Later on that morning Gourry finally made his way downstairs to eat breakfast. It took them awhile but they finally got him to answer the question of those same stones being in his room too. Lina and company checked out the stones in Gourry's room and they concluded not only that the stone where the same as the other ones but they were also in the same order. Strangest thing of all Xellos whom had been missing for the past few days finally showed his face once they were about to head over to the library.
"Good Morning Miss Lina!" Xellos said in a very cheerful manner. "I take it that you slept well last night?"
Lina didn't get a chance to answer because Amelia was already bashing the hell out of him. Everyone stared at Amelia wide-eyed.
"Gee Amelia you're starting to acting more and more like Lina everyday..." Gourry commented.
Both Amelia and Lina bashed Gourry over the head. "She is/I'm not acting like me/her!" Both of them yelled at the same time.
Everyone else sweatdropped.
Lina regained her composure and turned to the trickster priest. "So Xellos just where have you been for these past few days?"
"That is a secret!" Xellos stated not so much like he would normally do. Everyone eyed him suspiciously. Xellos looked over a Zelgadis with a raised eyebrow. "So Zelgadis lived through it huh?" Xellos went to look him over more closely.
Zelgadis didn't like how Xellos was visually analyzing him. Who is this guy? Then Zelgadis thought back to what Lina had told him at the library the night before. Oh yeah Xellos, the untrustworthy, annoying and secretive monster and general priest to Greater Beast Zellas one of the remaining monster lords. He didn't know why but he felt this impulse to cause Xellos bodily harm.
Xellos mentally frowned at what was before him. Zelgadis appeared to be a regular weak human, what Xellos sensed otherwise. There was great magical power and strength that lay in Zelgadis' body. And Xellos could sense the non-human part of Zelgadis, but it wasn't a large part and Xellos couldn't make it out what it was. Looks like someone has gone to great lengths so that no one finds out about Zelgadis' non-human heritage. But then when didn't he have this power before he was turned into a chimera? "So where are you all heading?"
"We're going to go see Mr. Hender about something."
"Oh really? What are you going to see him about?"
"None of your business."
"Ah, Miss Lina you're so cold. Maybe I could help you?"
"You help us? I know for a fact that wouldn't happen. So now why don't you go off and do whatever you were doing before?" Lina said bitterly giving him a sour smile.
"Miss Lina you're no fun." Xellos gave her a puppy dog face.
"Go!"
Xellos did as commanded and phased out and went elsewhere.
"Okay now let's get over to see Mr. Hender."
Mr. Hender was sitting at a table looking over books when Popo came in with Lina and everyone else minus Xellos.
"Oh good morning everyone!"
"Hello Mr. Hender. What are you doing?"
"Trying to solve a mini-mystery of mine."
"Does it have anything to do with this?" Lina put down the piece of paper in front of Mr. Hender.
Mr. Hender picked up the piece of paper and was surprised to see that it was the exact same set of symbols that he had seen around his bed and wrote on a piece of paper. "Where did you see this?"
"Each one of us found a circle of stones surrounding our beds all with symbols on it all in that order. Does it look familiar to you?"
Mr. Hender got up and pulled out his own piece of paper that he wrote the symbols on. He showed them the paper and compared it with the one that Lina had made up. They were both the same. "I too saw this set of stones around my bed."
"Do you know what it is?"
"Well when I was checking my books I found one that told me about the magic involved with these stones."
"Magic?"
"Yes magic that deals with nature like shamanism but more importantly aspects of nature symbolized in stones. People would use these types of stones to cast various spells. Different combination of stones does different spells."
"And what does this combination do?"
Mr. Hender pulled out a book and flipped it to a page he had book marked. "This combination does a spell called Dream Barrier. According to this it's a spell used to protect people sleeping in the circle from evil spirits entering their dreams and causing them harm. It's supposed to repelled an evil spirit if it tries to entered a protected person's dream."
Everyone looked at each other with confused faces. "Who and why would someone do that?" Sylphiel asked for everyone else.
"To be honest Miss Sylphiel that's what I'm trying find out. It seems like someone is trying to protect us from something." Mr. Hender looked at Lina from the corner of his eye. Lina knew exactly what they were being protected from but Mr. Hender didn't. He suspected that Lina knew. I'm going to need to talk to her later about this.
Lina was completely mystified. Whose trying to help us?
Xellos sat around on top of the roof of Mr. Hender's library. He was listening in on their conversation. That is very interesting... Xellos grinned and decided to check out one of those sets of stones. He phased out into Lina's room to find himself in a dark weightless, soundless void. His eyes went wide in terror. "NOOOOOO!!! NOT AGAIN!!!!!!"
Lina sent everyone on tasks in the library to go research things that could be useful to them. She was going to see what she could find some information on creatures that could enter dreams when She was pulled aside by Mr. Hender.
"Miss Lina I need to talk to you about something." Mr. Hender motioned for her to follow him.
They went into another room in the library and sat down at a table.
"So what do you want to talk to m about?"
"I think you know what we are getting protected from in our sleep."
"Yes I do." There was a short pause before Lina continued. "We're being protected from Zelgadis' ex-demon part from entering our dreams."
"How do you know that?"
"Because it's attacked me in my dreams before."
Mr. Hender blinked in surprise. "It has?"
"Yes a few times. It tried to kill me after we put Zelgadis into the machine. Luckily Popo woke me up before it could do anything to me. I'm a pretty sure that Zel's ex-demon part tried to attack me on that night that those stones first appeared in my room."
Mr. Hender frowned. This isn't a good turn of events. "Do you have any idea what could be putting up these barriers?"
"Not really. Zel said he saw something late last night."
"What did he see?"
"A blurry transparent image that disappeared right after he went to rub his eyes."
"Did he see what it looked like?"
"Not really. He couldn't see it clearly because it was dark in his room." Lina frowned. What the hell was it?
"So he didn't get a chance to see what it was huh?"
Mr. Hender and Lina both turned themselves around and saw Xellos sitting in a chair with his feet up on the table and small smile on his face.
"Xellos! And just what the hell are you doing?!?!?! I told you to go!!!"
"Well I just came to tell you that I might know what is putting up those little barriers for you..." Xellos prompted.
Lina narrowed her eyes at him. "Yeah I'm sure you do." Lina spat out sarcastically.
"So you don't want to know? What a shame. I guess I should be off now." And Xellos phased out before Lina or Mr. Hender had any time to protest.
"You don't think he knew what it was, do you?" Mr. Hender asked Lina.
"I don't know..."
Xellos was back on his spot on the library roof. He smiled. Well so now they are aware... that's either going to make things more difficult more easy. Xellos grinned wider and opened his eyes. Only instead of his normal violet purple eyes Xellos' eyes glowed a golden yellow.
Gar sat in his void counting the time. Just a little longer... and I can get revenge... He darkly smiled.