"Well, looks like we're going to have to vacate our home for the summer." Lina said as she walked into their room as she sat down on the couch and started to take off her boots.

"Huh?" Gourry asked as he looked up at her from the bed in alarm as he wondered what now.

"The Eternal Queen wants to make some big renovations and fix things so that students can't access the underground labyrinth. And she insists that we leave while they are happening." Lina said as she started to unbutton her shirt as Gourry relaxed and enjoyed the show.

"It's good that she's still wanting to spend money here." Gourry said as he put his hands behind his head and smiled a little, not even trying to hide the fact that he was staring at her.

"I guess. Though I worry it will take away from the mystique of this place. But overall I don't want a repeat of this year." Lina said as she threw her shirt in the corner and stood up as she started to undo her pants. "Still, looks like we're going to have to find somewhere to crash this summer."

Gourry wondered if he could light a fire within her tonight as he sat back up to get a better view as he said, "Zel invited us to their summer home in Tealblu. So this works out well."

"Tealblu? Who all will be there?" Lina said as she continued undressing, seemingly oblivious to the way that he was looking at her.

"Zel, Amelia, Jus." Gourry said and then he stopped short. Mentioning Phil would likely kill whatever lingering embers were left in her libido, something he in no way wanted to do. "After that I forget."

"I guess it would be too much to ask that Phil stay away for the summer." Lina said as she pulled her nightdress over her head, and Gourry felt his hopes extinguish with it. "What about Naga?"

"Maybe." He said as she walked off to the bathroom. He listened to the sounds of her brushing her teeth and he wondered if there was a way he could salvage the night. But when she came back in she was putting on a big show of yawning widely.

"I am wiped! First night I'm getting in bed before midnight. One more week till this blasted school year is over." Lina said as she got into bed.

"So, what should I tell Zel?" he asked as he abandoned the idea of trying anything tonight. She was right about it being the first time she'd gotten to bed at a somewhat decent hour since the school year had started.

"Yeah, I don't have time to plan anything so that sounds good."

Gourry leaned forward to give her a kiss and hoped that she would reached for him. But once it was bestowed she turned away. He sighed as he stared up at the ceiling in frustration. Well, at least getting her to Tealblu was easier than he'd anticipated. And he'd waited patiently for years for her before they became intimate. He could wait a few weeks until they got to Tealblu.


Gourry walked around the room as he held Aurelia and bounced her as he hoped she would quiet down. Meanwhile, Lina lay on the bed with Midas, who somehow was sleeping through his sister's wailing. So far the roughest part about the trip to Tealblu was the fact that the twin's, who had been sleeping through the night, had stopped. Moe and the wet nurses had said it was due to being in a strange place, but given that they were also up at night with their own babies, it wasn't as if they could ask the servants to take them. And while it was tempting to use a sleep spell, it was dangerous to use with infants and toddlers who would not rouse if they stopped breathing under the influence of a sleep spell and increased the risk of crib death.

Lina closed her eyes in annoyance as their neighbor hit the wall and yelled, "Would you shut that baby up?"

Lina turned red as she hissed, "If it were that damn easy we would have done it already!"

"If we weren't in a strange area I'd walk around outside with her." Gourry's voice was barely discernable over Aurelia's wails.

"No shit," Lina replied, though she kept her voice low. She didn't want to wake Midas. The only thing helping her to keep her shit together at the moment was Midas sleeping comfortably on her chest. Hearing Aurelia wail aggravated her and left her feeling powerless. And before she could stop it she would start thinking of ending the school year by watching as most of her incoming class was marched off in chains to prison. The joyous feeling that typically came with the end of a school year was completely lacking. As Aurelia wailed Lina thought this must be some punishment set in motion by Luna for failing. After an improbable series of successes Lina had failed spectacularly. She wondered if this next chapter of her life would be a series of phenomenal failures.

"Come on, Relly," Gourry said as he tried again to sing to her. While it hadn't worked the first five times, Aurelia must have finally exhausted herself. Lina tried to focus on the sound of his voice as she closed her eyes as Gourry and Aurelia got into bed with them as he continued to sing.

Lina woke with a gasp, groggy and disoriented as she couldn't breath because her nose was stopped. Her arms flailed, hitting Gourry beside her as Midas laughed as he let go of her nose and clapped his hands. Lina groaned and wondered if she'd even managed five minutes. "Midas, go back to sleep." She said.

"Play with me!" he replied.

Lina looked out the window and saw that it was still too late to be up and pulled the pillow over her head. If this was what traveling with kids was like, it was going to be a long time before she did it again!


Tealblu was named for a lake on the property that was a stunning teal blue in color and looked delectable to swim in. It was also far enough away from the nearest town that Gourry was not too worried about there being any trouble. But most importantly there was a room full of fresh nannies and wet nurses for the royal family there that were happy to take care of Midas and Aurelia so that he and Lina could take a nap.

Through the haze of exhaustion it was hard to tell whether the trip had been good for her so far, but he was hoping that once they got settled in Lina would start to recover. Their rooms in Tealblu were not as nice as theirs back home at Maninstit, but it was still more than he had even dreamed of staying in and the décor was done in shades of calming blue. Gourry wondered how long the painting of the jellyfish had hung on the wall as he pulled off his shoes and sank into the bed and fell asleep.

When he woke Lina was stretched out beside him on her stomach, her arm haphazardly around him. He smiled. It was good to just have her in bed with him while the twins were watched elsewhere and the yearning blazed to life within him as he turned towards her and wrapped his arms around her as he buried his head in her hair and inhaled her scent.

Please, please let me in! He silently pleaded as she started to stir and a moment of bliss ran through him as she turned towards him! But then the whoosh of a portal opening rang and he heard one of the wet nurses scream, "What in the name of Ceifeed!"

"Daddy!" Midas said as he toddled in, followed by Aurelia as the portal started to close behind them.

"They're safe with us!" Lina tried to scream before it closed, and Gourry braced himself to expect a visit from a harried member of the nursery staff any minute.

"Pretty!" Aurelia said as she pointed at a statue of a mermaid.

Gourry closed his eyes in annoyance as Lina sprang from the bed to stop Aurelia before she broke the statue as someone frantically knocked at the door, "Dame Lina! Sir Gourry! We're so sorry!"


Well if wasn't going to have sex, then at least he could still eat. And he fully expected them to serve incredibly delicious food at Tealblu, better than what they served at the inns. But first, they had to meet everyone else at Tealblu. And between being worn down from the school year in addition to being horny and hungry, Gourry wasn't exactly in the mood to socialize.

His stomach growled as they walked into the sitting room where Amelia was talking to Phil and a shockingly plain yet regally dressed woman. There were a few other presences in the room that were familiar, but before Gourry could pay too much attention to them Amelia, Phil and the woman stood up, "Lady Lina! Sir Gourry!" Phil said in boisterous greeting as he shook their hands enthusiastically, "Welcome to Tealblu!"

"Thanks, Phil!" Lina said magnanimously enough as Phil gently grabbed the woman beside him by the elbow, "This is my wife, Estreia. Estreia, this is Lady Lina Inverse and her husband, Sir Gourry."

"I've heard so many incredible stories of your adventures." Estreia replied, "Phil and Amelia speak rather highly of you."

"Thank you." Lina said, and Gourry was happy to let her continue doing the talking, "It seems as though you have two healthy boys now."

A strange look crossed Estreia's face as Phil noticeably tensed, but Amelia spoke up, "Yes, they are so cute! We can see them in the nursery later."

"Sounds good," Lina said as she started looking around the room, "I guess Naga is still zonked in her chambers and…Wait a minute!"

Gourry looked off in the direction she was staring at and straightened a bit as he saw a familiar face seated in the corner. The old warrior stood up and approached them, but there was a wariness to him that caused a kernel of anxiety to ferment within Gourry, "It seems we meet again."

"Mr. Milgazia!?" Lina said in surprise, "What are you doing here?"

"I felt it was prudent to discuss certain matters with your sovereigns." Milgazia replied as Gourry felt a sinking feeling in his stomach. Was it because he was tired and hungry that Milgazia's words seemed ominous?

"What sort of matters?" Lina asked.

"I promised King Philionel that it could wait until dinner." Milgazia said, and Gourry noticed a troubled look cross Lina's face. "I hear that congratulations are in order."

"On our marriage, or the twins, or being knighted?" Lina listed off.

"It seems a lot has changed since we left." Milgazia said with an expression that almost resembled a smile.

"Well I'm glad we ran into you again." Gourry said.

"Oh?" Milgazia asked.

"You see, I'm a dad now!" Gourry said, "And one thing I've seen is that all of the good dads know how to tell a certain type of joke that you seem to have perfected. The Dad joke! Please teach me the secrets of your jokes."

"Don't you dare!" Lina screeched.


Lina stared at Queen Estreia and wondered how she really felt about being married to Phil. It was turning Lina off the thought of eating as she sat down at the dining room table and felt queasy as she reflected that Estreia had had two of Phil's children! That's it! I have to find something else to think about! Lina thought as she resolved to look at someone else, but then Phil sat down beside Estreia and gave her a peck on the lips and Lina felt herself go green at the gills.

Just as Lina wondered how she was going to hold down her dinner did Milgazia take a seat across from her and beside Phil. Lina felt her stomach ball up in anxiety. Dragons didn't typically bother with human royals, and the fact that Milgazia was here was bothering her. While she was happy to see him again, something told her that he bore bad news. And she feared it had something to do with Tom.

Might as well get it over with. Lina thought as she took a deep breath, "So I guess you heard about the disastrous year our school had."

Milgazia looked at her with his indecipherable expression as servants came in carrying platters of delicious smelling food. "No, actually, I haven't." Lina noticeably blanched as she realized that she'd just implicated herself as he asked, "What happened?"

She turned and looked at Gourry, who gave her a clueless expression. But then if Tom was on his way to the Kataart Mountains to revive the Demon King of the North, Milgazia would need to know. "We had a bad seed get into our school. A telepath who manipulated many of our new students into believing that demons are poor misunderstand creatures and that the way to save the world would be by reviving the Demon Lord of the North." Lina explained as her appetite vanished despite the enticing aroma of the food placed before them.

"Well, let's dig in," Phil said.

Milgazia put a few items on his plate out of politeness and Lina loaded her own plate as she continued to explain, "This student, Tom, staged a rebellion. We subdued the rest of the students but he got away and we haven't been able to track him down yet. All we know is that he has some plan to awaken the Demon King of the North and that he may have gotten the chant for how to cast the Giga Slave from me because of the whole telepathy thing. So you'll want to put your sentries on guard."

Lina grabbed her fork and tried to look nonchalant as she stared at her food as she waited for Milgazia to explode. But the dragon took a sip of water and said, "It does sound like it's been a rough year. I wouldn't worry about a human reawakening the Demon King of the North though."

Lina looked up at that, "You don't know this human!"

"I don't," Milgazia agreed, "But the path to where he is is so dangerous and treacherous that it would be difficult for a golden dragon to reach. And that would be if that dragon even knew where to look."

Lina felt her mouth drop as Amelia said, "When Mr. Milgazia puts it like that, well, it's not as if Tom has financial resources to launch an expedition."

"Yeah, but between his telepathy and his silver tongue he can easily steal and hoodwink a town." Zelgadis said.

"It would be obvious to us if humans were gathering to do that." Milgazia said, "And it would certainly be impossible for one human to do on his own."

Lina suddenly felt rather foolish even as her stomach did settle a bit and she took a bite of roast beef. How could she have believed that Tom was powerful enough to actually survive the Kataart Mountains? But then she also knew better than to underestimate him.

"But if he isn't going to the Kataart Mountains, then where is he going?" Gourry asked.

"Do you think he'll try to go to another one of the schools that have been established to fight demons?" Amelia asked.

"I never taught any of the people at those schools how to cast the Giga Slave, so I don't think so." Lina said, "The Giga Slave is what he wants. There's no way it would help him revive the Demon Lord of the North, but if he did know it he could destroy the world."

"But he would destroy himself as well." Amelia said.

"I think he's the type who would do it, the type of person who is so mad at the world that he would kill himself and take as many people with him as he can while he does it. And for a moment he would know that he'd succeeded." Lina said as she felt convinced that she had somehow managed to keep the chant from Tom, "But to get the full spell, the complete spell he would either need to find someone who knows it, find the Claire Bible or ask the Eternal Queen…Oh shit!"

"Should we warn you sister not to leave the Eternal Queen's side?" Zelgadis said.

"Sorry Phil," Lina said as she stood up and rushed to a corner of the room with Zel, who was chanting the vision spell.

Lina felt herself projected into Luna's office at the palace. But it was empty, "Sis?" Lina asked as she heard the sounds of a commotion outside. Lina left the office and the sounds of fighting became more clear, but before Lina could get a good understanding of what was happening she was pushed back into the dining room in Tealblu.

"Someone must have cast a Flow Break spell, dammit!" Lina swore as she hit the wall in frustration.

"What's happening?" Phil asked.

"The palace in Zephyr City, it's under attack."