Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters. They are the property of Hajime Kanzaka and Shoko Yoshinaka.

Chapter Twelve

Zelgadis found himself standing on the same street corner that he had stood on exactly an hour ago, and exactly two hours before that. If this was that girl's idea of a joke . . .

He sighed.

He wouldn't normally be this frustrated, except that he was worried about Lina. Not only that, but he still didn't feel like himself. He was still under the weather from his trek up north and his confrontation with Dynast. He thought he was feeling better the night before, but that was when he was eating with Lina. When he discovered she was gone in the morning – he felt acute disappointment. Where had she run off to?

Zel had searched the inn at least six times. The only place he had not explored was the women's hot spring, but he sent girls in three times to see if Lina were relaxing in the baths. He was certain that they had all searched quite earnestly, and that she was not there. Then he began making his rounds around town. She wasn't in any of the shops or the restaurants. He even began knocking on the doors of private residences to see if someone had seen her or if for some reason she were visiting with the people who lived in the village. No one had seen her.

Now he took one final glance around the street before he stepped into the local tavern. He had already been in the tavern at least three times, but he was going in this time to get some hot tea. As, he stepped in he took a survey of who was there. Most everyone looked the same except for one person sitting in the corner. Zel had been all over the small village, but he knew he had not seen that person before. It appeared to be a priest, but Zel had not seen a church anywhere in the town. Zel decided that after he got his tea at the bar, he would go ask the man if he had seen Lina.

The barkeep seemed relieved that Zel was at last going to order something and gave him a cup immediately. With the warm drink in his hand, Zel made his way over to the priest's table.

"Excuse me," Zel said, "but have you seen a young girl walking around town. Red hair, red eyes," Zel said, beginning to describe her.

"Red eyes?" the priest said, looking up from behind his bangs, so Zel could see his indigo eyes a little.

Zel wondered immediately if he had been mistaken about the man being a priest. A holy man could not look that dangerous, but he wore the robes of a priest . . .

"A girl with red eyes," the man repeated again. "Have I seen one?" The man stopped talking and seemed to be pondering the question. "I confess, I saw a one with red hair, but I was not close enough to see what colour her eyes were. Gomen," the man said, returning to his own drink.

"Where did you see her?" Zel asked.

The man picked up a spoon and began stirring his drink casually. "Inside the Dark Lord Dynast's castle, earlier this morning – where else would I have seen her?"

Zel's eyes opened wide. "That can't be possible!"

"I don't lie," the man said seriously.

"Did Dynast steal her away in the night? I didn't even hear or feel him coming . . ."

"If you look at it objectively – there is no way Dynast would have taken her during the night, so don't beat yourself up," the man said mockingly, interrupting Zel's tirade. "Let me ask you a question. Do you know any of the characteristics of a fledgling mazoku?"

"What are you talking about?" Zel demanded, not really understanding how the two things were linked.

"I was merely asking you a question," the man said with a pleasant smile.

Zel suddenly sat down at the table, hoping to talk to the man more privately. The entire dining room didn't need to hear their conversation. "Is there such a thing?" he asked.

"But of course," the man said. "Mazoku have two different ways of being created. Do you know what they are?"

Zel was curious as to where this conversation was going, and wondered how it could have anything to do with Lina being back at Dynast's castle, but still Zel had seldom met anyone who could equal his knowledge of magic – perhaps Lina. It made it so that he was interested in the conversation regardless of his impatience. Besides, maybe this man could explain what happened to take her back to the castle. "I would assume that one way would be simply the birth of a mazoku," Zel said.

"Very good, this is the most common method, though it is not performed very often. Do you know how it is different from the birth of a human or a dragon? Both in relationship and methodology?" the man continued.

Zel thought about this for a moment. "I would assume that the relationship would be more like the relationship from master to minion rather than the relationship between parent and child."

"And the methodology?"

"I can't imagine mazoku mating in the same sense as a dragon, human, or mammal, though I do not possess much knowledge on the subject. I would guess that it would be something more like a reptile with the female laying the eggs and the male fertilizing them, or something of the sort. I just can't imagine the nature of a mazoku coinciding with human or dragon ideas about mating," Zel said, expressing ideas that had never occurred to him before. He was only thinking of these things now because of the question the stranger had asked.

"You're quite right, the ideas are quite different. Pure mazoku are not male or female, except in how they appear on this plane. Your idea about eggs is quite interesting, and honestly quite a reasonable deduction, but in any case, it is not correct. A mazoku does not need a partner in order to create a minion, for you must understand that they would not refer to the mazoku they have created as their child. Now can you tell me about the abilities and powers of such a minion?" the stranger posed to Zel.

"The only thing I can think of as a restriction to their power is that they could not be more powerful than the mazoku who created them. Am I wrong?" Zel asked.

"No, not at all – that's quite true. Not only that, but the theory goes a bit further than that, so that a mazoku can choose exactly how powerful their minion will become. Okay, enough about all that, now let's discuss the other way in which a mazoku may be created. Did you say you weren't clear on another way in which it could be done?"

Zel nodded.

"All right then, I'll explain a little bit about it to you. In this second method of creating a mazoku, two people are involved. I would like to stress very seriously that the nature of a mazoku is quite different than the nature of a dragon or human. Mazoku do not 'love', so that feeling is not at all present in this method of reproduction. The first person involved would be the mazoku performing the 'act', and the second would be a member of any other species. This method will not work with two mazoku. Can you tell me what happens from what I have already explained?"

"You have described the absence of love, so I can only imagine that the feeling existing would be something contrary to love. I wouldn't say hate, even though that is the first feeling I think of that contradicts love. Pure love is supposed to be very giving and selfless, so I would say that the opposite would be selfish and . . . I know!" Zel excitedly proclaimed the word, "Ambitious."

For a moment the stranger looked stunned, or at least surprised at this declaration as his mouth hung open for a moment. Then he recovered himself and said at last, "Very impressive. Have you discovered what physical act is required?"

Zel sat and thought for a moment, trying to reason what he could. What was the member of the other species for? If a mazoku could create another, even without a partner, then what did they need the other person for? It couldn't be for a part of their body, because the stranger said that there was no limitation on what species it was, as long as it wasn't a mazoku. Then it occurred to Zel that there must be something special about the second individual involved in the process. It couldn't have anything to do with their body; it had to be their mind or personality that was important. The mazoku must want that person as one of their minions because of their intellect or traits. That was it! The person was going to become a mazoku.

Zel said as much aloud.

"Yes," the stranger said, "but you still haven't told me what the physical process is."

"Torture? Murder?" Zel said, guessing what the answer could be.

"You're quite right," the man said very calmly. Then he leaned over the table and said very quietly to Zel, "Only a person who has been slain in a very personal way by a mazoku can be reborn as a fledgling mazoku."

Zel stared, his heart seemed to stop. He suddenly got to his feet and blurted out, "Are you saying that my friend Lina has been murdered, and reborn as a mazoku? Is that what you're saying?"

The strange man didn't start from his position and instead leaned back to take another slow drink from his cup. "It's obvious you didn't know. If you had known, you never would have bothered to rescue her. In fact, you wouldn't have even made it as far as town with her if Hellmaster and I had not intervened. Didn't you wonder why Dynast didn't come after you?"

"Hellmaster?" Zel said on dry lips, as he unintentionally stepped back, knocking the chair he had been sitting on backwards. How had the highest of the five dark lords become involved? "This can't be true."

The man stood up and came up beside Zel only to say quietly in his ear. "There is no creature on this earth more loyal than a fledgling mazoku – that is their only characteristic. Lina has gone back to Dynast – she wouldn't have been able to resist him." He moved just a little as though he were going to leave, but then seemed to think better of it and turned around to say one more thing. "When you're ready to talk just call for me; my name is Xellos."

Author's Notes: Hiya! Just as a quick note - this chapter was originally about twice as long, but I decided that it had to be cut into two chapters, so the next chapter will be coming out right away, as it's already finished. I just have to do some finishing touches on it and it'll be coming out right away.