Lunch at an Inverse residence generally consisted of many different types of food… and a great deal of it. Kira Inverse was no different. When everyone arrived in the kitchen, there was food enough to rival some of the buffets at state functions that Amelia had been part of in the Royal Palace.
        Needless to say, most everyone was impressed. Lina, in particular, was extremely hungry, and began to stuff her face the moment she got near the food.
        “You see, Lina… you have succeeded in restoring Aqua to the world. And as I am certain you know, Aqua dear is the Water Dragon,” Kira said as she selected some food and put it on her own plate.
        Zelgadis wasn’t sure that he could stand much more of this. In his own not-always-humble opinion, he was beginning to think that Kira was about as bad as Xellos with her information-giving habits. “So you’re…” he looked at the demure brown-haired woman in blue. “You are the Water Dragon… King?”
        Aqua smiled, her dulcet voice a soft whisper. “Understand that in those days, Zelgadis, a woman was not in a position to be holding power.”
        Zelgadis mused silently, sipping the fresh cup of coffee that Anya had handed him.
        Amelia picked up a strawberry and looked at it. “But when we met you before… you were…” It wouldn’t be polite to say ‘old.’
        “Old, Amelia?” Aqua laughed softly. “But I am old. Older, perhaps, than Xellos.”
        “Just looking at you, Aqua dear, brings my memories of youth crashing back into my mind,” Xellos said, phasing into the room with a smirk.
        Elena popped into existence beside Xellos and whacked him upside the head with a gleeful grin.
        “No, Xellos, I think that’s your wife,” Lina shot back around a mouthful of chicken.
        Zelgadis shook his head. With so many powerful people around, the Mazoku were reduced to being the floorshow. “Kira… you wanted to restore Aqua?”
        Kira nodded, swallowing a mouthful of meat. Unlike Lina, she didn’t talk with her mouth full. “Before I became the Chaos Knight, I studied with Milgasia and Auntie Aqua. I was about nineteen then, and when I learned about the history of Rihana and Aqua, I wanted nothing more than to challenge Rihana for the Water Jewel. Only Milgasia told me that Rihana wouldn’t return to this world in my lifetime. In a sense, he was right. But then none of us expected me to become the Chaos Knight, either.”
        “Believe me, Kira. None of us expected that either. The Lord of Nightmares is indeed capricious,” Xellos said, happily appearing to eat a carrot.
        Kira smirked. “And Xellos is the other thing.”
        The Mazoku in question attempted an innocent look. “Me? Why, whatever did I do?”
        Kira shot him a dark look. “You’re the reason I got thrown out of Zefielia.”
        Xellos opened his eyes and looked to Kira. “But I didn’t do anything. If I recall, you were the one to cast the Dragon Slave and level half the town.”
        “WHAT?” Lina hollered, dropping her plate. “That was you?!”
        Kira sighed and reluctantly nodded. “I didn’t know the spell then. I hadn’t learned my higher magic. You see… Xellos was busy befriending everyone in the town when I discovered who he was. Being hotheaded like you, I challenged him in the middle of town.”
        “And cast the Dragon Slave? In the middle of Zefielia? Man, who are you calling hotheaded?” Lina muttered in reply, picking at the plate of which had landed on the table when she’d dropped it.
        Kira sighed. “Lina, I was fifteen at the time. I hadn’t affiliated myself with any type of spell beyond simple healing magics. They said that I lacked the aptitude.”
        Zelgadis spluttered in his coffee. Her? The retired Chaos Knight? Lacking the aptitude to cast a Dragon Slave? He shook his head. “So I imagine that your magics came as a surprise.”
        Kira laughed softly. “Well, when they realized that I had been the one to level half the town, they changed the family motto and shipped me off to the Magic Guild.”
        “Cast a spell, go to Hell,” Lina recited, looking off into the distance. “Yes. That motto was no end of trouble for me when I was growing up. My mother…” Her voice trailed off.
        Amelia perked up. Lina never talked about her parents. In fact, Lina didn’t say much about any of her family beyond that her sister scared her witless. “What about your mother, Miss Lina?”
        Lina’s eyes refocused, and she shook her head. “Eh… it’s not important. So you leveled half of Zefielia and got yourself sent off to the Guild. And all because of Xellos.”
        Kira nodded as she took a bite of cheese.
        “So. Xellos. Why were you there?” Lina asked carefully. The edge of danger was sharp in her voice, and it was clear that she’d have no problems blasting the Mazoku halfway into orbit if she didn’t like his answer.
        “I was there on business, Lina.” Xellos answered. He knew that he probably would have to leave shortly, but he wasn’t going to give Lina the benefit of a straight answer right away.
        “Mmmhmm. Business,” Lina echoed dryly, looking at her plate. “Well, it’s in the past now, and I can’t do much about that. So you’re lucky that I learned about this so many years after it had happened.”
        Several people stared at Lina. Was she truly just going to let him get away with that?
        She looked up, tilting her head so that she was looking at him from under her bangs. “But if I hear you’ve stepped foot near the town again…” Lina glared at Xellos. “I’ll kick you all the way back to Wolf Pack Island.”
        Xellos’ eyes opened before he decided to laugh it off. “I don’t doubt it, Lina.” He closed his eyes again and contemplated.
        Zelgadis looked over to Lina. “Did you find…?”
        Lina looked off. “No.”
        He nodded. “Which means that you will have to leave again.”
        Lina sighed. “Guys… I want you all to listen to me, okay?”
        Gourry looked over after Amelia tugged on his arm hard enough to break his concentration on eating.
        Silence descended in the kitchen as everyone looked to Lina and saw the emotions held fast in her eyes, saw how she struggled to set herself right. “I’m not finished yet. I have to go recover the Philosopher’s Stone. And I still have to do it alone.”
        She paused long enough to allow them to react. And they did, Zelgadis closing his eyes, Amelia gasping, Gourry coming to a complete stop. Only those in the room who were not mortal had expected it.
        “Where I have to go, none of you would survive. It is a place where even Mazoku and Dragons can’t survive: The Sea of Chaos.”
        “Miss Lina!” Amelia protested, but Lina looked at her, and she sighed. “You don’t have a choice, do you?”
        Lina shook her head. “No, Amelia. I can’t change the nature of Chaos anymore than you can change yours.” She sighed softly and closed her eyes.
        A golden glow formed around Lina, golden bracers appearing at her wrists. From those bracers, golden armor grew up her arms, meeting at her throat. The armor rippled down her, replacing Kira’s clothing and shimmering around Lina as it became more than illusion.
        As the armor became real, Lina opened her eyes and looked at her friends. “I have to go. It can’t wait any longer. Any more time spent here is more time that Shabranigdo has to get to the Philosopher’s Stone. And it’s not going to be easy for me to get to it, even though it is where my nature is strongest.”
        Lina lifted her chin slightly. “I’ll be back. I promise.”
        And then she faded from the planes of existence shared by human, Mazoku, and Dragon.
 

        She was standing alone in the unholy grave of Shabranigdo, the place where she had first cast the Giga Slave, not knowing its terrible power and potential destructive force. A chill settled in her stomach, fear gripping her heart, and she shook her head. “No… not again…Not this…”
        She stumbled over rocks and boulders, searching for something that she didn’t know. She was indeed alone, she couldn’t find the others, and they didn’t answer her calls.
        At length, she sat on a boulder and looked out at the desolation, wondering why she was there. What purpose could returning here serve? What was she looking for, if not her friends?
        Something glimmered magically, a sense catching her eye and mind, and she slipped off the boulder, moving in search of it.
        There it was, the Philosopher’s Stone. But hadn’t it been destroyed when Rezo used it? But this was good! Her dream was telling her that she could go get the stone! It existed! She could give it to Zelgadis for his cure…

        No! She shook her head, chasing off the reminders of her dream. She was here for a different reason. This wasn’t her dream anymore! This was reality, the reality of the Sea of Chaos. She was alone because she was supposed to be. She had chosen this path. She reached out, picking up the Philosopher’s Stone, feeling its cool surface and wondering how something so seemingly ordinary could be so powerful. But she had seen its powers, had seen the results of Rezo’s use of the Stone. It was a powerful tool, and in the wrong hands…
        A ‘sound’ made her look up.
        Her stomach fell.
        Shabranigdo was standing there. Only… he wasn’t in the form that she was more accustomed to.
        Blue eyes, brown hair. He was tall, well dressed, and wearing a smile that could break the heart of any woman within range.
        He was devastatingly handsome.

        Amelia slumped in the chair. She’d finished reading the works of Luo Glaon, and while there were more than a few fascinating spells, the vast majority of them were locked out by the loss of the white magics. This included the Reverse spell. She didn’t dare tell Zelgadis that while she’d found a ‘cure’ that it was unusable because of the loss of magics to the world.
        Someone sat beside her, and she opened an eye to see Kira sitting there, looking much more like herself than Lina. Offering the elder Inverse a smile, Amelia sat up. “Good afternoon, Miss Kira.”
        “Good afternoon, Amelia. Have you found anything?” Kira asked, fingering the book that Amelia had set down.
        Amelia sighed. “I found something, but it isn’t useful. The sealing of the white magics prevents the vast majority of these spells being cast.”
        Kira nodded slowly. “Amelia, may I change the subject for a moment?” The elder woman’s voice was edged lightly with something that Amelia couldn’t identify.
        “Um…okay. What is it, Miss Kira?” Amelia asked, eyes round with worry. Immediately, she had jumped to the conclusion that Kira had gotten word of Lina.
        “Amelia, I wanted to tell you that you look so very much like your mother when she was your age. I met her once, and only briefly. But you have that same fire and dedication that she did.”
        Amelia’s eyes widened. “You knew my mother? But how… and what was she doing?”
        Kira laughed softly. “Your mother was dressed like a sorceress of the black arts, long black hair and all. I was blasting the bandits that she had infiltrated when I met her on the road.
        Amelia’s eyes grew even wider. “My mother infiltrating bandits??”
        Kira shook her head. “She was only a little older than you, Amelia. She hadn’t met your father yet. But that night, your mother and I defeated the bandits that were ravaging the towns around Saillune. I remember her as being a lot like you.”
        Amelia sighed. “I miss her. I was really young when she died… and all I can remember anymore is her smile. But even that’s fading now. It’s like she’s slipping away from me, and nothing I can do will keep that memory strong.”
        Kira nodded, then reached into her pocket. “It’s all I have, Amelia, and you ought not ask me how I came about having it, because it’s a long story. But I think that it will do you more good than me.” She pulled out a small golden locket on a thin chain and handed it to Amelia.
        The girl took it, opening it and looking at the image within with a gasp. “It’s my mother! But… how…?” Blue eyes looked to Kira, tears evident.
        Kira shrugged slightly. “If you have to know, I’ll tell you.” When the girl nodded silently, Kira relented. “There are times when things happen the way they are to happen. I was on the road one day when I overheard an assassin talking to someone about a job in Saillune where he had gotten the target, but only he had survived. A child had caught his partner in a spell that neither of them knew. When he named the woman who had been his target, I killed them both. The locket was in his hand. Turn it over.”
        Amelia sat a moment digesting this information before she turned over the locket and read on the back. “To my darling Amelia: Happy Birthday.”
        A chill settled over Amelia, and she started to shake. Suddenly, she remembered things that had been buried under that horrible night. She’d pestered her mother about her birthday that was coming in a week. She’d wanted to know what her gift was going to be. She’d known that something special was coming, something all her own that she wouldn’t have to share with Gracia.
        Tears fell as she realized that this locket in her hands was the gift that her mother had intended for her. Such a tiny engraved image of the smile that she was so very close to losing forever. She turned, hugging Kira.
        “Thank you…”
        Kira hugged the girl back. “You are so welcome, Amelia. I’m sorry that I didn’t know who you were sooner.”
        Amelia sighed softly, sitting up and looking at the locket again. “You said that things happen for a reason. There was a reason that you didn’t know sooner. Maybe we don’t know that reason… but it all comes to a point in the end.”
        Kira nodded slowly. “You are indeed right, Amelia. Why don’t you put it on and you can show everyone over lunch?”
        Amelia’s eyes lit. She could show Zelgadis. “That sounds good, let me put this book back…” As Amelia put the book back on the shelf, Kira stepped out of the library to go gather Zelgadis and Gourry.
        “You shouldn’t lie to the girl,” Xellos commented as he phased into step with Kira.
        “Who said I was lying?” Kira countered.
        “You mean all that fluff that you just fed Amelia was true?”
        Kira smiled. “That, Xellos, is a secret.”