"Say, Filia…"
"Yes Zelgadiss-san?" asked Filia turning her attention away from the glorious sight of the namagomi being sent flying (and serve him right) to the stoic chimera.
"I was wondering if you might know of any temples or such in the area that might have a cure for me."
The former priestess frowned in concentration, her brow furrowing slightly as she tried to think of a way to help her friend.
"There is a temple northwest of here… They have a purification spring that was supposedly pretty powerful. And there's another further to the west where they keep the holy counter-curses. Apart from that nothing comes to mind."
He nodded and began committing the information to memory, mentally deciding which would be more likely to be his cure. The holy counter-curses certainly seemed promising. At least if there wasn't a cure among them there were likely to be leads to others.
He was so deep in thought that he almost missed Filia's question.
"Does it really mean so much to you?"
He blinked and looked up sharply. What kind of stupid question was that?
"Of course! I hardly want to go around looking like a freak the rest of my life."
Filia sighed and shook her head sadly.
"You humans are strange. You place too much value in appearances. It seems to me you have everything you want already."
Seeing the look of anger, indignation and bewilderment on the chimera's face Filia elaborated further.
"You have friends who love you for who you are, you are free to travel wherever you will and you have the power to do so. There are not many as fortunate as you."
Fortunate! A voice inside Zel's head screamed. There is absolutely nothing fortunate about this! Another, calmer voice replied; she has a point though…and Zelgadiss shook his head to clear it of the conflicting thoughts.
"I… I just want to return to how I used to be… This body… it isn't my own… I only want to be myself again."
"You are you Zelgadiss-san. No matter how you look you'll always be the same person inside. But if it makes you happy then I hope you find your cure."
To his relief there was no sympathy in her eyes or voice, only genuine goodwill. He gave her a grateful smile and uttered a small 'thanks' before inquiring what she would do when the group split.
"I was thinking I'd open a shop. I need some way of bringing in money to raise Val properly."
"What sort of shop?" he asked, curious as to what the dragon-lady could do.
"A pottery shop of course!" she exclaimed and Zel was hard pressed not to go crashing to the ground. "I'll sell platters and mugs and figures and vases naturally."
"You'd better be careful with your mace in a place like that."
Filia shot him a glare for that remark (as if she would ever be so careless as to destroy a vase) before suddenly being struck by inspiration.
"That's it! I can call it the Mace and Vase! Thank you Zelgadiss-san!"
Zelgadiss did go crashing to the ground this time and got up only to be sent back down again by Lina and Gourry charging past yelling 'food' having spotted a tavern ahead. He sighed and let Filia help him up before following after them. A cup of coffee would be good right about now…