After a hefty breakfast, Lina, Gourry, Zelgadis, and Amelia left the inn. It took them a couple of hours to find their way out of the rambling city of Masaoc, but finally, they made it.
They paused for a minute on top of a low hill, a mile or two beyond Masaoc's city walls. With the utmost care, Lina took one of the delicate old maps out of her pocket. "Not much to look at," she said, holding the yellowed, wrinkly piece of paper up to the light. "To think, we spent all those awful months searching for these blasted things..."
"But it was all worth it!" said a grinning Zelgadis, more excited than anyone had ever seen him before. Lina smiled knowingly; after all this time, Zel was finally close to a real cure. If everything went as it was supposed to, this would be his last day as a chimera, as a stone-skinned mix of human, demon, and golem.
Lina held the ancient map carefully, lining it up with the landscape's features that she could see from her position at the top of the hill. "City of Masaoc, over there... Twin-peaked mountain, dead ahead... Nefandes Escarpment, to the left..." She paused for a moment. "You know, I didn't believe the stories at first. I mean, maps showing the way to a magical shrine, where wishes are given away for free? It still seems way too good to be true."
"But it is true. It has to be," said Zelgadis forcefully. "It has to be..."
Gourry and Amelia shared a meaningful look. Of the four of them, they were really just along for the ride; free wishes were nice and all, but at least in Gourry's opinion, weren't really worth the trouble. All that effort and struggle just to find where the maps were being kept, not to mention that spectacular battle that had happened when they'd... liberated... the ancient scraps of paper from the Great Library of some backwater mountain kingdom... But Lina had been determined; she had great plans for her wish. And words could not begin to describe how much this opportunity meant to Zelgadis.
"There they are!" cried Lina suddenly, pointing westward. A small group of standing stones could barely be seen there; utterly dwarfed by the nearby mountains, the stones looked like childrens' toys, scattered across a green field.
It was close to noon by the time they arrived at the standing stones, and it became apparent how misleading the earlier estimate of their size had been. The smallest stone was at least five times as tall as Gourry; each was solidly planted end-first in the rocky soil, and towered over the small group of travelers. The overall effect was quite intimidating.
Pulling out another one of the maps, Lina turned it around and around, trying to get it properly oriented. After several frustrating minutes, she joyfully called out, "I've got it!" Running over to one stone that looked no different from any of the others, she poked a depression in its side. Nothing happened. Frowning, she poked harder. Still nothing happened. She tried poking another, nearby depression. This time, a large section of rock at the base of the stone swung soundlessly out of the way; the hidden door was opened.
"All right!" she shouted joyfully. Behind her, Zelgadis couldn't stop grinning. "All we have to do now," Lina continued, "is jump down that hole and find our wishes. Gourry, you go first."