Gourry was suitably impressed. Amelia had a daughter. It never occurred to him to ask about the father. Zelgadis had a minor concern that the blonde now mercenary would think the girl was his. But any fears were absolved when the child woke up and opened her eyes to look at Gourry and he looked to Zelgadis.

        “She’s got pretty green eyes. Too bad she isn’t your daughter too, Zelgadis,” Gourry said.

        Zelgadis felt the blush creep across his cheeks, and then frowned. “How would you know, Gourry?”

        Gourry put up a finger. “That’s easy. The fortune-teller used to say that two people with the same color eyes couldn’t have a child with different colored eyes. It was one of the ways she could tell if someone was faithful.”

        Zelgadis stared at Gourry.

        Lina blinked at the blonde for a moment, green eyes absorbing his appearance, and then looked to Zelgadis. “This is Gourry Gabriev?”

        Gourry looked even more impressed. “Wow! I don’t even know your name, little girl! How did you know mine?”

        She blinked, looking again to Zelgadis for a moment before answering with an acerbic air. “I am Lina Wil Gracia Saillune. And you fit the description of Gourry Gabriev that my mother gave me precisely. Right down to the intellect.”

        “Lina,” Zelgadis started to warn the girl about insulting her elders, but Gourry interrupted.

        “Wow! She even knows how smart I am!!”

        Zelgadis decided right then to give up. A sweatdrop formed and ran down the back of Lina’s head. “Mom wasn’t kidding…”

        Gourry grinned, leaning over to look at Lina. “So how old are you, little girl?”

        Lina looked at him again, and sighed. “Nine.”

        “Wow. I don’t remember being nine,” Gourry said back.

        Zelgadis sighed. This might have been a bad idea. He decided to ignore the two until it was necessary, instead turning his attention to the world passing by outside.

        What would they find when they got to the cave? He knew now that Lina wasn’t dead… and Amelia had her magic back. But what had Amelia meant by ‘out of time’?

        He considered. The spells that Amelia had cast were either the kind that were renewed by the stones that she exchanged each year, or they weren’t the kind that could simply be dispelled.

        But he had sensed Lina in the room with him. And then Amelia had fainted and spoken with Lina. Was it that bond that they shared? That strange telepathic type of spell? In that case, what amount of power had Lina had to use to contact Amelia? Was something happening that Lina needed help?

        His blood ran cold. Was it the Demon King of the North? Was all of this a ploy? Had Lina been overcome by the Demon King’s residual memories while she lay in the suspended life of the Dynast Breath?
 

        While Zelgadis was lost in these thoughts, Amelia was having similar concerns in her dreams.

        She was running in the darkness, calling for Lina. Every time she got close enough to reach out to touch the sorceress, the illusion of Lina faded and she was left holding air.

        It was wearing her out, all of this running, and finally she put her hand on something solid, looking at the figure in shock.

        It was the statue of the Demon King.

        Amelia shrieked in her dream, seeing him holding Lina by the throat in mid-air, a memory of the moment when the Demon King killed Lina.

        Killed Lina.

        She was turning blue in his grasp.
        She wasn’t breathing.

        The Demon King had killed Lina right then.

        It was Lina’s spirit that she had heard after that, not Lina herself.

        Who was it that she had resurrected?

        The realization shocked Amelia out of her fitful sleep, and she sat up with a yelp, eyes opening wide.

        Zelgadis, Gourry, and young Lina looked at her.