Hello, everyone! As usual, I don't own anything, I'm just a fan writing some fiction. Please enjoy!

31- A Not-So-Warm Welcome

"…hmm? Hey, Gourry, you know you can move closer, right? I don't mind… besides, it's freezing in here…"

Lina reached an arm across the bed, but was disappointed to find the space beside her empty. She was turning back over, lazily pulling the blankets closer around her and wondering where he might have run off to, when she suddenly snapped to attention. Sitting up, she frantically observed her surroundings.

"Where am I?"

The room was unfamiliar, as was the bed. It was clear with a simple glance that it was a palatial suite, but beyond that, it was oddly cold. There was one window behind the bed, but it was so covered in frost that it was impossible to see out of, and provided little light on its own. There were several smaller rooms that adjoined to the bedroom, and Lina, in her confusion, found the strength to get up and explore them. Her shoes seemed to have disappeared, but she found a pair of slippers on a shelf in one corner of the room. There was a walk-in closet that, while empty, appeared to have been used at some point, and an entrance to a full bath on the other side of the room. The whole place was well-lit, well-furnished, and completely spotless, but it was cold, as though there were no one living in it.

After a few minutes of looking around and gathering her bearings, Lina sat down on the edge of the bed to figure out exactly what had happened and where she was.

We left Pestis' house… was it this morning or yesterday morning? I can't remember; I slept most of the way. I know we travelled as far south as we could before a bad snowstorm came up and the wagon got caught in a snowbank. Zelgadis was really angry because, according to the map, we were practically at the estate already, but we couldn't move and couldn't see anything because of the storm. And then… Gourry decided to find some shelter from the cold, and I walked with him along the road… but then I don't remember… did I get lost? Did I pass out? Oh! We lost sight of the road after a while, and then I ended up losing him in all the snow. I thought I heard his voice in a different direction, and I ran towards him, but I guess I didn't make it- did I really faint in the middle of a snowstorm?

Lina tensed up as she began to fill in the details, and began examining herself for any sign of injury. She found none, but that didn't alleviate her worries.

Are the twins okay? Am I okay? I think so, but I can't tell anything!

"Hey, Gourry?" she yelled loudly, rising to her feet and approaching the closed door. Opening the door revealed a hallway, but it was just as empty as the room she was already in. "Amelia? Zelgadis? Where is everybody?"

There were a few long moments with no response, and Lina turned back into the room before grabbing a blanket off the bed to drape around her shoulders. She then ventured out into the hallway, stopping at various doors to look into the rooms. They were all just the same as hers- cold and empty.

By the time that she'd cracked open the fifth door along the hallway, the sound of footsteps from down the hall caught her attention. The footsteps were hurried but cautious, and clearly a woman's.

"Amelia?" Lina turned her head, but the figure she met was not her friend. "…who are you?"

"I-I'm sorry, Ma'am. I heard you yelling- I had been talking to the mistress, and she said that she wanted to speak with you when you woke up. Please, return to your room. The mistress will be up to talk to you shortly."

"Wait, wait, wait! Mistress? Who's that? And where are my friends? I don't understand-"

"I-I don't know much of anything. I'm just a servant to Mistress Lin. She is the one who is in control of the house. Please be patient."

"…Mistress Lin…?" Lina blinked confusedly for a moment before the name clicked. "Ah! Her! That's right! I want to talk to her too! I'll, uh, wait for her… then…" She turned around to return to the room, but stopped one last time to address a question to the woman. "Are you sure you don't know anything about any other travellers? Just- maybe- a big blond guy?"

"I'm sorry. I know nothing. But I can ask-"

"No, no. Just forget about it." Lina waved her hand dismissively. "I'll ask myself. Just tell your mistress to hurry up- and bring something warm to drink. It's freezing up here."

"Y-yes, I'll tell her-"

"And ask her for some food too. I don't have any idea how long I've been asleep, but I'm hungry."

"Y-yes, okay-"

"And, if you could, I'd like some more blankets- preferably warm ones- to put on the bed. You could take care of that, couldn't you?"

"Y-yes…" The woman was clearly a little put off by the requests, but agreed to them anyway. "…I should've figured that the mistress would rescue someone just as demanding as herself…"

"What was that?" Lina called.

"N-nothing! Please, return to bed. Mistress Lin will be with you shortly!"

Lina nodded in acceptance and returned to the bedroom in which she'd woken up. Somehow she'd accidentally ended up in exactly the place she wanted to be, and she wasn't going to let this opportunity go to waste. There would be time to locate her friends later.

"Oh, I'm sorry. If you're asleep, I won't disturb you."

Lina jolted awake at the sound of a voice. She'd accidentally dozed off, sitting in bed surrounded by blankets and pillows. "Huh? What? Oh! You!"

A tall woman stood in front of the bed holding a tray with tea and some sort of soup on it. She seemed a little startled by Lina's sudden snap to attention, but got over that within a few seconds. The woman didn't seem at all confused by the situation, as though the rescue of lost travellers during snowstorms was an everyday occurrence. Lina remained on her guard, however. A woman this wealthy waiting on her guest personally, instead of having a servant do the job? Something didn't seem quite right…

"So, you're Mistress Lin, right? Su Lin?"

The woman nodded. "You may call me Lin. I don't mind it. But what of you?"

"My name's Lina."

"Inverse?"

"Inverse, Gabriev, both, neither… whatever you want to call me." Lina shrugged. "How'd you guess?"

"I suspected that might be who you were." Lin offered the tray of food, and Lina accepted it eagerly. "I've heard of you- of your affiliation with the gods and the Mazoku-"

"Hey, now. I claim no affiliation with either of those two groups."

"Right. My mistake." Lin sounded apologetic, but she smiled at the response nonetheless. "I meant only that you have a reputation for defying both. It's rare that a human would have such strength."

"What of it?" Lina replied, attempting to take small sips of tea without getting burnt.

"I just find it fascinating." Lin responded coolly. "The whole concept of strength, I mean."

Lina gasped. "That's right- I almost forgot!"

"Forgot what?"

"Miss Hayze! Soi Ren! You recognize that name, don't you?"

The woman's face betrayed the answer before she could even answer out loud. "I… haven't heard that name in years… How did you-?"

"I'm a friend of Luke." Lina answered. "Do you remember him?"

"The assassin? Of course I do! How is he? Has he changed his ways after all this time?"

Lina turned her attention down to the bowl of soup, unsure of how she wanted to explain what had happened. "He did change his ways. He fell in love with a woman named Millina, who convinced him to give up his assassin career. But… later… she was killed, and in his grief, he couldn't control the power inside of him and it… consumed him... You knew about it, didn't you?"

Miss Hayze gave a solemn nod. "I'm just sorry that it happened so soon. He had so much potential, that boy. It was a shame that he was wasting it killing people." Her voice trailed off as she glanced toward the window. "Seeing the great power that existed within him reminded me so much of a boy that I knew at the time… they were so similar, yet so different-"

"You mean Lyos?"

The woman's face suddenly turned pale, and she looked at Lina in surprise. "Y-you… know Lyos too?"

Lina was surprised by the sheer amount of emotion in her voice. "You still feel so strongly about him after all this time?"

Ren took a deep breath and steadied herself. This woman didn't lose her composure for very long. "Lyos is very dear to me. He has always been, ever since I met him."

"He told me about you." Lina replied. "It was a long time ago, when he was still searching for you. Y'see, Luke never delivered the letter that you asked him to take to Lyos, so poor Lyos never knew what happened to you. All he knew was that you went missing and were never found."

"He was searching for me all this time?" Ren asked. "I assumed that he didn't wish to see me."

"What did the letter say?"

"I don't recall the details exactly, but I wrote to him asking him to join me if he felt comfortable enough leaving the mine and his town behind. It was no place for a boy like him- he was destined for far greater things."

"He did leave it behind, but it was to search for you. He wanted to find you so badly that he left behind his mother and everyone he knew. It wasn't like he felt any loyalty to them in the first place, but even so…"

"To think that I was mistaken for all these years." For the emotion contained in her words, Miss Hayze was remarkably well-composed. "All this time that I spent longing to see him again, he felt the same way of me."

"Come to think of it, I've been wondering- what's the deal with your relationship anyway?" Lina seemed to suddenly remember her question. "According to Lyos, some people in the village teased him about having some sort of crush on you, but I don't think his feelings for you were at all romantic. So…?"

"I would assume the same, though I can only speak for myself." Ren replied calmly. "My relationship with Lyos actually goes back far longer than he knows."

"Really?" Lina ventured. "How so?"

"I knew him in a previous life- or, more accurately, I knew the previous Knight of the Aqualord."

Lina hadn't expected that response, and blinked mutely in surprise.

"I'm sorry to have piqued your interest; it's a very long story." Ren apologized.

"No, no, don't worry. I've got time." Lina waved one hand. "In fact, I'm supposed to be on bed rest anyway. Doctor's orders… so to speak. I'm just worried about my friends that I was travelling with. That snowstorm seems pretty fierce..."

"I'm sure your friends will be fine. I assumed that you couldn't be travelling alone in such a state, and sent out some other servants to search for your companions."

Lina breathed a sigh of relief. "That's so kind of you. I'm very grateful… but how did you find me in the first place? I was in the middle of nowhere- or so I thought."

"You were in my garden." Ren replied matter-of-factly. "I always take a walk through the garden mid-afternoon, no matter what the weather is."

"Really?" Lina raised an eyebrow. "I'd make a comment about what an odd habit that is, but considering the fact that you just saved me, I doubt that I have any room to criticize."

Ren chuckled. "I believe strongly that life cannot be lived from the comfort of a desk or a bedroom. One must immerse themselves in the world to experience all that life has to offer. And, no matter what, I aim to do just that until the day I die."

Lina smiled. "Then I owe everything to that strange habit of yours. Thank you."

Miss Hayze gave an amused sigh and sat down on the end of the bed. "If you really want to hear that story, I'm willing to tell it, but I must warn you that it isn't the happiest of stories, nor does it have a happy ending."

"Doesn't matter." Lina shrugged. "Happy endings are kind of cliché anyway."

"So you're saying that you'd rather have more unhappy endings in your life?"

"My life? No way. But as for stories… that's a different thing." Lina waved a hand dismissively. "Sorry, sorry. I forgot that this was real life. There's too few happy endings there anyway."

Ren nodded. "That's one thing I think we can all agree on."

"This is ridiculous." Zelgadis was working to dig out the group's belongings from the snow bank where the wagon had gotten stuck. "If it's not one thing, it's another. We'll never get anywhere in these conditions."

"Lina and Gourry will find shelter. I'm sure of it." Pestis offered.

"Always the optimist, are you?" Lyos grumbled.

The professor just shrugged in reply. "It's better than the alternative."

"Which is?"

"Being such a Debbie Downer." With the last two words, Pestis gave Lyos a playful nudge on the arm. The knight flinched and turned away, muttering some obscenities under his breath.

"I don't doubt that there's some shelter around here, but the visibility issue is the biggest problem." Shizuri spoke up. "I can barely see my hand in front of my face. Everything is a white blur."

"I wonder," Amelia began. "if we could get the wheels moving, the wagon could-"

"Lina! Lina!"

Amelia stiffened and turned around suddenly- almost blundering straight into a frantic Gourry. He grabbed her shoulder so tightly that a sharp pain shot through her shoulder and she flinched.

"Lin- ah! Amelia! Where's Lina? Is she here?"

"Mister Gourry? What are you doing? I thought Lina was with you."

"She was, she was!" Gourry whined. "She was right by my side, and she was holding onto my coat with one hand, and she- and she-"

Zelgadis put a hand on his shoulder, trying to calm him- or at least make him release his grip on Amelia. "What happened?"

"I can't find Lina. I looked and looked, but it's too hard to see anything, and the wind's blowing so hard, and- and-"

"Calm down, Mister Gourry! You need to stay focused!" Amelia was still caught in his grip, and she waved her arms in an attempt to distract him. "When did you last see Lina?"

"I don't know, I don't know- it's just- I can't- it was-"

"You're not making any sense!" Lyos interrupted.

"I know I'm not making sense! I can hear myself, at least!" Gourry snapped in reply. "Look, I was walking with Lina, she had a hand on my coat so I assumed that she wouldn't get lost, but then all of a sudden I turned around and she wasn't there, and I can't find her. She can't be out in this snowstorm, she just can't! What'll happen to her?"

"Lina's not helpless. I'm sure she'll be fine." Shizuri broke in. "We just have to find her-"

"That's what I've been saying!" Gourry cried. "We have to find her!" He turned around and started away, though Zelgadis called out for him to stop.

"Gourry, let's not get separated. I don't want anyone else getting lost from the group. It's too dangerous."

"Someone has to stay with the wagon and all of our stuff, though." Pestis pointed out. "I can do that, but I need to clean my glasses. I can't see a thing-"

"The glasses won't help!" Gourry snapped. "None of us can see anything either!"

"Calm down, please." Zelgadis grabbed Gourry's arm and pulled him away from the others. "You can't accomplish anything when you're worked up like this."

"He started it!"

"I didn't do anything!" Pestis threw up his hands in surrender.

"I know you're worried, Gourry, but please don't take it out on Pestis. However unhelpful he may be, fighting will only make the situation worse."

Gourry sighed. "I know… it's just- h-hey! Lina! Oh, thank goodness!" He pushed his way back in the direction he'd come toward a small approaching figure, grabbing her arm and tugging her back toward the wagon. Of course, it took barely a moment to realize that she wasn't who he thought she was. "Who are you? Where'd you come from?"

Seeing an unfamiliar person appear could only mean one thing: that there was shelter nearby. Zelgadis called out to her. "Can we help you?"

"I'm sorry! Are you the companions of the woman who was walking through our garden earlier?"

"Wh-what?" Zelgadis stammered. "Lina?"

"Lina? You found her? You know where she is? Is she okay? Is she warm? And safe? A-and the baby is…?" Gourry grabbed ahold of the woman's hands frantically.

"I take it you're her husband?"

"Y-yes, yes! I'm Gourry. I'm just- er, never mind all this! Where is my wife?"

"Sh-she's-" The woman was clearly intimidated by Gourry's size and demeanour. "-she's in the care of our household. Calm down, please."

"So she's safe?"

"Yes. P-please calm down. Follow me. I'll take you to her."

Gourry released her hand, still rigid with fear. "…yes, please."