Zelgadis stared at the blue mug being proffered to him by Xellos. "A cure?" He repeated.
Xellos smiled slightly and nodded.
Curious, Zelgadis sniffed. The fumes of pure alcholol or something very close to it almost knocked him back.
"What!?" He said, sipping it with a new found suspicion in his mind. "This is just sake."
Xelgadis nodded. "Excellent, isn't it? Probably the best you'll find in Bay Gaws."
"In what way is rice wine a cure!?" Zelgadis demanded
Xellos smiled. "I thought it might help you relax. For a lot of you humans, this drink is a cure to their current troubles."
"Well not mine!" Zelgadis said. "My trouble is that I am not HUMAN!"
"Dude, are you going to drink that?" Timbre said as he and the Blue Demon ambled over finally. Without waiting for an answer, the musician grabbed the mug and knocked it back. If you have ever had sake, then you know traditionally the drink is served in petite little cups, and one sips slowly to enjoy the taste. The reason for this is that sake is quite strong. "DUDE" Timbre said as he felt his entire head clear out. "WHOOOOSH"
The Blue demon laughed. "Go on boy, you're ruining my mood."
Timbre's eyes slowly rolled back into place. "Then like, let me go solo."
The demon shrugged and gestured to the stage. Timbre picked up his guitar, and pulled a stool, and began to play and sing in a low deep voice. "Then you really might know what its like to sing the blues"
Before Zelgadis could decide exactly what to do to Xellos (or at least try), the Blue Demon turned to him and spoke. Actually, he didn't really turn, because he just closed one set of eyes and opened the ones on the back of his head. "So, you are part Blue Demon? You want to know how I got this way,and you want the spell?"
Zelgadis raised an eyebrow. "Yes, but how did you know?"
The Blue Demon chuckled. "Xellos." He paused. "So I know your names, but let me tell you mine. I'm Louie."
Ameria meanwhile had very tightly gripped her own hands together to stop her initial reaction of fright. Sure, Louie was a creepy looking demon, but anyone who could sing so beautifully couldn't be all bad. His voice was nice too, gentle, ye gruff, soothing sound.
"I..I..." She bit her lip to stop the stutter. "I'm Ameria." She said.
"Miss Ameria, ain't I blue enough?"
Ameria blushed. "What do you mean?"
"Now you're so pretty, you're gonna go and break my heart, that's what I mean. And I'll just get a whole lot bluer."
Ameria smiled and blushed.
Zelgadis was less amused. "So do you know anything about a spell to turn people into Blue demons, used by the red priest Rezzo?" He said getting straight to the point.
"I sure was glad when he died." The demon lifted one of its hands to its head, and closed one of the eyes looking at Ameria, and opened the one nearest Zelgadis. "But why would you want Rezzo's spell?"
"Because, Rezzo cursed me to look like this and I intend to break the spell."
"So Xellos said. I just want to know why you want a cure?"
Zelgadis crushed his hands together. "I just do."
"Boy, you're young. And when I was young, I didn't listen to nobody nowhow either. But take it from an old blue demon, for what its worth, a cure isn't all its cracked up to be."
"I'll take my chances." Zelgadis replied.
Louie shrugged (an impressive sight considering how many arms he had) and from somewhere pulled out a book. "Well, if you're done thinking you're done thinking. So here you go."
Zelgadis looked at the book, and removed the other two spells he had gathered.
"AH!" Xellos said snatching them out of his hands. "So, you have all the composite spells?"
"GIVE THAT BACK" Ameria and Zelgadis yelled.
Louie's arms instantly retrieved the spell books. "Now now, Xellos. Ain't no time for your tricks if the boy done made up his mind. Not in my bar anyway."
Xellos smiled. "I was merely going to offer to perform the spell, which would be helpful, wouldn't it?."
Louie nodded. "That sure is one tricky spell. Look what happened to me when I tried to get cured."
"You mean you - " Ameria stopped herself just shy of saying something insulting.
"But I got used to it. The form has its advantages, really." Louie said. "I was just a low down ordinary kind of guy before, but now...well.." Louie chuckled. "Its a wonderful world when you can hold your own."
Ameria shifted back to one foot. She had kind of wanted to be the one to set Zel free, but of course, she could never claim to be as powerful as Xellos in Mazokou spells.
Zel thought much the same thing, namely that Xellos, unfortunately, probably would need to be the one to invoke the cure.
"SO!" Xellos said smiling, his slitted purple eyes briefly opening. "When should we get started?"
Zelgadis merely stared at Xellos, arms crossed. Maybe Louie had a point - the cure could be worse than the disesase. He shook his head of the thought, took a deep breath and said. "Whenever you are." He refused to be intimidated by Xellos. "So how does this work."
"Can I help?" Ameria said a bit too eagerly.
Xellos bowed his head and smiled even wider. One hand came up in the typical waggling motion as he turned towards Ameria. "I'm afraid this spell must remain a s-e-c-r-e-t."
Ameria, somewhat crestfallen, nodded. "I understand."
Rory cocked his head. "So how long is this going to take?"
"Not long!" Xellos said. "Be back in a splash!" He phased and grabbed a rather reluctant Zelgadis.
"Isn't that 'flash'" Rory wondered, but as he finished the sentence, Xellos reappeared with a very wet, but human Zelgadis.
Ameria blinked at the brown haired young man who both looked familiar and didn't. "Zelgadis?" She said as she stared even harder. The clothes were the same. A slow blush spread on her face as she realized that his clothes were very wet, and almost transparrent. She delicately lowered her eyes.
Zelgadis stumbled forward from Xellos' grasp. "it..it worked."
"But of course." Xellos said smiling.
"I don't believe it!" Zelgadis said. "That bas - "
"Now now." Xellos said holding up a hand "First, you should be greatful to me." He peeled back another finger. "Second, without your cursed form you are a lot weaker." Xellos smiled. "Third, well...I'll keep that a secret for now."
Zelgadis shrugged. For once he had to agree with Xellos. Why was he angry - he was cured! Everything he had ever wanted had just been handed to him. It was almost too much to comprehend. What did he do now?!
Ameria smile blossomed into a sweet curve of happiness. "Oh, Zelgadis!" She said, unable to think of anything else to say
Rory frowned, his eyes measuring Zelgadis new form, and Ameria's reactions to it.
Timbre, done playing his extended guitar solos, stepped off the stage. "Dude, you totally look like a friend of mine." He said. "I just can't think which one." Zelgadis did something unusual. He grinned. "Really?"
"Except dude doesn't smile." Timbre nodded. "Say...where's Zel gone?"
Zelgadis started laughing.
"Its not funny, dude. Around here if someone takes off, well it can be totally bad trouble." Timbre said.
Ameria placed a hand on the guitarist. "Timbre, that is Zelgadis."
"NO WAY!" Timbre said jumping back and knocking Ameria over a bit. "OH, that sucks."
Everyone looked perplexed.
Rory frowned. "He's been searching for a cure for years. After years of struggle, he succeeds and this is bad because?" He trailed off letting the sarcasm hang.
"Yeah, well, think, like, now what is he going to do?" Timbre said. "At least before he like, had a mission."
Zelgadis's mouth flipped open. He hadn't thought that far, really. He hadn't thought at all what it would mean to be human. He knew what it wouldn't mean - being chased, hated, feared. But what more than that?
One of Louie's tentacles slipped forward and shut it for him. "Now, now, don't go lettin that one scare you. You got something more important than a mission now."
"What's that?" Ameria inquired.
"He's got poss-ib-ility now." Louie said with a smile.
Zelgadis stared into a mirror along the wall. This was him. This face with its smooth surfaces of flesh. No pebbles jutting from its surfaces or rimming his eyes. His hands could feel things, the soft texture of his hair, the coarse weave of his (wet) cloak. Possibility indeed. It was wonderful. He could barely comrephend it all. He was human. He was whole. He was free.
He was cold.
"How long is he going to stare at himself?" Rory commented dryly.
"Not as long as I could." Ameria thought to herself. She blushed and clapped her hands. "We should celebrate!"
Zelgadis turned around. "Celebrate?" He backed away.
"Of course!" She said stepping towards him.
"If any town knows how to party, then this is it." Timbre said smiling.
"Exactly." Xellos said.
"Party?" Zelgadis actually sounded scared.
"OF COURSE!" Ameria slammed one fist into the other and whilred around. "This is going to be the biggest bash - we'll - "
"Now slow down little lady. I don't think the gentleman is of a mind for that." Louie chuckled. "A party isn't fun if the one you're having it for don't want it."
Ameria whipped back towards Zel. "You don't want a party?'
"AAAAAACHOOOOOO." He answered as he sneezed. He was feeling really cold.
"Uh oh. Guess that's where my chill went." Timbre said. "Dude, that sucks for you."
"Its his clothes...we've got to get him some dry ones." Ameria said.
Xellos bowed. "That I leave to you. It has been and will be most amusing. Maybe I'll drop by for the party, yes?
The others barely noticed his phasing away.
"Well there are lots of stores." Rory said. "Let's go buy him something."
Ameria nodded and gently supported the slightly dizzy Zelgadis.
Hours later, Zelgadis decided that shopping was most definitely a skill or an art, and one at which Ameria naturally excelled. He would never have picked the white silk shirt or the grey raw silk woven pants. These were not clothes to hide in. They were decorated, and festive and yet, as Ameria argued with him, quite practical.
"Besides that its lightweight, wicks moisture away, IT LOOKS SO COOL!" She exlaimed.
"Dude I'm bored." Timbre complained. Shopping was not his strong suit.
Rory had long since lounged against a wall, seemingly out of it. Actually he did admit the outfit suited the new humanized Zelgadis. He contemplated how to alter that garment to immprove it. Rory's clothes held many secret pockets for necessary items, and were of a magical type fabric and sewn a certain way. Clothes, though not all the picture, certainly do make the man he thought. But then, he wasn't sure if wanted to offer this sort of help to Zelgadis. "Are we done?" He asked.
"It'll do." Zelgadis shrugged. But when no one looked, a slight smile appeared in his reflection.
"I told you, I'm not going back." Nahga said arrongantly when Ameria jumped into her dressing room from a window.
"I know!" Ameria said. "I just wanted to invite you to a party."
"Oh!?" Nahga exlaimed. She raised an eyebrow. "A party? Why?"
"For Zelgadis...he's cured."
"And who is Zelgadis?" Nahga asked "But it doesn't matter. A party is a party."
"Dude, this is a lame party."
"I don't like parties." Zelgadis said. Now that he was human, it was strange. The wine absorbed into him faster, and already his head was spinning.
"Zel, you're looing a bit blue." Nahga said. She placed one hand on his back, and he fell down.
"NAHGA!" Ameria said as she abrudtly stopped dancing with Rory and ran over to Zelgadis.
"I didn't do a thing." She sniffed. "We were just engaging in a little contest"
"Dude, they were just playing a drinking game!"
Ameria looked dissaprovingly at her sister, who just threw her head back and ...laughed.
Zelgadis wearily looked up. "I'm going to be sick."
"NAHGA...stop laughing! Or we'll all be sick." Rory muttered.
"Now, now, quite the party isn't it?"laughed Xellos who appeared, as usual, from nowhere.
"Who invited you?" Zelgadis said.
"Is that anyway to speak to the one who cured you?" Xellos chided the still heaved over Zel.
Ameria sighed. "Really, it is a party, and I suppose you are welcome. Just don't try anything."
"Me? Try something?" Xellos said, his slitted eyes flickering open for just an instant. "why, I would never."
"Keep it that way." Rory replied.
"That woman, on the other hand....." Xellos said as he faded out. "might."
Suddenly the festive party atmosphere was ruined when a short woman, dressed in a skin tight leotard of red, white and blue jumped up. Her eyes were covered by a mask. "I have come to take you back Ameria. The game is over."
"Dude, you're messing up the party. Let's dance." Timbre said strolling up to her.
She batted him away with a huge stream of rainbow colored light. "NO ONE stands in the way of my mission." "Well, I'm not going back!" Ameria said.
"Its my job to take her back!" Rory protested.
"dude..." Timbre said weakly. "I think I'm in love..."
Zelgadis hauled himself up and edged protectively closer to Ameria.
"She doesn't want to go." he edged out.
"Boy, do not intefere in what doesn't concern you. Rory Gabriev, you're fired." The newcomer said, tossing her long blond hair and a piece of paper at Rory. She turned towards Ameria. "I am going to take you back to Sawpht by whatever means are necessary. If that means I have to dispose of your friends, then that's just what I have to do." She smiled. "And its more fun that way."
"I'm fired?!" Rory said increduosly. "No one fires me."
"Well, Prince Sawpht is not "no one." He is the ruler of the strongest empire in the nation. So when he wants something done, he gets it done." The woman said.
Rory narrowed his eyes. "So, do I. Do you think you can beat me?"
She reached a hand into one tall boot. "I don't have to beat you." Suddenly the room was a maze of blue, red, and white smoke, accompanied by the lingering of a laugh too full of confidence to be pleasant.
When everyone looked up, the sound and the smoke long gone, so was Ameria.