched voice shrieked. There was a sound like a heavy object (say, a body) slamming into another heavy object (say, a bookcase).
Amelia peered around the end of her shelf in time to see a cascade of books tumble off the bookcase three rows down and one row over from her. She muttered to herself, "That sounded just like..."
"Liiinaa," a man's voice whined, "you didn't have to hit me so hard. I was just asking."
Amelia peeked around the edge of the recently denuded bookshelf. Gourry's head and one arm were sticking out from under a pile of books in the center of the aisle. He was using the arm to rub a lump on his head. Lina was standing over him, a book raised in one angry hand.
Then Lina caught sight of a certain dark-haired young princess standing at the end of the aisle and forgot all about the argument. "Amelia?" Lina said incredulously.
"Lina-san!" Amelia jumped over the collapsed man and books and straight into Lina's arms. "It's so good to see you! What are you doing here?"
"That's what I should be asking you. I thought you were still in Seyruun."
"I joined Zelgadis-san in his quest for a cure. We visited a transformation spring and a healing spring, but neither one helped him although the transformation spring turned him into such a cute little bunny! Then we found a whole forest full of chimeras and beastmen. They treated us with unjust cruelty but Zelgadis-san wouldn't let me punish them. Then a sorcerer tried to dissect Zelgadis-san and turn me into a chimera and Zelgadis-san helped me punish him. Now we're travelling with a caravan. Hal -- the caravan master -- hired us as guards."
"Whoa, slow down. Now tell me the story again, in order this time."
"First tell me what you've been doing. Are you off to save the world again?"
"No. Gourry and I were just in the area so we decided to visit Sairaag. I wanted to see the magical texts they've been digging out of the ruins. Gourry here kept talking about Slyphiel's cooking." Gourry had finally managed to dig himself out from under the books. Now Lina's hearty slap on the shoulder sent him tumbling down again.
"Hello, Amelia," Gourry grinned, finally managing to get a toehold in the conversation.
"Hello, Gourry-san," Amelia smiled back.
Lina frowned thoughtfully. "We heard that there was a big gang of tougher-than-usual bandits just north of Sairaag, but when we got here someone else had already got rid of them. The funny thing is that whoever it was didn't take any of their treasure. I can't figure it out."
"Oh, those bandits," Amelia said. Lina eyed her suspiciously. "Zelgadis-san and I took care of them a few days ago after they attacked our caravan. That's where I got these magic amplifiers." She proudly held her wrist up for inspection.
"..." was all Lina could manage to say.
"The leader had made a deal with a mazoku." Amelia scowled cutely. "Fortunately, it wasn't a very powerful one."
"A mazoku?" Gourry repeated.
"Let's go get some dinner and exchange stories." Lina suggested. "Reunions are even more fun when you have food to go with them."
"Dinner?" Amelia repeated. "Oh no! What time is it?" She looked around wildly until she spotted a clock. It was five minutes to six o' clock.
"I'm sorry. I have to go or I'll be late!" Amelia started to run towards the end of the aisle.
"Go where? Late for what?" Lina asked in confusion.
"Dinner. I'd invite you to come along but it's one of those places where you have order a day ahead because the food takes so long to prepare. There wouldn't be enough food for all four of us. See you later!" and Amelia was gone.
Lina and Gourry exchanged thoughtful looks.
"Amelia sure rushed off fast," Gourry said.
"She's definitely hiding something," Lina agreed.
"She said something about dinner, right?"
"Food that takes a day to prepare."
They exchanged another look. Then, by common consent, they ran after Amelia. "Surely they can spare us a few bites. After all, we are old friends," Lina called out unnecessarily. Gourry was right at her heels.
Amelia landed outside the restaurant. She had cast Raywing as soon as she was outside the library in order to get here on time. Zelgadis was already waiting.
"I just met Lina-san and Gourry-san at the library!" Amelia exclaimed.
Zelgadis' eyes widened in surprise and pleasure. Then he looked around suspiciously, fearful for his dinner. "They didn't follow you did they?"
"I don't think so. I left the library from the door in the opposite direction from the restaurant just in case. It seems a bit cold to deceive them like that, but if they came here the restaurant might never recover."
"That was wise. This is a good restaurant."
They walked in and were seated at a table near the window. A waiter brought in their meal on a cart. One advantage to ordering a day in advance was that they didn't have to wait for their food. Zelgadis and Amelia happily inhaled the delicious aromas as the waiter arranged the dishes elegantly in the center of the table. As soon as he was gone, they wasted no time in transferring the food from the serving dishes to their plates and from their plates to their stomachs.
"Did you find anything today?" Zelgadis asked, neatly buttering a roll.
Amelia ladled some soup into her bowl. "No. I think I'll have to ask an expert on marriage laws and customs. Do you know where I might find one?"
"I haven't got a clue. Did you ask the librarians?"
"I was about to when I saw Lina-san."
Lina and Gourry finally tracked Amelia down more by an instinct for finding restaurants than by actually tracking Amelia.
"Mmm, what delicious smells," Lina breathed, almost lifted off the ground by the tantalizing aromas. She drifted closer to the restaurant.
"Hey, isn't that Amelia in there?" Gourry asked.
Lina snapped out of her food-induced trance. She peered in the window. "Yeah, you're right, but who is that with her?" To her surprise, both the heads bent over the food were dark. "I assumed she would be with Zel, but I guess she didn't actually say that. Maybe we shouldn't interrupt them. It might be a romantic dinner."
Her scruples, allied with her uneasiness at the thought of romance, battled with her stomach. Then curiosity joined in the fight and scruples were left moaning by the wayside as Lina dragged Gourry with her into the restaurant and over to Amelia's table.
"Hey, Amelia, does Zelgadis know that you eat dinner with good looking young men when he's not around?" Lina teased.
Amelia glanced over at her companion in confusion. "Uh, yes?" she said uncertainly.
The young man, who really was very good looking, glanced up at Lina and Gourry with great amusement and some self-consciousness. "Don't you recognize me?" he asked.
They recognized his voice. "Zel?" "Zelgadis!" they exclaimed together, "You're cured!"
"Amelia," Lina added in a dangerous tone of voice, "is there anything else you forgot to mention?"
Amelia twisted her gloved hands together nervously in her lap. "Um..."
Fortunately, she was saved from having to answer when Gourry grabbed a veal cutlet from Zelgadis' plate.
"Hey, that's my dinner!" Zelgadis protested.
"Surely you can spare a few bites for your poor, hungry friends." Lina seized a stuffed roll.
"No!" Amelia said. "I told you, Lina-san. We only ordered enough food for two. It's unjust to barge in and steal people's dinners!"
It was too late. It would take little short of a Mega Brando to dislodge Lina and Gourry from the food now.
"At least leave some for me!" Amelia cried, diving into the fray.
Zelgadis watched in horror as his serene and appetizing dinner turned into a disgusting battle over who could stuff food down her throat the fastest. If he didn't do something quickly, Lina would consume all of the best order of veal cutlets he had ever tasted. No. Not this time. Zelgadis grabbed a fork and started shoveling veal into his mouth.
Zelgadis dragged the other three out of the restaurant before the waiter could bring dessert, mouthing "Lina Inverse" to the surprised owner. The owner took a better look at the orange-haired girl his customer was pointing to and nodded his gratitude. Fortunately, Lina missed the exchange. She was too busy whining about being dragged away before she was full.
"I swear that we can't get any more food here," Zelgadis said for the seventh time, "but there's a restaurant just across the street with much faster service."
The new restaurant turned out to be quite different from the one they had just left. It was the sort of tavern where the walls and ceiling are blackened from generations of smoke and the plain, folksy customers sit on long wooden benches worn shiny with use. This particular tavern was only a year old and therefore lacked the proper patina of age, but it tried to maintain the right atmosphere anyway. Lina didn't bother to shout over the crowd-noise. She just pointed to a relatively empty spot at the end of one of the tables.
A waitress dumped a heaping platter of roast beef and four mugs of cider in front of the adventurers as soon as they sat down, which put Lina into a much better mood. She and Gourry quickly dug in. Zelgadis and Amelia just exchanged a look of amusement and complete mutual sympathy, and left the meat to their hungrier friends. After all, they had just eaten three and a half courses of a five course dinner.
Zelgadis winced as a fork whooshed past his ear fast enough to create a breeze. The two gluttons had already managed to consume half of the meat on the platter. He rolled his eyes and looked away from their flagrant lack of table manners. Amelia was watching the food fight with an appreciative grin. Zelgadis smiled faintly in return. The moment was so familiar that it felt like coming home.
When had he started to think of these people as friends and not merely nuisances that Fate kept throwing in his path? Even while doing something as simple as eating dinner, Lina blazed with life and personality. She was so much tougher than her youth and slight build suggested, yet, for all her world-wise attitude, her heart was surprisingly vulnerable. Then there was Gourry, the water to Lina's fire. He was wise, patient, chivalrous and kind, but so unassuming that his nobility never caused irritation (unlike his lack of intelligence and tact). Last but not least, Amelia: simple on the surface but so much stronger and deeper than he would ever have guessed from his first impression. When had these people become so precious to him?
What would he be doing now if Lina hadn't picked just the wrong moment to attack the Dragon Fang Bandits? Well, he would be dead and the world would be in the middle of another Mazoku War. Leaving aside Shabranigdo's resurrection, what would he be doing now if his life had continued in the path of three years ago? He would still be doing shameful things for a man he loathed. He would still be searching for a cure that remained as far out of reach as ever. Instead of Lina, Gourry and Amelia, he would be sitting with Zolf and Rodimus, and maybe even Dilgear. Zolf and Rodimus had been truer friends than he deserved, but they had been minions. He hadn't realized how deep friendship could run until Lina had dragged him along on her search for the Clair Bible (or rather, tagged along on his search). Zel owed her a debt of gratitude he could never repay for repeatedly stumbling into his life and refusing to get back out again.
"So, how did you manage to find your cure, Zel?" Lina asked around a mouthful of meat.
Startled out of his thoughts, Zelgadis looked up. The platter was empty except for a few small, reddish puddles. Lina washed down her last mouthful of beef with a huge gulp of cider and sighed noisily in contentment.
"We went to the temple where we first met Gaav. We used a chimea unmaking spell I had created amplified by the power of the Clair Bible," Zel answered.
"I cast the spell!" Amelia exclaimed proudly. "I had to pull the golem and demon out of his body. It was really hard but Auntie Aqua helped me."
Lina looked impressed. "What are you two doing now? Any new quests?"
Both the questionees shook their heads. Zelgadis explained, "We're just on our way back to Seyruun. What about you? Have you found any new villains trying to destroy the world?"
Lina shook her head. "Nah. We're just wandering around in search of treasure and good meals as usual. I thought we'd find both here but you already took care of the bandits and Slyphiel doesn't seem to be in the city." She sighed.
"You don't have any quest at all?" Amelia asked disbelievingly. "But you're always on some kind of quest when we meet up unexpectedly. Then you somehow manage to drag me into it and we end up saving the world."
"Yeah, I know," Lina answered. "Are you sure you guys don't have any mission at all? Some ancient and powerful relic to find? Some monster to get rid of?"
"No, my only mission is to take Amelia back to Seyruun before her father gets worried enough to come looking for her," Zelgadis answered.
"Daddy knows I can take care of myself," Amelia pouted, sending a reproachful glare at Zelgadis. "He'll understand if I have to go on another important quest."
"So far, we have no important quests to go on," the dark haired young man retorted.
"Maybe something will happen while we're here," Gourry suggested.
"This is Sairaag," Lina agreed.
Everyone fell silent as memories of past battles flooded their minds.
"Waitress, can we have some more roast beef?" Gourry called. Everyone else snapped back to the present.
"What are you planning to do while you're in Sairaag?" Zelgadis asked Lina, sipping his cider.
"I don't know. Look through that library some more. Find out whether there are any good magic shops in the city." Lina shrugged.
"I'd like to see the ruins," Amelia said.
"Great idea!" Lina agreed enthusiastically. "I hear they're digging up some great stuff. You never know what we might find."
"That isn't what I meant," Amelia muttered rebelliously. She couldn't explain even to herself exactly why she wanted to visit the ruins, but it wasn't treasure hunting. She had seen so much destruction here, so many deaths. It just wouldn't feel right to leave the city without facing those old ghosts.
"That could be interesting," Zelgadis was agreeing.
"Gourry, what do you think?" Lina prodded her partner.
"Hmm? I wasn't paying attention."
Lina elbowed him in the head. "Well pay attention! I was asking whether you'd like to look at the ruins tomorrow."
"Sure," Gourry said amiably.
Then Lina noticed what had distracted Gourry. The waitress wove her way around the end of the table and gratefully dropped the huge platter of meat in between Gourry and Lina. There were two forks embedded in it before it hit the table.
Zelgadis drained the last of his cider and stood up. "I'm heading back to the caravan. See you tomorrow."
Amelia looked from Lina to Gourry to the plate of meat and made a rough mental estimate of how much worthwhile conversation was likely to occur in the next hour. "I'll come with you," she called out to Zelgadis.
As soon as they were outside, Zel grabbed Amelia's hand and pulled her toward the far side of the street.
"Wait, isn't the caravan in the other direction?" Amelia protested.
Zel looked back with a conspiratorial gleam in his eye. "We never got our dessert."
"There's nothing here."
"Be patient. We've only been digging here for half an hour. It takes time to find anything. It would take less time, by the way, if you helped more." Gourry shoved a sweat-soaked lock of blonde hair out of his eyes.
"I'm telling you, I really don't think we're going to find anything here."
"Lina-san is right," Amelia said, leaning on her shovel. "There have been lots of people digging in this area already. They've probably found everything important already."
"Then where do you suggest we dig?" Zelgadis inquired sarcastically.
Lina turned around slowly in a full circle, surveying the land. "This way," she said and set off in a direction almost, but not quite, in the opposite direction from the living city. The others shrugged, picked up their shovels, and followed her.
"Here," Lina declared.
"Why here?" Gourry protested.
"My woman's intuition says there's something here, and it's never wrong."
Zelgadis rolled his eyes, but kept his mouth shut when Lina glared at him challengingly.
"Dig," Lina ordered, jumping on the top of her shovel's blade to force it through the thick layer of weeds.
Gourry enthusiastically set to work clearing the ground. Zelgadis moved to his own patch of weeds a few feet away, sighed, and started digging.
"Wow, I can't get used to the new Zel!" Lina confided to the one friend still in reach.
Amelia agreed. "Even after so many weeks, I'm still surprised sometimes that he's not blue."
Lina leaned on her shovel and stared thoughtfully at the young man under discussion. "It's more than just his looks."
Amelia considered that as she forced her shovel into the dirt. "He smiles more. I've even seen him laugh! I guess he really was unhappy about being a chimera."
"No, really?" Lina replied sarcastically. Then she turned her mockery on another target. "Zelgadis Greywords smiling and laughing; what a thought! In all the time I've known him, I've seen him laugh exactly once." She held up one finger for emphasis.
Amelia stared at her. "You saw him laugh when he was still a chimera? When?"
"Way back. Before your time."
"Oh." Amelia frowned down at her shovelful of dirt as she dumped it beside the hole.
Lina tried to break though some particularly tough roots by stabbing them repeatedly with her shovel blade. It didn't work very well. "Nice outfit, by the way," Lina commented.
Amelia's face lit up. "Do you really like it? I wanted something more like my old costume, but this was the only good quality white tunic in my size I could find."
"It looks good. I especially like those amplifier gems."
"Zelgadis-san found them. They are pretty, aren't they?"
"Have you tried them out yet?"
"Not really. I only got them the day before yesterday."
"They look powerful."
"I hope so. Yours are much more powerful though."
"They should be considering how much I paid for them."
"I like mine. They're better suited to white magic."
"Lina, you picked this spot. The least you can do is help with the digging," Zelgadis called irritably.
The two girls quickly sprang back to work.
"Can't you guys dig any faster? We haven't got all day, you know," Lina said for the fifth time in the last hour. The other three glared at her.
"Dimilar Wind," Zelgadis and Amelia responded simultaneously, pointing to the ground near Lina's feet. A spectacular fountain of dirt shot into the air. When it settled, the depth of the hole had more than doubled, and Lina was brown from head to foot.
Amelia put both hands over her mouth. "Oops."
Zelgadis picked a piece of sod out of his hair and burst out laughing.
Lina, who had opened her mouth to yell at them, left it hanging open. "You were right Amelia. He does laugh now," she said at last.
"Come to think of it, I never have heard him laugh before," Gourry commented.
"The first time I heard him laugh was right after he became human again," Amelia said, looking ruefully at her once-white tunic but smiling at the memory.
"Look, there's something down there," a red-faced Zelgadis pointed out to change the subject.
It was a metal bookcase. The two men managed to wrestle it upright. There was a whole assortment of objects underneath.
"The bookcase must have been knocked over during the explosion," Zelgadis suggested. "Its contents were caught between the bookcase and the floor and so they survived."
"Then these books are in perfect condition? Lucky!" Lina snatched up one of them. She eagerly opened it, and scowled. "Or not. Look, all the ink has run."
"Well, this area was completely underwater," Amelia pointed out.
A quick search through the other books revealed very few legible pages.
Lina sighed bitterly. "I know people who would have paid a lot for these. Oh well. Let's keep looking."
"Maybe there's something valuable in here?" Gourry, who had wandered off in boredom while the others were looking through the books, held up a small, tarnished metal box. "I can't figure out how to open it," he added plaintively.
"Give me that." Lina grabbed it out of his hands. "No wonder you couldn't figure it out. It's magically sealed."
"Can you open it?" Zelgadis asked.
"Yeah, I think so." Lina muttered something into the lock. The lid sprang up so fast it nearly burst its hinges. Lina grinned smugly.
"What's in there?" Amelia asked, leaning over Lina's shoulder.
Lina thrust the box back into Gourry's hands and unfolded the parchment that had been inside. "It's a map. A treasure map!" she squealed with delight, pointing to the clearly marked X in the center. She read, "'Here is contained the personal library of Hakon, founder of the School of Biological Replication and Transmutation.'"
"Oh, is that all?" Zelgadis sounded disappointed. "I doubt he would have anything I haven't read. Hakon the Red was not noted for his original thinking."
"Well, I'm going after it. Amelia, would you like to come too?" Lina of course took it for granted that Gourry would go with her.
Amelia looked back and forth between Zelgadis and Lina, torn.
Zel began to regret his hasty dismissal of the treasure. "She can't," he snapped. "We're going to Seyruun."
"But, Zelgadis-san..."
"Have you forgotten that we're under contract to Hal?"
"Um...." Amelia didn't think Hal would stop them from leaving if they wanted to.
"Aw, go with him." Lina nudged Amelia toward Zelgadis. "Zel just doesn't want to do guard duty alone." She grinned at the dark-haired man's discomfiture.
"That's not the reason," he muttered unconvincingly.
Amelia still looked indecisive.
"See you later, Amelia, Zel," Lina called, already dragging Gourry away with her in the direction of hopeful treasure. "Maybe we'll come visit you in Seyruun after we find this treasure."
"Where are we going?" Gourry's voice drifted back plaintively as the two vanished over a hill.
Amelia and Zelgadis were left blinking at their friends' dust trail.
"Um, do you think there's anything else worth looking at here?" Amelia asked tentatively.
"Probably not," Zelgadis replied. "Shall we head back to the city? It's probably time to start loading the wagons."
Amelia watched as Lina and Gourry reached the edge of the forest. Lina was talking animatedly and Gourry appeared to be paying attention for once. He was nodding his head emphatically as they walked into the trees and out of sight.
Amelia smiled up at her remaining companion. "Okay."
Zelgadis was distracted from his battle with the recalcitrant tarp he was trying to fasten over a load of Sairaag-made cloth by the arrival of a skinny man in a mud-stained red robe.
The man cleared his throat nervously. "Is there a Hallas Leitzu here?"
Hal brushed off his hands on his pants as he walked up to the man in red. "That's me. You would be from the Sorcerer's Guild, right?"
"Yes. This is the package we want delivered." The skinny mage handed over a small chest. "Make sure this gets to Terimac the Gold. Terimac, mind you. Not Alceste or any of the others. Terimac."
"Don't worry; I understand. I've dealt with Atlas City politics before. Terimac the Gold." Hal gestured for Yosh to take the chest and stow it on the middle cart.
Relieved of his burden, the mage relaxed. "That's right."
"What's in it, if you don't mind my asking?" Hal inquired casually.
The red mage hesitated, glancing around suspiciously at everyone in earshot. Seeing only workers, warriors and other purely physical types (Zelgadis' amulet-bearing wrists were hidden by the edge of the wagon and Amelia was out of sight), he shrugged. "I guess it can't hurt to tell you. They're papers that we believe may lead us to the lost library of a great mage of Sairaag named Hakon the Red." His skinny chest swelled with pride at the thought that he wore the same color as such a great man. "We hope to find hints in the writings of his contemporaries."
Zelgadis quietly choked.
"We'll take good care of them," Hal assured the man seriously.
Author's Note: The reason why this story stars only Zelgadis and Amelia is that they are the characters closest to my own personality (Zel for being antisocial, intellectual and selfish, Amelia for being optimistic, naieve and perpetually cheerful). Lina and Gourry are such opposites from me that I wasn't sure I could write them. However, they turned out well enough in this chapter that maybe I will try doing more with them in the future.
The level of food-obsession was high enough at least. Have you noticed that Lina and Gourry's eating-style is contagious? I suspect that Amelia does have good table manners under normal conditions but she has to resort to dirty tactics in order to get enough to eat when Lina and Gourry are around. She has a healthy appetite. I figure that Lina and Gourry each eat about twelve times as much as an average person under normal conditions (judging by what they order during their first meal together), somewhat more when worried or depressed, and about as much a small town when they've been starving for several days. I have very little evidence for this but my guess is that Amelia eats only two or three times as much as an average person - six at most - or ten times that when she's been starving. She certainly participates just as enthusiastically in the food battles as the other two, but I doubt she wins more than a small fraction of the battles considering how experienced her opponents are. Zelgadis does not eat. Or at least, we rarely see him eat. My theory is that he satisfies his hunger (with enough food for 1/2 a normal person) near the beginning of meals while the food fight is too intense to allow conversation. By the time people slow down enough to be worth paying attention to (i.e. when we see them), he has finished eating and just sips a drink to keep the others company. That's just a theory though. Maybe his one third demon part allows him to function without food like a mazoku. It's certainly creepy how little he eats in TRY (ex. sipping a glass of wine for the entire time it takes the other three to devour a whole banquet - how did he not get drunk?). In any case, now that Zel is human he has an appetite again and therefore will have to join in the battle for food from now on. Poor guy.
The level of mayhem and destruction in this chapter was rather low considering that Lina and Gourry were in it, but there just wasn't anything that required blowing up. I'm not really sorry. Sairaag has been damaged enough times already.
I bet you thought the 'old friend' would be Slyphiel, didn't you? Well, she's a travelling sorceress with a life of her own. She can't be home all the time. My personal theory is that she went off to the far north, accidentally resurrected Lei Magnus, and trapped Shabranigdo in the body of her teddy bear (private joke).