Lina’s anxious, crimson eyes flicked from Zel to Princess Erika, who exhaled in relief. The princess’s eyes were ringed with dark shadows, revealing just how exhausted she was. Lina slipped her gloved hand out of the other girl’s grasp, eliciting a sharp hiss. Princess Erika quickly released Zel’s hand and examined both of her burnt palms, biting her lip to prevent herself from crying out in pain. Lina winced at the sight, but said nothing; she was too busy collecting her wits. She opened her mouth to say something, but it was Zel who spoke first.

"You brought us pretty far away from Achek’s Tower, didn’t you?" he asked.

The princess lowered her hands and nodded. "That’s right," she whispered.

"What about Gourry and Ameria?" Lina asked, already fearing the answer she expected the princess to give.

Princess Erika looked from one to the other with dismay. "You heard Uncle. He took them prisoner, to keep us from going to the Tower before he’s ready. It’s not just the earthquake that’s stopping him, though," she added. "It’s because he’s exhausted, too, as I am. He’s buying himself time to recuperate, so that he can then break into that Tower and take whatever is inside, and use it for his plans. And, and some point, kill us."

"Will he kill Ameria and Gourry now?" Zelgadiss asked sharply.

The princess shook her head. "That isn’t his intention yet. They’re still useful to him as hostages."

Lina looked at her suspiciously. "What do you mean, it isn’t his intention? How do you know his intentions?"

Princess Erika took a deep breath and swallowed. "The short answer is that I read his intentions when I read his mind. The explanation for how I can do that, however, is longer."

"We don’t have time for long explanations--yet. Where did the king take them?" Zel asked quickly.

The princess shook her head. "Back to Castle Ori, in the capital. Many days’ walk from here. And," she added, "before you even ask, no, I cannot take us there. Not only would he immediately have them killed as soon as he sensed us, but I don’t even have the power in me to teleport us there, in the first place."

"We could Ray Wing there," Lina supplied, her mind racing through the possibilities desperately. "We might be able to slip in, and--"

"No. He would know you were coming. With either his magic or his non-magic powers, he could sense you from many miles away. Besides, it’s such a long distance, do you really think you could keep that spell up for the hours that it would require? You’re exhausted, too."

Zel sighed in defeat. "She has a point, Lina." His eyes met Lina’s, and he could see the pain and frustration there, and knew his eyes reflected similar feelings. He had failed to protect Ameria, and Lina obviously cared about Gourry, yet he had been stolen away from her right under her nose. She broke Zel’s gaze and turned to glare at Princess Erika with a growl.

The princess winced. "I’m sorry...I’m so sorry this happened," she murmured, her words sounding hollow to her ears, but that was all she could think to say. Upon hearing that, Lina’s glare turned into a deadly stare. Her teeth and fists clenched and a vein popped out on her forehead. Slowly and menacingly, she stepped toward the princess, her hands reaching for Erika's throat.

"You lied to us," Lina said in a low, ominous voice. "Your uncle lied to us, and you lied to us. We thought you were powerless--Gourry and I were hired to protect you. Then, all of a sudden, you pull these strange powers out of nowhere--you never even needed us! Then your uncle comes and tells us he wants to kill us after he takes over the world, and finally he kidnaps Gourry and Ameria!"

"Please, Lina," the princess said desperately, taking one step back for every step Lina took toward her, holding her hands out in a placating gesture. "I didn’t want to lie. Not to you, not to anyone. If I could have saved Gourry and Ameria, I would have." She gulped, a panicked expression on her face, and kept her hands out in front of her as she kept backing up until she collided with Zel’s stony chest with a gasp.

"Cut it out, Lina," he said tiredly. "We can’t do anything about the situation yet, not without risking Ameria and Gourry’s lives in the process."

Lina wasn’t listening, however. "I don’t know why we should trust a word you say!" she shouted, and lunged for the princess’s throat.

To her surprise, she found herself grasping at the fabric of Zel’s tunic, because at the same moment, Princess Erika disappeared. "You have no other choice but to trust me," she snapped as soon as she reappeared a few feet behind Lina. "If you want to get Gourry and Ameria back, you have to trust me!"

Zel put his hands on Lina’s shoulders and pushed her back a bit so he could look at her. "Lina, as much as I hate to say it, she’s right. There was no way she could have prevented him from taking Ameria and Gourry, given the situation we were in. And there’s nothing we can do about it tonight, not while we’re in the state we’re in. We have to play by his rules, at least for right now, until we develop a better plan." He nodded toward the princess, and said, "At first, I didn’t want to trust her either. But she helped me save Ameria from those golems back there, she saved us against the dragon--twice, and she saved us again so that we could survive to get Ameria and Gourry back from her uncle. Who cares if she lied about her abilities now? If you don’t want to trust her later, that’s fine. But she knows plenty about this situation that we don’t, and if we don’t trust her now, we may never see Ameria and Gourry again."

Lina looked at him like a child who was receiving a scolding, surprised that, for once, it was Zel talking about trust, even if he was doing so in such practical terms. Finally, she squeezed her eyes shut and exhaled slowly. "All right," she whispered hoarsely. She turned to Princess Erika uncertainly, as if she didn’t know what to say. Finally, she looked away and said, "I want an explanation for all of this, Princess," she said. "We can’t devise a plan without knowing everything behind what happened."

Princess Erika nodded. "Let’s get a fire going; night is coming. And please, just call me Erika. There’s no need to be formal at this point."

Zel and Lina exchanged a glance, logic having won over emotion in both of them by now. Zel sighed. "I’ll get the wood," he said.

Lina sighed, too. "Then I’ll clear a place for it," she said wearily.

Ameria knew she and Gourry were far from Achek’s Tower before she even opened her eyes. The roaring sound of the ground cracking and splitting and Lina's and Zelgadiss's frantic cries had quickly faded into silence. The damp smell of mold and decay met her nose, and Ameria opened her eyes to determine its source.

Wherever she was, it was very dim and musty, she ascertained immediately; she could barely see a thing until her eyes adjusted to the low light. For a brief second, she wondered if she had somehow been swallowed up by the trembling ground, but the arm encircling her waist quickly informed her that King Rolard still had a solid grip on her. Blinking, she turned her head just in time to catch a blur of blue movement to her left.

Gourry landed on the cold, metal floor where King Rolard dropped him with a grunt. He looked up just in time to see Ameria’s petite body falling toward him. She cried out as she tumbled face-down into his arms. Quickly, the king slid a few steps away from his captives, putting one hand on the metal wall to steady himself.

"Ameria!" he gasped.

"Gourry-san!" she gasped back. "Where are we?"

Gourry peered through the dimness, his eyes adjusting to the lack of light, and noticed a row of vertical bars several feet away. Torches in black, metal holders lined the wall beyond the bars and provided enough light to make out King Rolard’s skeletal figure. In the torch light, Gourry could see that the king was bent over and apparently exhausted. "You," he snarled. Quickly setting Ameria aside, he jumped up and drew his sword, and crossed the distance between him and the man who had kidnapped them in two steps. King Rolard jumped back and threw out a bony hand, and Ameria screamed in shock as Gourry was immediately thrown ten feet back against the wall behind her with bruising force.

"Gourry-san! Are you all right?!" she screeched.

Gourry bounced off the metal wall with a dull thud and a cry of pain, and stumbled to his feet. He didn’t bother to answer Ameria; instead, he quickly regained his footing and charged the king again. This time, Ameria jumped up to help him. "Flare Arrow!" she yelled, and lobbed the resulting fire spell at the bony man. At the same time, Gourry raised his sword shoulder-high, intending to slice at his target with one quick stroke.

At the same instant Gourry’s sword cut through the air, the king disappeared and reappeared--this time on the other side of the iron bars that formed the front of the prison cell. Ameria’s fire spell dissipated as soon as it struck the bars. They gasped in shock and blinked--it had all happened so fast they couldn’t believe their eyes.

"Nice try," King Rolard commented sarcastically. He clenched one of the bars with a white-knuckled hand for support, his exhaustion obvious. Ignoring that, he flashed his captives a sinister smile. "But your sword is too slow for me, Gabriev-san, despite my fatigue. And as for you, little princess, I’m sure you’ve heard of a metal called Orihalcon. It has the peculiar quality of being able to resist magic spells. In that sense, it is not much different from me," he said smugly. He watched Ameria’s features melt from anger to dread. "That’s right, this whole cell is lined with it. Your spells won’t work here."

Gourry snarled, whipped his sword around, and positioned it so he could poke it through the bars of the dungeon cell. "O-hal-ricon never stopped a swordsman," he growled.

"It’s Orihalcon," Ameria corrected him unconsciously.

"Whatever. Now tell us where we are, or I’ll lop off a hand faster than you can do that disappearing act of yours," Gourry threatened, pointing his sword directly at the king. "Don’t think I can’t."

King Rolard managed a short, hoarse laugh. "Perhaps you could," he acknowledged, "but you can’t if you don’t have that," he said. Suddenly, Gourry’s sword wrenched itself from his grip, and flew through the air toward the king. He caught it as soon as it cleared the bars between him and his captives.

Gourry lunged forward and made a grab for the sword, but King Rolard took a wide step back. He faltered for a second, but put one hand against the wall behind him to steady himself. "Ah-ah," he clucked, "my deepest apologies, but I can’t allow you to keep this."

"Hey! Give that back!" Ameria exclaimed.

Gourry exhaled and narrowed his eyes. "Just what do you want with us, anyway?" he asked, hoping that he could buy time until the king made a mistake that he could take advantage of.

King Rolard dropped Gourry’s sword to the ground where it landed with a clatter and leaned against the wall. "I prepared this cell here in the dungeons of Castle Ori as a back-up plan, in case I failed to kill your friend, Lina Inverse-san," he said, an malicious glint in his eye.

"Why do you want to kill Lina-san?" Ameria demanded. "What did she ever do to you?"

"That’s right. Answer her question," Gourry growled.

The king slowly shook his head and chuckled. "If you must know," he drawled, "Inverse-san is an obstacle to my plans. If she learned that someone was using an ancient artifact to control everyone in this part of the world, I’m sure she would have tried to destroy me."

"What do you mean, ‘control everyone’?" Ameria asked. "No one can do that."

King Rolard grinned. "Just wait," he promised.

"Feh. What makes you so sure Lina would come if you did that, anyway?" Gourry said with a smirk. "You obviously haven’t studied her well enough. If there isn’t anything in it for her, she won’t give anyone the time of day, much less run off to fight some madman."

The king shrugged. "Perhaps. I have studied her enough, though, to know that she’s been in integral factor in the defeat of anything--person or Mazoku--that has tried to take control of the world. So I took a preemptive strike against her."

"And you used that curse at the Tower to do so, so that she wouldn’t be able to attack you directly," Ameria surmised.

"Well, actually, I was only able to modify the curse, not destroy it--the magic was very strong," King Rolard admitted. "I had hoped that she would have broken the underlying curse while fighting the dragon, but not before it dealt her a fatal blow, with my help, of course." The king shrugged. "But, alas, it didn’t work out that way. Ah well." His expression changed to one of mock concern. "Now, you both must be quite exhausted, after such a lengthy battle."

Gourry began defiantly, "We haven’t even begun to fi--"

The king interrupted, grinning, "Oh, so you’re not? Good. Because I have a little secret to share with you." He pulled away from the wall and took a step closer to the bars of the cell, a shadow crossing his gaunt face. "It’s something not even my dear niece knows. You see, I tire very quickly--a trait that has been the bane of my existence ever since I gained my powers. But, over the years, I figured out that I gain some energy back faster when I take it from others."

"What do you mean by that?" Ameria said softly, instantly suspicious.

"Allow me to demonstrate, Princess," he replied, and stretched out his hand. Gourry stiffened and cried out in shock, then bonelessly slumped backward right into Ameria, knocking her to the floor and pinning her underneath him.

"Gourry-san!" Ameria screamed, and struggled to wriggle out from under his dead weight. With a chilling laugh, the king closed his eyes and pointed at Ameria. She gasped in shock as every muscle in her body suddenly went limp and her head pitched downward to land on the metal with a crack. Then, a black curtain fell over her eyes, and Ameria lay silent.

"Too easy," King Rolard murmured. He slowly gathered Gourry’s sword from the ground where it lay and hefted it in his gnarled hands. It took some effort to support its weight. He would have to wait until tomorrow until he was strong enough again to attempt going back to the Tower. Ah well, he thought, I had expected that. He cast one final glance at his unconscious captives and felt an evil laugh rise up within him. It echoed throughout the corridors of the dungeons of Castle Ori, even after he teleported to his bedchambers for some much-needed rest.

Dusk was already upon the forest when Zelgadiss cast a small fire spell on the pile of logs surrounded by stones in the middle of the tiny clearing. He sat down next to Lina, who was staring at the pile, brooding. The shock of Gourry’s kidnapping superceded her usual optimistic attitude--at least for now. Zel knew she would probably perk up soon, and try to hide any worry for Gourry under a vengeful mask. Or at least, he hoped so. It was unsettling when Lina was upset like this.

Erika, meanwhile, was seated across from Zel, in front of the growing fire, bandaging her hands with strips of fabric ripped off the bottom of her already torn dress. She had managed to partially heal the burns from holding his burning sword during her battle against the dragon, but she didn’t have the energy to heal them completely. She finished tying the last strip of fabric around her palm with her teeth and her other hand, and gazed around the clearing.

The light of the fire sharply contrasted the deepening shadows between the surrounding tree branches. The shadows formed strange shapes, which danced as a light breeze swept through the woods. An owl hooted in the distance, its lonely cry making Erika shiver involuntarily. She absently rubbed her goosebump-speckled arms, then winced from the pain in her bandaged hands. I’ll have to finish healing them soon, before they become diseased, she thought.

Zel cleared his throat, interrupting both Lina’s and Erika’s thoughts. "Now that we’re all settled," he began, "and since there isn’t anything we can do about Ameria and Gourry right now, we’d like to hear what you know about this whole situation, Prin--I mean, Erika."

Erika nodded, and settled into a comfortable position from which she could see both Zel’s and Lina’s faces, so that the three of them formed a triangle around the fire. She took a deep breath, and began. "My power, of which you saw a demonstration before, comes from my bloodline. I was born into the Chakar clan, a branch of the human race that possesses abilities far different than any other group of human beings. The word ‘Chakar’ is formed from the Ancient Chorioni words ‘kar’ meaning ‘people’ and ‘cha’ meaning ‘unusual power’. The name of that power is ‘Chana’, which literally means ‘unusual mind power’."

"Thanks for the etymology lesson," Zel said dryly, "but what do you mean, specifically, by this power?"

Erika rubbed her chin in thought. "Perhaps it would be best to explain how Chana differs from magic. From what you’ve explained to me, magic depends on a person’s will, as well as the chaos words he uses, the source of the power, the amount of energy he has, and, perhaps, his affinity for one area of magic over another. Is this correct?"

"More or less," Lina answered. "There’s also the person’s skill level and familiarity with the spell--someone could have all the energy in the world but might not be able to cast a simple Flare Arrow," she explained, thinking back to when Sylphiel, the most powerful white magic sorceress she knew, tried Shamanistic spells.

Erika nodded. "That makes sense. Chana, however," she continued, "only depends on three things: a Chakar’s will, the amount of energy she has, and her affinity, or affinities. We will things to be so, and they are, within the limitations of the other two. We don’t know where we derive the power to do this, since we know little about gods or demons, or the elements you use in your Shamanistic spells, so we say it comes from our will. Some have a stronger will than others, and a Chakar’s will is always at least partially determined by the situation at hand. For example, if I need to use Chana to defeat an enemy that has threatened people I care about, my will is very strong. If, on the other hand, I don’t want to fight someone, my will is much weaker, and the results of my Chana will be lessened."

"The other two factors, energy and affinity, limit a Chakar’s power, no matter how strong his will is. Energy is the biggest limitation in the short-term. Each Chakar has a certain amount of energy at his disposal--like water in a cup. When the water is siphoned off so that there is none left, the cup is empty, meaning that that Chakar cannot use Chana to do anything until the energy slowly and naturally replenishes itself. For example, I barely have any energy left; I spent most of it fighting the dragon. I don’t have the energy to heal my hands completely, despite the fact that my desire to heal them is very strong. If I tried, it would be like drinking from an empty cup. Of course, in general, bigger tasks require more energy. But energy is also limited by the last factor: affinity."

"No one knows how affinity is determined. It seems to be an inborn thing, perhaps inherited, which no one can control. This is the long-term limitation, and the best way to explain why is by example. I have an affinity for teleportation and telekinesis, as well as the manipulation of pure energy. That means that when I first gained the use of my Chana, when I turned nine, the first thing I figured out how to do was teleport, move things without touching them, and zap things with electricity. No one had to explain it to me; I just knew. Healing or telepathy, or creating things like fire or ice out of nothing, on the other hand, did not come naturally to me. I had to be taught how to heal and mind-read, and I’ve never been able to create fire or ice using Chana. Therefore, the things that I cannot do naturally, no matter how small the task may be, still take an enormous amount of energy to do when compared to what they accomplish. I could teleport ten people with the same amount of energy that it would take me to read one person’s mind for more than a few seconds. As it is, I’m going to have to wait at least an hour before I have enough energy to finish healing my hands, despite the fact that I could probably teleport myself across this clearing twice right now. So, you see how affinity is a long-term limitation: it limits what a Chakar can do throughout her entire life, not just at any given moment."

Zel and Lina exchanged a glance and sat back, digesting all of this. "Well," Lina began after several seconds of silence, "that explains how you were able to do the things you did against the dragon. I’m assuming that the power we witnessed coming from your uncle is the same kind of thing." Erika nodded.

"What’s his affinity?" Zel asked.

Erika paused before answering, an unreadable expression passing over her face. "I don’t know Uncle’s affinity, actually. No one does." She looked at Zel and Lina alternately, and slowly said, "Uncle is unique among we Chakar, because he is able to use magic. No one else who was born into the Chakar clan can use magic. And furthermore, we are immune to the effects of magic. That’s why when you were throwing spells at him not long ago, they didn’t hurt him."

"And that’s why the dragon was immune to magic, as well," Lina conjectured. "Your uncle somehow changed the curse that summoned the dragon, controlling it and infusing his power within it, so that it would have his immunity, right?"

Erika shrugged. "I wouldn’t know. I suppose it’s possible, but I know so little about how curses work that I wouldn’t be qualified to say."

"How does this immunity work, in the first place?" Zel asked skeptically. "I’ve never heard of anything like it in people."

"I’ll show you," Erika replied with a nod. She held out her arm to the side, and said to Lina, "Please aim one of your fire spells at my arm." When Lina looked at her quizzically and hesitated, she nodded in encouragement, a half-smile crossing her lips. "Go on."

Lina and Zel exchanged a glance, but Lina finally shrugged and lifted a finger. "Fireball," she whispered, and a small ball of flame appeared above her hand and flew toward Erika’s arm.

Erika didn’t even flinch as the flames struck her, catching her the tatters of her sleeve on fire. She calmly patted the fire out, and turned her attention back to Zel and Lina, who were looking at her unharmed arm with astonishment. "All that was affected was my dress. The same thing would happen if you had used a larger version of that spell. All that would have been affected would have been my clothes and my surroundings." She replaced her arm in her lap and her smile faded. "Of course," she said in a quieter tone, "while direct magical attacks have no effect on Chakar, we are just as vulnerable to injury from their indirect effects. That’s how Uncle killed my honored parents."

Lina pursed her lips, turning the new information over in her mind. "What happened to them?"

Erika looked away forlornly. She shifted position, pulling the fabric of her skirt down over her knees as she brought them up to hug them against her chest. "You heard Uncle," she said miserably while staring into the fire. "He killed them--Their Majesties, my honored mother and father, to steal the throne. He would have killed me much sooner, no doubt, but Father told me before he died to pretend to be dumb and powerless."

"Then you were there when they died?" Zel asked, confused.

Erika shook her head. "No, I wasn’t. I was at Castle Ori, awake in bed when it happened."

Lina lifted an eyebrow. "How did they tell you to hide your abilities if your Uncle killed them so far away from you?"

"And why, for that matter?" Zel added.

"Uncle attacked them when they were far away from home, on a mountainside near the southern tip of Chorion. They were going to their summer castle in the south, while I stayed at Castle Ori to continue my schoolwork. That night, Uncle attacked them, and there was a horrific battle. It culminated when Uncle combined his magic and his Chana together, and used them to create a landslide from which my honored parents couldn’t escape. They were trapped under the rocks--and mortally wounded. My honored mother was a powerful Chakar who possessed the abilities of telepathy and telekinesis--but she had expended most of her energy during the fighting. My honored father was telekinetic, but he also possessed a very rare affinity; he was clairvoyant. As they lay together, dying under the rocks, Father told Mother to contact me telepathically." Erika’s face tightened with pain. "Their last thoughts to me were, of course, loving. But," she added quickly, "Father received two visions just before he...he died." She paused again, and took a deep breath to calm herself. "The first vision was that if I didn’t hide my growing Chana, Uncle would kill me before I could expose what he had done and bring him to justice. The second...the second predicted that Uncle would bring about the downfall of the country--and the world--if I tried to strike against him before he made the first move."

Zel furrowed his brow, perplexed. "So you were supposed to be the one to prevent your uncle from creating this downfall? What could he do that would be that destructive?" He turned to Lina. "He wouldn’t know something like the Giga Slave, would he?"

Lina shook her head. "I don’t see how, Zel. It’s not like that’s a spell that just anyone knows--that’s why Fibrizo tried to get me to cast it a year or so back, remember?"

Erika shrugged. "I have no idea what Uncle could possibly do. Father didn’t have time to explain what he had seen. All I know was that he saw that Uncle would kill me if I didn’t hide my Chana, and that I and a group of people--I’m assuming that’s you--might prevent the downfall of the world as long as I didn’t try to attack him before he made the first strike," she said softly.

"Which explains why you didn’t take your parents’ revenge before all this," Lina reasoned.

"That’s right."

Zel reached over to the pile of wood not far from the fire and threw some small pieces in. The fire blazed and the shadows of the forest jumped, and for a moment, the chirping of the nearby insects paused. By the time it resumed its previous volume, however, Lina had formulated her next question. "I can see why King Rolard wanted to kill your parents, Erika, to steal the throne. But why would he want to kill you, if he’s firmly entrenched in the throne and he didn’t suspect you had any power? And what could he be planning that’s so big he felt he had to kill all of us?"

"Perhaps he wants to kill me so he doesn’t leave any loose ends untied," Erika answered. "Or maybe he did suspect that I could fight him back, and wanted to get rid of me just in case that was true. As for you," she paused and shrugged, "I would guess it’s because of what he said--you’re a liability. He probably heard of you when you destroyed DarkStar; rumors about you spread like wildfire in this part of the world in the aftermath of that battle. Maybe he thought that as soon as he did something suspicious, you’d come running anyway, and so he decided to force you to fight him on his terms so you wouldn’t stop him from doing whatever he’s planning with the artifact in the Tower."

"Do you have any idea what’s in there, Erika?" Zel asked.

She shook her head. "I never saw the book from which Uncle got the description of the legend Achek’s Tower. What I do know is that Uncle has been obsessed with power ever since my father gained the use of his Chana when they were growing up. Father was revered among our clan because of his premonitions, and his telekinetic abilities were beyond compare. That’s what drove Uncle to leave the palace when he was nineteen--he sought a way to make himself more powerful because his Chana was weaker than Father’s. No one heard of him for seven years, until not after I was born, when he showed up again one day at court, able to use magic. The common folk were never told this, of course--we’ve always kept our Chana a secret from them as well, anyway. Uncle acted as if all was well between himself and my honored father, but I believe he was plotting his scheme to take over the throne the whole time."

Lina pursed her lips and stared into the fire. "Since he’s obsessed with power," she said slowly, "it would stand to reason that whatever is in the Tower is something that produces more power."

"Or amplifies it," Zel added.

"He’s powerful enough already. His magic and Chana combination are hard to beat. I just wonder where he gets the power to do what he does--before he left court he was so weak," Erika mused.

They fell silent for a few moments while the fire crackled and burned and insects chirped rhythmically. Through the trees, the stars had become visible against the backdrop of the darkened sky. They winked at Lina, who was suddenly reminded of all the times she and Gourry had to sleep under a starry sky while traveling. "Gourry..." she murmured.

"Well," Zel said finally, after clearing his throat, "now that we have a better idea of what’s going on, we need to start planning. Erika, you said you think he’ll make his move tomorrow?"

Erika nodded. "I’d give him at least a day and a half to recover," she said. "He won’t make a move until his energy has returned in full. That will give me some time to recuperate, too."

"Good. It sounds like we’ll need your Chana if we have any hope of defeating him," Zel replied.

Erika turned to Lina. "Are you with us, too?"

Lina looked up at her, the pain in knowing that Gourry was in danger melting into a sense of purpose, which smoldered within her ruby red eyes. "I just want Gourry and Ameria back," she said. "King Rolard is going to regret that he ever heard of us," she said dangerously. Lina uncrossed her legs and pushed herself up so that she was sitting on her heels. She cracked her knuckles and leaned forward. "I think," she said with a deadly smile, "I have a plan."

Slowly, ever so slowly, Gourry became aware once again that he was somewhere. He didn’t know exactly where, yet, but the only way he'd find that out would be to open his eyes.

The swordsman did just that, groaning when light struck his eyes and exploded in his head. He blinked, and then it registered that something big filled his vision. Wood, his mind told him. It was a piece of wood. What was a piece of wood doing in a dungeon? Gourry’s eyes traveled along the edge of the piece of wood until he realized that it was supported by legs--a table. That was it. He was looking at a table.

Gourry sat up against the protests of his pained muscles, rubbing his head with one gloved hand, and gazed around. This didn’t look like a dungeon at all, he thought as he noted the small chairs that circled proportionately small tables throughout the room, and the bar in the corner, which was empty. No, this was definitely not a dungeon.

"If I didn’t know any better, I’d almost say I’ve been here before," he said aloud. Shaking his head, he stood up and rested an elbow on the palm of his other hand, and rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "Hmmmm..."

Suddenly, to his surprise, plates heaping with food appeared on the table next to him. He jumped toward the table, grabbed a fork, stuck it into a piece of steaming hot chicken, and raised it to his mouth unquestioningly. Just before he bit down on it, however, something occurred to him. "Waaaait," he murmured, looking around suspiciously. Finally, he dropped the fork, smacked his fist against his palm, and exclaimed, "I know! I have been here before! This is that weird place with all the chibi Linas!" He laughed. "No wonder this doesn’t look like a dungeon!"

Gourry’s laughter faded, however, when it he heard a faint, disembodied laugh echo through the room. It sounded like Lina’s laugh, only higher-pitched. He slowly started to remember what had happened the last time he was in this place, his eyes widening. "Ohhhh no, not again!" he cried, and as soon as he did so, the laughter rang loudly and the whole building began to shrink.

"Lina! What’s going on?" he yelled. He turned and stumbled toward the door, but as soon as his hand touched the handle, it flew open and thousands of tiny penguins spilled inside. "Penguins?!" Gourry gasped in shock as the wave of penguins crashed against him, and he fell backwards on top of some of them, whereupon he discovered that they were merely stuffed toys. As if in response, the laughter only grew impossibly louder. The toys felt soft against his back--and warm. Why were they warm? Gourry didn’t have time to stop and think about that, however; the ceiling was fast closing down upon him. "Lina!" he yelled. "LINA!!"

"Gourry-san!" a voice cried from far away. It didn’t sound like Lina’s voice. "Gourry-san! Gourry-san, wake up!" it commanded.

Ameria, now awake, struggled to get out from under Gourry, calling his name in the hope that he would wake up and move. His heavy shoulder guard was pressed into her ribcage, making it hard to breathe. She was about to try a levitation spell on him when he suddenly yelled "Lina!" and sat up with a strangled cry.

"Gourry-san! You’re awake!" Ameria exclaimed. She rolled onto all fours and scrambled to his side, relieved. "Gourry-san, are you all right?" she asked, peering at him through the dimness.

"Lina..." he murmured, holding a hand to his head.

Ameria shook her head. "She’s not here, remember? We’ve been kidnapped."

Gourry glanced around, and decided that he probably wasn’t dreaming now. He had been in a dungeon before he was knocked out, so it only made sense that he would be in one now. Finally, his eyes adjusted to the low light, and he focused on Ameria, who was looking at him with concerned-filled blue eyes. "Are you all right?"

She winced. "I think I’ll need a healing spell for the bruises, and you will too, but otherwise, I’m OK." She gently fingered the lump that had formed on her forehead when she cracked it against the hard, metal floor while eyeing the bruise that had formed along Gourry’s jawline and back into his hair from his fall. "But before I do that, we have to see if there’s any way out of here--we have to stop King Rolard before he attacks Lina-san."

"What did he do to us?" Gourry asked as he picked himself up gingerly and helped Ameria to her feet.

Ameria held a glowing hand to her head and felt the bump go down as her healing spell took effect. "I’m not sure," she said as she finished the spell. "The king simply held out his hand, and you dropped unconscious. Then he did the same to me." She furrowed her brow in thought and folded her arms, turning over the king’s words in her mind. "He said something about losing energy easily--meaning that he probably took it from us, but he didn’t use magic. That’s what confuses me. How did he do it?"

Gourry walked over to one of the walls and began feeling along it, his fingers searching for a hole or flaw in the Orihalcon sheeting that he could break through. He asked over his shoulder, "Maybe his power is like the princess’s?"

"Maybe," Ameria admitted. "She did do some strange things against that dragon, and none of them were magic." She went to the other wall and began searching it as well. She felt along the cool metal with one hand, while the other controlled a lightning spell. After a minute, she sighed and murmured, "I wonder if Zelgadiss-san and Lina-san and Erika-hime are all right."

"Lina..."Gourry murmured. Her panicked cry as he was kidnapped by the king echoed in his ears, and he shook his head. "As long as they got away from the site of the earthquake, then they should be fine. If I know Lina, she’s probably plotting what to do against the king right now." He turned to Ameria with a smirk.

She bit her lip, then nodded and tried to smile back. "I hope you’re right," she whispered worriedly. Despite Gourry’s assurances, Ameria believed King Rolard when he said he wanted to kill Lina and her friends. The fact that he had power of an unknown nature and that was apparently not something that could be countered by magic only worried her more. She just hoped they had managed to escape the splitting earth near the site of the Tower to a safer location.

They continued examining the room for a possible escape route, but, after an hour, they began to realize that the room was too well-lined with Orihalcon for Ameria’s magic to slip through, and that without Gourry’s sword they wouldn’t be able to chip any of it away from the walls. The metal bars were thick, and quickly absorbed all the magic she threw at the stone wall beyond them. Ameria plopped down on the floor with a sigh of frustration and rubbed her fatigued eyes. While Zelgadiss had done an excellent job of healing her, given the circumstances during the battle earlier that day, she ached with the exhaustion that accompanies any injury. She leaned against the wall and silently prayed that Zelgadiss, Lina, and Princess Erika were safe.

"So, what now?" Gourry asked. He stood in the middle of the cell, his arms folded, trying to think of another way to escape the dungeon cell so he could find his way back to Lina. He worked his jaw in frustration while his eyes studied the bars a few feet in front of him, scrutinizing them for some invisible crack or flaw that he could use to break them.

Ameria leaned her head back and stared at the ceiling, which they had found to be just as well-plated with Orihalcon as the rest of the room. "Right now I could almost fall asleep," she admitted. She rubbed her forearms, noting how cool and clammy her skin felt. "It’s a little cold in here, though."

Gourry nodded, and sat down on the floor next to her. "Pull your cape around you--that should help."

"Okay." Ameria unclipped her off-white cloak and pulled it closer around her exposed arms while Gourry pulled his knees up to his chest as far as his armor would allow and thought back to the dream he had had when he was unconscious.

"Ameria...do you know anything about dreams?" he asked after a few minutes of silence.

Huddled under the folds of off-white fabric, Ameria shifted a little so she could see him better. "Shrine maidens sometimes interpret dreams--why do you ask?"

Gourry rubbed the back of his neck uncomfortably, and moved his legs so that he was now sitting cross-legged. "Welllllll," he began, "I’ve had this dream--twice now, I think--and it stuck out in my mind for some reason."

It must have been some dream for Gourry-san to remember it like this, Ameria thought with an inward smirk. "If you tell me about it, maybe I can tell you what it means," she offered.

He smiled at her and nodded. "That might help. The first dream started out with me walking through this field, and everything was sort of golden, and then I reached a restaurant..."

Ameria listened closely while Gourry told her of his dreams, furrowing her brow in concentration. Finally, when he was finished, she took a deep breath and leaned back against the wall, putting the pieces of symbolism in his dreams together in her mind. After a few minutes, she said, "Well, the fact that it’s a recurring dream in itself means something. Your inner self is trying to tell you something."

"But what?" Gourry asked. "Why would I want to tell myself something? Wouldn’t I know what it is already?"

Ameria shrugged. "You may not. It may be some deep, inner feeling that you only act on unconsciously. Or it may be something that you’ve tried not to think about for some reason--like an emotion that’s inconvenient or makes you or someone else uncomfortable."

"Hmmm..." Gourry murmured. "Can you figure out anything else?"

"Well, what interests me the most is the fact that Lina-san is in the dream. I couldn’t tell you why there were so many copies of her, and why all of them were so little, but I I think the dream revolves around her. Once she appeared, aside from doing all the things she’s usually done, like eating all the food and trying to steal your sword, that’s when a lot of the weird things began to happen. Something about her made that room shrink."

Gourry sat back and furrowed his brow, digesting what she said. "So Lina made the room shrink, and that was the point of the dream?" he asked after a few moments.

Ameria nodded. "I think so. Recurring dreams usually contain some kind of call to action, so that you can rectify whatever problem your subconscious is digging up. A shrinking room seems like a call to action to me because it forced you to take action to get away from it."

"Hmmmm..." Gourry murmured. "I wonder what would have happened if I hadn’t tried to run away in the dream."

Ameria lifted an eyebrow, a little surprised at his insight. She hadn’t even thought of that, herself. "Well, you can control your dreams. Just make up your mind next time not to run away." She tilted her head and studied Gourry’s face while he pondered what she had said. Unreadable emotions passed over him like flowing water, and Ameria found herself wondering what he was thinking. People mistook Gourry for a dumb swordsman, but in truth, he could be as astute--and sometimes more so--than Lina, Zelgadiss, or herself. Finally, his usual sunny expression returned, despite the fact that they had been kidnapped and tossed into a dungeon to be imprisoned for who knew how long. Ameria tried to stifle a yawn, but found that her eyelids were beginning to droop while her whole body felt sluggish with fatigue.

"You look tired," Gourry said kindly. "Go to sleep; I’ll keep watch."

"No, no," she protested. "That’s not fair to you--you’re just as tired as I am!"

Gourry shook his head and shrugged. "I didn’t get knocked around nearly as badly as you did. I’m not tired. And besides," he said, looking away for a second, "I have a few things to think about."

Ameria wanted to curl up in a ball and fall asleep right then and there, but for politeness’ sake, she asked, "Are you sure? We can take turns staying awake--just wake me up in a few hours."

"Don’t worry about me," Gourry said, and gestured for her to lay down. "I’m not tired. Go ahead and get some sleep."

Reluctantly, Ameria wrapped her cloak around herself and lay down. "All right," she said slowly. "If you insist."

"I do."

Ameria smiled. "Thanks, Gourry-san."

"Thank you," he replied, "for listening."

Ameria shifted a few times to get comfortable while Gourry laced his fingers behind his head and leaned against the wall, his ankles crossed straight out in front of him. After a few minutes of silence, Ameria lifted her head and looked at him thoughtfully, and asked, "You really care about Lina-san, don’t you, Gourry-san?"

Gourry blinked, then unlaced his fingers and brought his hands down to his sides. He looked away and admitted, "I have for a while now."

"When are you going to tell her that?"

The corners of his mouth upturned in a small smile that was all at once wistful, hopeful, and just a little sad. "When she’s ready," he replied.

"I hope that’s soon," Ameria said quietly. He just nodded. After a few seconds of silence, she rolled over onto her side, clutching her cloak closely around her so it would keep out the damp, musty cold that permeated the air, and drifted off to sleep.

Gourry listened to Ameria’s breathing, and, once he was satisfied that it had taken on a deep, even pattern, he stood up and started to pace the length of the cell. He had a lot on his mind, but at least tonight he had nowhere to go and nothing to do but think. After a few more minutes of restless pacing, Gourry reclaimed his spot on the Orihalcon floor near Ameria. He sat there for endless hours, staring into a dim corner of the room, turning several things over and over in his mind.

Zelgadiss’s sea-green eyes drifted over the makeshift camp lazily, briefly resting on the forms of his two sleeping companions huddled by the dwindling fire. He faintly heard birds calling to each other, meaning that it was probably only an hour or so before dawn. He stared into the small fire, leaning back against a the trunk of a massive oak, listening to the rhythmic chirping of insects and letting his mind wander, waiting for morning to come.

Several minutes later, he heard a soft rustling in the camp, but he quickly dismissed it--it was probably just a squirrel or a rabbit. His mind resumed wandering until it was interrupted by a touch on his shoulder and a voice whispering in his ear, "Lay down and get some sleep, Zelgadiss. I’ll take watch now."

His eyes snapped open, and his hand instinctively reached for his sword hilt. Erika took a step back and away from the weapon, which lay on the pine-needle carpeted ground at her feet. "Relax, shhhh...," she whispered. "Or you’ll wake Lina."

Zel blinked and looked up at her, confused. "When did you wake up?" he asked. "I didn’t see--"

"That’s because you had fallen asleep," she interrupted with a smile. "It’s all right--close your eyes. I’ll keep watch till morning."

He shook his head. "I didn’t mean to nod off," he said sheepishly. "I’m awake now, though."

"I gave you that much of a fright, did I?" Erika teased, amused at the almost pout that had formed on his face.

He gave a little snort and settled back against the tree, dropping his unsheathed sword to the ground at his side. "I just didn’t realize I’d fallen asleep, that’s all."

Erika shrugged and stepped over his ankles, and took a seat to his left under the giant tree. "I don’t need much sleep," she explained. "So why don’t you just let me take the watch? You must be exhausted."

"I don’t need much sleep either," he replied. "I slept while Lina took watch--that’s enough for me."

"Well, then...I guess we’ll both stay up," she said.

"Guess so."

There was an uncomfortable silence, during which Zel resumed staring into the fire while Erika studied her companion. "So..." she began.

"So..." Zel murmured at the same time. He glanced at her quickly, then both looked away. "Are, uh..." he said, and cleared his throat, "are your hands feeling better?"

Erika looked down at her now-healed palms and nodded. "Yes, thank you. I’m sorry about stealing your sword, by the way."

He waved a hand as if to brush her apology away. "Don’t worry about it. You did what you had to."

"And...I’m sorry again...for deceiving you and your friends," she said hesitatingly, fidgeting with a tear in her skirt.

Zel paused, then nodded. "I guess you did what you had to there, as well."

She nodded and leaned back against the tree behind her and Zel. "It’s strange," she said after a pause, "now that the secret’s out. I’ve guarded it so long I can’t even imagine what it’s like to live with it in the open. The only other person who knows the truth about me is my childhood friend, Janak, the prince of Orios."

"Where’s that?" Zel asked, more out of general curiosity and boredom than anything else.

"Orios is Chorion’s northern ally. It’s the only other country in the world that’s ruled by a Chakar family. The people don’t know that, of course," she explained, "just like the Chorioni people never knew about my parents’ power. Janak is the youngest of four children, and he travels a lot with a group of soldiers. They wander the roads for months without returning home, keeping them free of bandits and thieves. He’s the only other person I’ve told the truth about Uncle and how my parents died--but his honored father is a bit hot-tempered. I’m afraid it would start a war if Janak’s family knew everything that was going on.

Zel nodded and leaned back against the tree as well, staring into space, his thoughts miles from their little camp in the Tes’sha forest. He was so quiet that, after a few minutes, Erika began to think he had fallen asleep. She found he hadn’t, however, when he snapped out of his reverie and picked up his sword with his right hand. He studied the blade in the dim firelight, noting the chinks that had formed on it since yesterday. To Erika’s surprise, he grasped the blade between his left thumb and index finger, and began running them up and down its length, making a soft scraping sound as he smoothed out the chipped metal with his bare fingers.

After a minute of doing this, he noticed her watching him and glanced in her direction, an unreadable expression on his face. She quickly looked away and toward the dying fire. Wordlessly, she pointed at two pieces of wood that lay not far away, and they immediately jumped into the fire of their own accord. She watched the flames slowly lick at them and quietly asked, "Have you any family, Zelgadiss?"

The scraping sound paused for a second, but quickly resumed. "I did. They’re all dead now."

"Oh." She winced as a familiar wave of pain washed over her, as it did whenever she thought of her own dead family. "How...how did they die?" she asked. "If you don’t mind my asking," she added quickly.

Normally, he would have told her to mind her own business. There was something about her demeanor, however, that led Zel to put more trust in her than he otherwise would have, despite the bizarre events of the previous day and what she had revealed to him and Lina at the campfire that night. Perhaps he sensed a kindred spirit in her, or if nothing else, an understanding one. Or maybe battle fatigue had worn down his usually stony manner to the point where he would consider talking about himself to a relative stranger. Whatever the case, Zel found himself summing up his life story to an attentive Erika while his fingers scraped back and forth along his sword rhythmically.

"Wow," she breathed once he was finished. "I had no idea you had been through so much." He just nodded, and held his sword at eye level, checking the blade’s balance. "So you’re still looking for your cure--that’s why you came with us," she said.

"I’ve been looking for a cure ever since," he replied. "Including now. Which is why I’d like to take a look at whatever we find in Achek’s Tower."

"Certainly," she said with a nod. She paused, a new thought crossing her mind. "Of course, you don’t want to end up like your grandfather...searching obsessively like that until you go mad..." she mused.

Zel blinked, and put his sword down next to him on the blanket of pine needles that covered the forest floor. "What do you mean?" he asked, turning to look at her skeptically.

"Well, it would stand to reason that Rezo wanted his cure very badly as well...perhaps that’s why he cursed you, to make you suffer as he did. Maybe fate intends for you to learn the lesson he didn’t--not to become obsessive about it," she said rationally.

Zel blinked again, and shook his head. "R-right," he muttered noncommittally, suddenly very uncomfortable.

"After all," she continued softly, staring at her hands in her lap. "You can endlessly pursue that which you think will remedy your situation--whether it’s finding a cure or bringing murderers to justice--but if you have no inner peace, your remedy won’t bring you any real satisfaction."

He snorted. "Isn’t that a bit hypocritical, Princess?" he said, slipping into his old form of address for her. "You said yourself you’d like to kill your uncle." Erika bowed her head and closed her eyes, and Zel leaned toward her, afraid he had made her cry. "I--" he started to say.

"You’re right," she interrupted softly, so softly he could barely hear her. "You’re absolutely right. I’m guilty of what I just said, probably more so than you are. I’ve dreamt of all kinds of things--killing Uncle, dragging him before the royal courts and ordering his execution, making a public disgrace of him, and more--but it won’t bring my parents back." Zel didn’t know how to respond to that, so he stayed quiet, just listening. "What I should do is bring him back to the capital, present my evidence, and call for a trial--that way the people will decide his fate, not me." She sniffed and put a hand to her eyes, trying to massage away the tears that threatened to fall. "Part of me wants to kill him...but another part just wants the whole ordeal to be over with. That part just wants me to walk away from him, walk away from the palace and the responsibilities and the lie I’ve lived all my life," she said, emotion growing stronger and stronger in her voice as she pounded her fist against her other hand, punctuating her words, "but I never could...not until I had brought him to justice, somehow. I owe my honored parents that much."

Zel, who never knew what to say during emotional times like this, just nodded. After a few moments, when she had gotten her emotions better under control, he asked, "What do you think made your uncle kill them in the first place? I know you mentioned he was jealous of your father--but was that it? Jealousy?"

Erika sighed and ran a hand through her blond hair, pulling free some tangles. "I have long suspected that Uncle is mad. Oh, he acts normal on the surface...but I think his jealousy has slowly driven him insane. Plus, he disappeared for such a long time before I was born, there’s no way of knowing what happened to him during that time. He may have found the technique that gives him his power, that allows him to combine magic and Chana, only to have it drive him further insane...who knows? All I know is that right now, he’s mad--and in a very cold and calculating way. He doesn’t lose control easily, or at least he hasn’t ever since he came back from wherever he was when he left for such a long time."

"If you presented that before the courts, including his confession to you and maybe some witnesses who suspected he had evil intent toward them," Zel said, gesturing to Lina, "do you think they’d convict him of your parents’ murders?"

Erika shrugged. "I don’t know--the high court is somewhat apolitical, but the Dimas--that’s Chorion’s legislative body--is not. When he took the throne, Uncle quickly figured out who his allies were, and did his best to eliminate those who weren’t, one way or another. He never agree with Father’s ideas about governing a country, anyway," she said bitterly. "Now the Dimas does his bidding--almost all of them are staunchly on his side on all the important issues, including taxation and the economy. There’s a reason Chorion is as depressed as it is."

"Well," Zel said after a pause, "it sounds to me like you’re taking a big risk if you try to take him back to the capital alive to stand trial. It sounds like you should kill him if you have the chance."

Erika shook her head. "I’ll only use that option if I absolutely have to, as much as I’d like to take my revenge against him. Killing him won’t solve all my problems."

Zel shrugged. "Suit yourself. All I can say is that I won’t hesitate to kill whenever we fight him again, not after what he’s done to Ameria."

Erika looked away, turning his words over in her mind. "Do...are...you and Ameria..." she stumbled over her words, "Are you two...close? You seem to be very worried about her." She glanced up at him, and noticed that his cheeks had turned pinker.

"I--I don’t know what you’re talking about," he protested quickly. "Who wouldn’t be worried about her--and about Gourry, too? They’ve been kidnapped by a madman."

"Oh...I thought...maybe there was something between you and Ameria--"

"There isn’t."

Nodding, she glanced over at him and found him to be studying his sword again, holding the blade straight out in front of him and checking its balance. His face was still a little red, she noted. "What about Lina and Gourry?" she asked. "Are they..." she made some noncommittal gesture as her voice trailed off."

Zel just rolled his eyes. "Don’t ask me. And don’t bother asking them, either. It’ll just earn you a Fireball from Lina, believe me. That’s such a touchy subject for her, I only bring it up when I’m feeling particularly brave or witty."

"Lina’s that shy, is she?" Erika said with a smirk.

He shook his head and studied Lina’s sleeping form across the fire. "You’d never think she would be, would you," he said. It wasn’t a question. "But yes, she’s that shy." He turned to Erika, amusement twisting the corners of his mouth upward. "You could try it sometime, though--with your resistance to magic. Try asking her how she feels about Gourry sometime, and watch her reaction. I’ll bet you’ll never see that many shades of pink again in your life." He considered what he had just said, and smirked. "In fact, if I ever tease her about it in the future, I’ll want you nearby, just in case I need a shield."

Erika grinned and nodded. "I’ll remember that."

Just then, Lina shifted and wrinkled her nose. She brought a hand up to her face and ran it over her eyes, groaning as she began to stir. "Well what do you know," Zel noted, looking up at the sky through the tree branches. "It’s morning."

"Morning?" Lina echoed faintly, one hand still covering her face. "Make it go away." With that, she rolled over onto her side and clutched her cape around her. A minute or so later, Zel and Erika could hear snoring.

Erika giggled musically, then stretched her arms in front of her. Zel stood up and found the scabbard to his sword where he had discarded it that night, and sheathed the weapon. He clipped it onto his belt, and glanced around the forest. "I think I’ll try to find something for breakfast," he said, and gestured toward Lina’s slumbering form. "If she doesn’t have food in the morning she never shuts up about it."

Erika nodded and leaned back against the tree. "I’ll stay here, then. Hurry back, though--magic resistant or not, I still don’t want to face her when she’s hungry." Zel smirked and turned to leave, but paused when she said, "Zelgadiss...it was good to talk to you."

He glanced back at her and nodded. "Good talking to you, too," he replied, then disappeared into the forest.

Erika watched him leave, pondering what they had discussed that night until she noticed that the fire was beginning to dwindle again. She stood up, and, stepping quietly over to the little burning pile of wood, stared down at it, using her Chana to clear away the old ashes to make room for new wood. All the while, she mentally rehearsed the plan that Lina had come up with that night, wondering what would happen if it succeeded--or if it failed.