Back in the merchant’s house, Zelgadis sat at the table looking across at the girl who clutched the end of her braid in one hand, fretting at the loose ends with the other hand. She hardly acted like Lina. He shook his head. “Maybe this is for the best. There is a reason that you can’t remember anything if you are indeed Lina. Perhaps that reason is a valid one and this shouldn’t be broken.”
        Her eyes snapped up to his, knuckles going white as she tightened her grip on her braid. “I can’t. I have to know who I am. For a year I’ve wondered what my name really is. I’ve had dreams… frightening nightmares that I don’t understand…” She looked away, fighting tears and it tore at his heart. “I have to know. I have to.”
        He took a deep breath and allowed himself to wonder for a moment why it fell to him. Why? Because I’m the only one who can help her, Lina Inverse or not… I can’t just walk away from her. The moment passed, his irritation replaced by steel resolve as he recalled Lina standing to face Milgasia with that same voice, saying that she’d fight because she had to. “Then I’ll help you. Perhaps if you started telling me what you do remember, something will unravel.” And I have to help as well. Because if you are Lina… I could never live with myself knowing that I had the chance to help and didn’t.
        She looked over across the table, nodding slowly. “I don’t remember much at all. But my dreams seem almost like memories… things lost to me the moment I awake. Sometimes I know things, things that I shouldn’t know. Someone mentioned the Red Priest Rezo two days ago and I’m still wondering why I shook so violently.” She looked at her hands, letting the braid fall against her shoulder. “I’m still shaking.”
        Zelgadis leaned forward. “You must have had things with you when you were brought here. Have you seen them? Used them to try to remember?”
        She looked up at him, blinking. “They put them in a chest… but I haven’t had the courage to look in it… to see what is there.”
        “Where is the chest? Maybe we should look in it together and see what you recall.” Lina? Not having the courage to do anything? It boggled him.
        She rose from the table, quietly walking off to enter a door down the hallway. When she returned, a box easily large enough to carry a sword and clothing was in her hands. “This… is what they gave me.” She put it on the table and looked blankly at it.
        “Go ahead and open it,” Zelgadis prompted, noticing the merchant in the doorway, watching.
        She lifted the top, looking in and reaching in to pick something up. A black ribbon rippled in the slight breeze as she looked at it frowning. Shaking her head, she put it aside in the box and picked up a red and silver object that Zelgadis recognized as one of the talismans that she’d worn.
        It has to be Lina. She’d never give those up willingly; she’d rather die first. This girl… this is Lina, and I have to help her remember. I have to send word to Amelia and Sylphiel… he thought as he watched her look at the talisman as if she had never seen it before.
         “This…  I don’t know… it seems…” For a moment, she seemed to be looking at something else, and she set the talisman quickly down in the box and hastily closed the top. “I don’t want to look in here anymore.” Her mood change was as sudden as the changing of the wind. “I’m tired. I’m going to bed.”
        She turned and left the box on the table as she walked out of the room.
        With a sigh, Zelgadis rose and lifted the top of the box. Looking in, the condition of the clothing that he’d always known Lina to wear was enough to bring his thoughts to a screeching halt. He lifted the torn and tattered cloth of her cloak, the shirt carefully folded underneath showing stains and he swallowed hard, wondering if that had been her blood or Gourry’s.
        “She is your friend, isn’t she?” The merchant said, walking into the room and looking at Zelgadis.
        Gently placing the cloak back in the box, he nodded. “I don’t know what happened to her. But she has to be Lina. I don’t know of anyone else that would have these exact things. And you heard her comment at dinner. Only Lina would know that.”
        The merchant nodded. “You’ll have to have a room here, then. She has nightmares sometimes, and I think you’d be the best one to help her. That door down there, the one that’s open. You take that room. It used to be my boy’s room, but he’s grown up and gone off on his own now.”
        Zelgadis nodded, taking the box off of the table. “If you don’t mind… I’d like to keep this near me. It may be better if it isn’t in her room if it upsets her so. And that way, we’ll know where it is just in case she decides to look in it again.”
        The merchant nodded and took a pipe out of his pocket, heading out the front door to smoke it. “You know, Zelgadis… I’m glad you’re here. She’s like my own… but she needs something that I can’t give her: herself.” And on that cryptic comment, he left the house.

        In the room now designated as ‘his’, Zelgadis sat trying to come up with something that could have defeated both Lina and Gourry. He’d watched her stand up to Shabranigdo, Dark Star… two of the highest-powered deities. She was capable of some of the more destructive spells that he knew of… and Gourry was an excellent swordsman. As he contemplated, the soft sounds of someone sobbing touched his ears.
        He hadn’t heard her cry since Phibrizo had taken Gourry.
        Silently, he stood, walking out of the room to stand at the bedroom door that was hers. He rested a hand on the door and called out softly. “Amy?”
        “Zel…?” It twisted his heart.
        That sounded so much like Lina… “Are you okay?” he asked, fighting the urge to break into the room and destroy what was bothering her. He knew it wasn’t as simple as that.
        “I’ll… be fine… in the morning.” She said. “Thanks.” It was clearly a dismissal, and he turned back to his room and lay on the bed.

        In the middle of the night, he heard it. She was talking, saying something that he couldn’t understand through the wall. Thankful that he was at least wearing pants, he slipped out of the room and stood by the door, listening.
        With a jolt, he realized that she was talking about the orihalcon statue that had held the Philosopher’s Stone. Playing a gamble, he knocked on the door. “Lina?”
        “Get the door, Gourry,” he heard her mumble.
        He knocked again. “Lina,”
        He heard shuffling footsteps and she opened the door irritably, scowling at him. “What? Huh?! No! I’m not giving it to you!”
        He blinked. She wasn’t completely awake. “Lina, that’s not what I’m here for.”
        She tilted her head and scowled at him. “Then what do you want? I’m trying to sleep.”
        “Lina, what happened? What happened to you and Gourry?” He asked, thinking maybe that he could juxtapose the memories.
        She frowned. “There was… there was…” her voice grew weaker. “It was…” something flickered in her eyes and she took a step towards him. “Zel… what’s happening to me… why am I here…?” Another step and her eyes rolled back and she collapsed.
        He caught her in time, looking at her still face. Something did happen. Something enough to kill Gourry and nearly kill her. But what? With a sigh, he lifted her into his arms and took her into the room to lay her on the bed. After making sure that she was only sleeping, he left the room and closed the door behind him.