The trip ended when Zelgadis was dropped on the parlor carpet and held there at spearpoint. All he saw at first were knees. Then he caught sight of the large oaken chair, draped with a wolf pelt, which rested on the floor a few feet in front of him.
"What's this, Sir Rodimus?" its occupant inquired.
"Not sure, your Highness; it's demon enough to set off the alarms, and golem enough to ... uh ... well, it's obviously got some golem in it," Rodimus finished, tucking his bruised hand behind his back.
"Amelia!" Zelgadis exclaimed as she got off the makeshift throne, beside which stood "Gourry!"
She crouched down in front of Zelgadis, and they studied each other. This was not the Amelia he was familiar with; her eyes were a cold, hard, steel-blue, and filled with calculation instead of compassion. Worse than that, her face was frozen with forced maturity, into a grim, driven veteran's mask. Her clothes were different, too; she wore not a speck of white. Her tunic was dark blue, her vest was a murky dust-color, and her breeches and boots were black. Her wards and amulets were intensely colored and configured with great precision.
Gourry was likewise changed, but more subtly. He was leaner, and his armor was darkened and battered with use, but he still held the Sword of Light. When he stepped forward after Amelia, the light fell on the scar running from his temple to just above his lip ... it had been a deep wound.
"Let's see, now," Amelia murmured. "To my knowledge, the Stone Dragon King has not yet been vanquished by the mazoku race, is that correct?"
No one said anything, until one of the attendant priest-mages spoke up.
"That is correct, your Highness."
She tipped her head. "Therefore, it's still not possible to make an entirely demonic golem... The stabilizing element must be either elven or human." The courtiers lining the room were buzzing. Zelgadis folded his legs up and salvaged his dignity as Amelia gestured to the priest. He handed her a strip of white paper, and with a swift, smooth motion, she stuck it on Zelgadis' forehead and invoked the ward. He felt the sharp tingle of magic and the quiet tension in the room as the spell worked.
" -- In any case, he's not mazoku," Amelia announced at last, and signalled the guards to put up their spears. A distinct sigh of relief rose from the room.
"Are we done now?" Zelgadis asked drily, tugging the sticker off his face.
"Well, nearly," Amelia answered, squatting in a slightly more casual manner. "Why did you come here, with humans at war against mazoku? Do you have a message for us?"
"No, I -- " He took another quick look around the room, to be sure. "Where is Lina?"
"Lina ... ?" the young queen repeated, momentarily baffled.
"Lina Inverse," he clarified, and nearly jumped when Amelia slapped both her hands against the floor and stood above him, scowling inwardly. A dark, disturbed murmur washed over the assembly.
"Lina Inverse," she growled bitterly. "If there is any justice in this world, Lina Inverse is right where she belongs!"
Gourry turned his face into the shadows.
"I'm sorry, Sir Gourry," she apologized softly over her shoulder. "I know how you... I know."
"What? She's dead?" Zelgadis grasped. "What's happened to Gourry?" he asked, getting to his feet and rather thoughtlessly stepping forward. "Gourry, what happened to your -- "
Sir Gourry moved with efficient speed, interposing himself and the flaming sword of light between Zelgadis and the Queen. Zelgadis froze in his tracks at the hostile glower confronting him.
"Sir Gourry does not speak," Amelia informed him. "Not one word since the fall of Sailloon."
"What?"
"At ease, Sir Gourry -- But tell us more about yourself, chimera. What do they call you?"
"Zelgadis." He barely remembered to bow. "Graywords."
There was a sudden silence -- then the whispering started, followed by alarmed mutterings. Amelia was white as a sheet.
"... Greywords?" she echoed blankly, and when he nodded, her hand fell on Gourry's arm. The roomful of courtiers was rapidly becoming a mob.
"Sir Gourry, please dispose of it now," she commanded.
This was all the warning Zelgadis had, and all he needed. After ducking under the initial swipe, it was a simple enough matter to grab Gourry's sword wrist and flip him on his back. He then cast Raywing very quickly, before Gourry could get up or the courtiers could seize him. However --
"Ra-Tilt!" He'd forgotten Amelia was in the game.
The pain from his demon third combined some tactile characteristics of both tooth extraction and severe burns, while being many times more intense than both combined. If he screamed, he did not hear himself. Zelgadis slumped in the bottom of his shield bubble, his body and magic still sustained by his human third and the scraps of demon still clinging to it.
"Amelia..." he moaned against the membrane of the spell, and realized, momentarily, that the mob of courtiers was quickly filtering from the room because the court mages were preparing a less subtle attack.
There's nothing for it; I've got to get out, he realized, trying to pull himself up. With blind willpower, he bolstered the spell and flew out through one of the etched windows near the ceiling.
"Quickly! Oh, please, kill him quickly!" he heard Amelia shouting.
Outside the mansion, a glance over his shoulder revealed the three sorcerers pursuing him. Cursing inwardly as flare-arrows streaked past him, he sped up along the ridge to the spot where he'd first appeared with Xellos ... and Xellos was not there. He cursed aloud this time, thankful that his demon third was regenerating on its own, and fled towards a tall formation of standing rock on the other side of the mountain. Once he'd broken the line of sight between himself and the others, he simply dropped down a dark stony crevice and hid, holding his chains tightly to keep them quiet.
For a brief moment, there was perfect silence. Then the granite slabs around him quaked and cracked under the influence of a Dill Brand and a fireball. It was a Damu Brass that broke off half of one of his sheltering walls, and in the cloud of stone dust --
"Zolf! You're alive!"