Amelia had not yet regained consciousness, and Zelgadis' worry was deepening -- he began to suspect her brain had been damaged. He intensified the healing spell as far as fatigue would allow, and Lina chewed him out from across the rubble-strewn crater, where she was healing Gourry's lungs. Her lectures were nearly as searing as her fireballs.
"For the love of Ceipheed, Zel," she spat. "For just three seconds -- three seconds -- couldn't you think about someone besides yourself? You almost got us killed in there! And all for some moldy old parchment that might have a clue to a spell that could possibly lead to some kind of cure!" she snapped, making Gourry wince. "My god, Zel, do those rocks go all the way through to your brain? How many of us have to die for your stupid, self-centered quest!?"
He might have answered her then, but Amelia gave a moan of pain and trembled in the crook of his arm, still unconscious.
"That's enough, Lina; you don't have to bite his head off," Gourry told her, his voice weak with strain.
Zelgadis could have easily given damaging examples of Lina's own greed for spells and treasure, but she was right about their main difference: Lina knew where to draw the line.
Gods, I'm more ruthless than the 'Dragon-Spooker!' it occurred to him. There was nothing more he could do for Amelia; he'd healed the bruises on her face, but they would still take a few days to fade. I hope she wakes up. This should never have happened to her.
Lina didn't say another word to him; she just glared at him and bedded down on the opposite side of the fire, as if he could not be trusted even here. Gourry justified and apologized for him, and tried to talk Lina out of her mood, but speaking was still very taxing for him.
Amelia couldn't say another word.
Long after the others were asleep, he lay awake, watching her closely, trying to find what his healing spells had missed.
"Amelia, wake up," he murmured softly, nudging her. "Please? ... I'm so sorry; this never should have happened...."
The princess slept.
"Gods, I wish I'd never been born," Zelgadis choked.
"Granted," a familiar voice proclaimed from the shadowed debris. "Although technically, I am not a god...." Out of nowhere, Xellos stepped forth into the half-light of the banked campfire. "Tsk, looks like someone ignored my advice about booby traps," he commented, assessing the survivors.
"Traps, my ass!" Zelgadis growled. "That whole temple was unstable, structurally and magically!"
"And therein lay the trap," Xellos smiled and gestured. "But you want it undone, don't you? You just wished you had never been born."
Zelgadis spared a glance at Amelia, and realized he still meant it.
"Yes ... I did..."
"Very well; come with me..." Xellos gave him a hand up.
"Now you're granting wishes? Where were you when I was wishing for a cure?" Zelgadis grumbled.
"Now, now, Zelgadis ... there's something I'd like to show you," Xellos said, leading him out of the crater.
"What's that?"
"This," the priest responded. He put his hand on Zelgadis' shoulder and teleported. And before Zelgadis could even begin to be disoriented, they were suddenly standing on another barren hillside, strewn with rather similar rubble, but overlooking a vaguely familiar valley. It was not night, but impossible to tell the time of day through the thick clouds overhead.
"Where are we?" he asked reflexively.
"This is a parallel universe," Xellos began. "An alternate world very much like your own -- except in this world, the Red Priest belonged to a celibate order, and Zelgadis Greywords was never born."
"Was he still blind?" Zelgadis could not help but ask.
"Oh, of course," Xellos answered, starting down the slope. "Mind you, he was slightly more cunning in this world: he obtained the Philosopher's Stone from Lina Inverse without even a skirmish, simply by coming forward as an antiques collector at the right moment."
"You mean..."
Xellos paused in his tracks and glanced back at him.
" -- And by the time it was known that Shabranigdo had been reborn, Lina Inverse was in another country entirely," he concluded.
Zelgadis was stunned already. He drifted downhill after Xellos.
"Wait, then what happened?" he called out, suddenly finding the faint trail that Xellos was following through the ruins.
"Well, what do you think?" Xellos speculated. "He attempted to awaken his other pieces and destroy the servants of the gods."
"But what happened to Lina?"
"Surely you can figure that out for yourself," Xellos winked, and vanished.