“There’s a small town around here called Tirshen… if we catch up with you before that… well… we’ll just see how it goes, okay?”
        Lina’s voice echoed in his mind as he stood quietly in the center of the small town and looked around. The streets were quiet, and it was still the dead of night, there was still enough time to catch a nap before they arrived.
        In all actuality, the town of Tirshen hadn’t really been all that far away from Kuroryu. He’d spent the vast majority of the night walking and thinking, and many times had turned away with every intention of not going to Tirshen at all. Yet, here he was, standing now in the dim hotel lobby, hearing himself rent a room from the sleepy clerk. He kept going over the conversation with Lina in his mind, trying to hear what she hadn’t been saying.
        “She’s a little young, but give her time…”
        He stepped out of the hotel’s private shower, having had rented it for the evening as well as the room. Drying off quickly, he shook his head as he put on the robe they had given him. He tied it around his waist and noted that they had already picked up his clothing to be cleaned. He hoped that they’d return the clothing before the others got in.
        “You need time on your own…”
        He closed the room door behind himself, walking towards the two beds, taking the one under the window. If he needed so much time to himself, what was he doing here in Tirshen? Getting into the bed, he could only wonder.
        “Maybe you ought to ask her for yourself…”
        Maybe he would.
        Maybe.

        The town of Tirshen was much smaller than Kuroryu. Tirshen had one hotel, one little area of stores, and one of two places to eat was the tavern where Lina had been told that wonderful food was served. Against Lina’s desires, for she wanted to get her lunch as soon as possible, the trio went to the hotel first. Finding out that the hotel only had two rooms and one was already rented out did nothing to help Lina’s bad mood.
        “Oh great! First you two drag me into the hotel first, and then we find out that there’s only one room left with three of us!” Lina rounded on Amelia and Gourry.
        “The room has two beds…” Amelia cringed, just certain that someone was going to get the business end of a fireball, and she didn’t want it to be her.
        “Yeah, and I can sleep on the floor,” Gourry volunteered.
        “I don’t want to share a room with you two! I just want to get food!” Lina ranted, glaring daggers at both the swordsman and the cringing princess.
        “Gourry will share the room that I am in. There’s an extra bed. You and Amelia can share the other.”
        Lina spun around, as Amelia’s eyes grew wide. He is here! He did come! A wicked thought came to Lina’s mind, but she put it away instantly, because it would mean that she’d have to share her room with Gourry… and no way was she doing that. Not even after what she’d remembered. No way, it wasn’t proper. Then again… Amelia and Zelgadis sharing a room would be even less proper. It was conveniently forgotten that she’d shared a room with Gourry once before… a long time ago, now. She looked at the confused clerk behind the desk. “Fine. We’ll do that. I’ll be back when I’ve eaten.”
          The menu wasn’t too unreasonable, Lina decided after she had ordered everything from ‘here to there.’ While she sat waiting for the food, she considered. So Zelgadis had come after all. Good. That makes things easier.
        A chair moved, and someone sat down beside her at the table, and as Lina looked over to see who it was, expecting to see Gourry or Amelia, she instantly cringed in terror.
        A rather nondescript waitress in a white uniform had sat down at the table, bangs hanging into her eyes and she wore a rather enigmatic smile, which she turned on Lina.
        Against every instinct to get up and run like Shabranigdo himself was after her, Lina forced a smile in return and managed to get a few words out. “What do you want…Luna?”
        “Want? Oh… I ‘wanted’ to congratulate my little sister,” Luna Inverse replied, eyes peering out from under her hair.
        Lina paled, considering her options. She could try to escape… but she’d learned a long time ago that she’d better not get caught after trying. “Uh…”
        Luna laughed softly “You’ve finally managed to out-do me, little sister. The Lord of Nightmares herself has chosen you. Lina Inverse, Chaos Knight.”         Lina stammered, uncertain what game her sister was up to… and she wasn’t sure she wanted to play it, whatever it was. “Well…. It was either that, or be taken by Shabranigdo.”
        “Mmmhmm,” Luna replied, looking over towards the door. “I’d better get going, got a table to take care of. But there’s a message I’m supposed to deliver. Kira lives in this town. She wants a visit. You’ll know which house is hers.”
        Lina blinked, and her sister was gone. Kira Inverse? In Tirshen? And Luna knew it?? Did she know it all along? Oh, what’s going on here?
        A moment or two later, she heard footsteps, and then Gourry pulled out the chair that Luna had vacated mere moments ago and promptly sat in it, looking at Lina.
        “You look like you’ve seen a ghost, Lina. What’s wrong?”
        Lina watched as Amelia and Zelgadis approached the table. “My sister Luna was here… she wanted to congratulate me for becoming the Chaos Knight. Somehow that scares me more than when she wanted to beat me up.”
        “At least your sister still stays in touch, Miss Lina. Mine doesn’t… although I must admit that I don’t miss her laugh…” Amelia replied, sitting quietly beside Lina.
        Zelgadis took the last chair at the table, and sat in it, looking at the trio calmly. He didn’t say anything, but Lina had learned by now that until Zelgadis had a few cups of coffee in him in the morning, he wasn’t much of a conversationalist. In fact… she was willing to bet money on the fact that Zelgadis was about as much a morning person as she was.
        “Yeah, I knew someone once with a laugh that I don’t miss… but Luna… well…” She quelled the urge to run screaming into the next country, as the thought of Naga’s laugh and Luna’s presence unnerved her terribly. “Luna spent most of my childhood beating me up.”
        “And you are more powerful for it,” Zelgadis replied after tagging a waitress and quietly ordering a pot of his morning coffee. He hadn’t gotten much sleep, and he could already tell that he was going to need it if he was going to deal with any of them today.
        Lina opened her mouth to protest that, but closed it as her food began to arrive. Zelgadis had a point… as he usually did. She really couldn’t argue with him, so she just settled on digging into lunch and attempting to forget the whole situation. Except the visit. What else did Luna know that she wasn’t telling…? And Kira… Kira Inverse…
        Amelia sat uneasily beside Zelgadis, watching Lina eat what seemed to be everything in sight. She wasn’t particularly hungry, and winced as Gourry got stabbed with Lina’s fork because he tried to grab a roll.
        “Get your own, Gourry!” Lina snapped, yanking the roll back out of his hand.
        “Hey! I only wanted a taste!” Gourry complained, rubbing at his hand. She hadn’t broken skin, but still…
        “Then order one!”
       Amelia shook her head slowly, aware that Zelgadis wasn’t watching the two who were eating… he was turned and watching her. With a slight blush, Amelia turned to look to Zelgadis with wide blue eyes. “Is there something wrong, Mister Zelgadis?” she asked, lowering her eyes to the medallion on his cloak clasp. He’s just sitting there, staring at me… What is he thinking?
        “Hm?” He blinked, as if unaware that he had been staring intently at her. It sunk in five seconds later, and a blush crept across his face. “Oh… sorry. No, there’s nothing wrong.” Nothing except the fact that I can’t for the life of me figure out why you like me… he mentally added.
        Amelia nodded, sighing softly and rising from the table. The combination of Lina’s table manners and Zelgadis’ gaze was too much for her, and she headed quietly out the door and into the center of town.
        Lina noticed, and paused long enough to give Zelgadis one of those looks that meant ‘go do, or I blast you’ and smiled to herself when the chimera reluctantly got up and followed the girl. Honestly… you’d think that I have to threaten him in order to motivate him!
        Outside, Zelgadis had no idea where he was supposed to find Amelia. She hadn’t had much of a lead on him, but the princess could vanish just as quickly and as easily as a thief could in the night. With the heavy sigh of a person unwilling to do the near to impossible, he headed off into the streets to find her.
        Amelia wandered through the town, a strange depression hovering over her. She was happy for Mister Xellos, and happy for Miss Filia… But it left her feeling extremely alone. Miss Lina had Mister Gourry… and Amelia had nothing but a dream. Mister Zelgadis just wasn’t like that at all. She remembered what she’d said when she first met him… and supposed that it had ruined it all forever.
        “And who's he?! He looks so creepy annd suspicious looking!”
        She hadn’t known him then and had made a horrible mistake. She’d apologized several times and he’d brushed it off… but it still upset her at times. Like now. She paused at a fountain, looking quietly at the water cascading down, wondering what she should do about it all when a throat cleared behind her, and a movement in the corner of her eye caught her attention.
        A small bouquet of local flowers was being held out to her, and as she stared at them, she realized that the fingers she could see were tan-wrapped blue. She hesitantly reached out, taking the flowers and smelling them. The scent was sweet, intoxicating, but was that because of who had given them?
        “You looked… upset. I thought you might like them.”
        Amelia looked up and turned to see him standing there, almost deliberately not looking at her, cheeks flaming. “I do like them…” Suddenly she blushed, too, looking down.
        They stood there, caught in the moment of awkwardness, neither able to look directly to the other, but each keenly aware of the embarrassment that one was causing the other. Amelia stood frozen looking at the flowers, Zelgadis staring at the water.
        A short distance away, Lina Inverse (sorceress, Chaos Knight, matchmaker) hung her head in despair. Those two were absolutely hopeless. Then again, she reflected as she glanced to the blonde swordsman that stood beside her, I’m not much better with Gourry...
        “Amelia… I…” Damnit, Zelgadis! Get your thoughts straight! “Would you like to… You didn’t eat any breakfast… and I thought you might be hungry…” Oh, Hell with it! “Would you like to get something to eat with me?”
        Amelia looked up at him, seeing the blush in his cheeks matching hers. “I’d… I’d like that, Mister Zelgadis…”
        Unseen by the two, Lina Inverse put out her hand, fingers forming a ‘V.’ “Victory…” she said with a grin.
        They sat quietly by the bank of the river, eating. Zelgadis was sipping his coffee, and Amelia decided that it was as good a time as ever, so…
        “Mister Zelgadis… I’m sorry if I upset you by liking you too much…”
        He set his coffee cup down a little too quickly, looked at her, and then blushed. “It’s not that, Amelia… It’s…” he came to a halt in mid-thought.
        “It’s what, Mister Zelgadis?” Amelia whispered into her tea.
        “No-one has ever tried to care about me.”
        Amelia looked to him in total shock. “No-one?” She asked.
        In the distance, Lina’s heart went out to Zelgadis, but there was no way that she’d tell him. First off, it would force her to admit that she’d overheard that… and second… that was Amelia’s chance, not hers. Lina turned away, grabbing Gourry by the collar. “Come on, Gourry. We’re going shopping and leave those two alone.”
        Zelgadis, unaware that Lina and Gourry had been watching, unaware that they were leaving, simply watched the water and sighed. “I was raised by Rezo, Amelia. That didn’t necessarily mean that I was loved.”
        Amelia sighed, looking into her cup. She’d practically been smothered in affection since the day she was born… even more so after her mother was murdered and her sister ran away. She’d liked it at first, but then it had grown old, and she’d found that traveling with Lina and Gourry was much more interesting. They didn’t smother her with love and righteousness. If anything, she’d learned that love had other forms than booming voices and bear hugs.
        The words fell out of her mouth before she realized that she was saying them. “I wish you’d give me the chance…” She blushed violently at that, setting her cup down quickly and staring at her hands.
        He sighed. Well, there it is Zelgadis. There’s your chance. Are you going to leave it on that, or will you finally take her up on the offer? He asked himself. “I’m… willing to try, Amelia…”

        She wasn’t sure that she’d heard him right.
        In town, Gourry stood outside a shop while Lina drooled through the window at the items. “Look, Gourry! That’s an orihalcon dagger! Oh, I wonder how much it is! If it’s not too overpriced, maybe I could cast a spell into it and sell it in another town for more money!”
        “Lina, is money the only thing you ever think about?” Gourry complained.
        She paused, looking to him before opening the door. “Of course not, Gourry. Food’s pretty important too.”

        Gourry fell over, unable to believe her. Sitting up, he shook his head as the shop’s door closed behind Lina. “What do I see in her…?”