The night was supposed to be quiet. After all, how else could one sleep? But in truth, it was very noisy. Drunks caroling in the streets. Stray dogs and cats engaging in an unending hunt. People of the night working their trades that couldn't bear the light of day. Beings of shadow, neither light nor dark, trapped between two worlds, simply went about their secret business.
For one, that business was conducted in the abode of another. Not satisfied with the scrying sphere, he had to see her with his own eyes. She called it paranoia, maybe she was right. He was growing increasingly discomforted when she wasn't near. It wasn't just concern for her safety. Losing sight of her for a short while gave him an chilling feeling of fear that he wouldn't see her again.
"Ridiculous. It makes no sense. What could happen to her?"
The person in question stirred in her sleep, tossing fitfully in the sheets. He slipped even further into the shadows curtaining her window. She hadn't slept well all night but never woke up to find the uninvited guest in her room. It was odd, like she was trapped somewhere, trying to wake up but being unable to. He had never seen her like this.
His hand curled around the music box. Like the Demonsblood Talisman, it was one of his most prized possessions. Enchanted to capture music to be played back later, it kept only one song, and one secret, in its small jeweled compartment. But the song...how did she know the words to the song? Perhaps the song was widely known. The first time he ever heard it was from her. He knew the words of course, but it was because as he listened to the music box, her voice singing it would come back to him endlessly.
Running over the gold filigree on the music box's lid, he undid the clasp for it and let the precious box open. Softly, its song floated through the room, clear but muted enough to not disturb the room's sleeping occupant. No words in the captured song, but words floated in the mind and brought forth memories and emotions buried deep within.
"...someone holds me safe and warm..."
Her twisting and turning slowed as her sleep seemed to calm. Was she caught in the thrall of nightmares? There was a touch of fear around her but he didn't go any further. The Mazoku wouldn't touch her, he swore that once. Even now, he would hold to it. Even if that meant...
"...horses prance through a silver storm..."
What memories this song evoked, he both wanted them and rejected them. Hundreds of shards of what was, what is, what could have been, what may be. Possibilities not yet laid in stone but some not the right shape to fit seamlessly in the mosaic of life.
"...figures dancing gracefully across my memory..."
People long dead, alive in his mind. Only shadows of the past, hauntings of guilt and despair, and tempters of things that couldn't be. As much as he wanted to forget her face then, he clung to the image tightly, hoarding it like a dragon hoards treasure. Each look, each word, each action, each laugh, all were etched into his memory. Of course he understood that memory tended to be selective, emphasizing or de-emphasizing or just plain forgetting certain things.
"...far away, long ago, glowing dim as an ember, things my heart used to know, things it yearns to remember..."
Something must have gone wrong with the process as Xelloss said. Why was this yearning still here, burning in his chest and making it difficult to breathe? Why couldn't it just die? She was gone now. This wasn't her. This wasn't the one for which he kept a small flicker of hope, no matter how illogical such an action is.
"...and a song, someone sings..."
A song that she sang, on that night so long ago. A gift that was never given, a question that was never asked. One in a thousand regrets, one in a thousand.
"So much to do, so much to do," Xelloss murmured as the errand boys ran to and from, carrying out orders and requests and being pounded by ten more from all sides.
But it was always this chaotic before a big party and he was going to be having the first summer party of the season in his mansion. It was an unspoken corollary that it had to be the best and biggest bash anyone had ever seen, at least until next year. He did have a reputation to uphold after all.
However, there was another, more important, reason for this occasion to be one of the best ever. This year, it happened to fall on a special day though the recipient would probably never think of the connection. Well, he amended, she probably could see the connection. It was the reasoning behind it she would likely refuse to see.
That was life.
"No! Who ordered these? This is a party, not a funeral!" Filia stared down the poor servant who was carrying an armful of dark purple roses. "In fact, I wouldn't even have those at a funeral."
"But, Filia-san, they are so rare," Xelloss cajoled.
She sniffed. "I would expect as much from you. If they're so rare, then where did all of these come from?"
Her arm swung wide, gesturing to the thirty odd bouquets placed in white wicker pillars around the banquet room. Xelloss pretended to think, and then shrugged carelessly.
"I don't know. I only know I paid for them."
The former dragon priestess shook her head in exasperation. "Why did I ever agree to coordinate this party for you?"
"My charming good looks?"
"Hah!"
"Where does this go?" Val interrupted, carrying an ice sculpture of a swan, magically preserved from melting.
"In the centerpiece of the fountain."
"Hung upside down from the main chandelier."
Filia glared at Xelloss. "Who is the party designer here?"
"Just offering some helpful advice."
"Who asked you?!"
"Ummm..."
"Just do as Filia-san said," Xelloss winked to Val. "She is setting up this party."
Val sighed and went to put the ice swan in its place. Did Xelloss have to make such a production out of everything? Letting mother coordinate the preparations for the party was just a way to make sure it was everything she wanted. It was her birthday after all. Idly, he wondered if Xelloss would finally get serious about giving her a birthday gift. Not like the single puzzle pieces he's been giving for the last century or two. And they weren't even from the same puzzles either.
"Hey, Gourry! Are you done with those streamers yet?" Val yelled to the blond swordsman who was drafted as manual labor for today.
He and another person were responsible for the higher wall decorations. There was supposed to be bundles of black and red ribbons with matching flowers suspended on the wall with streamers hung between them. Instead, a good number of them were entangled around Gourry.
"Help?"
"Honestly." Val shook his head and went over to free the simple-minded Gourry. "Zangulus isn't anywhere this incompetent."
Zangulus was the other person working on the wall decorations. Actually, he had volunteered for the same duty as Gourry when he dropped by this morning to challenge Gourry again. Apparently, Zangulus wasn't going to lose to Gourry on any level. Not only was his half already finished, he had begun hanging dimly burning violet glows from the ceiling.
"Hey, nice job, Zangulus," Gourry complimented while Val unknoted some ribbons in his hair.
A vein popped on Zangulus's brow. "You think you can do better? I don't need your condescending pity. I'll prove that I'm better than you in more than just swordmanship!"
His pace doubled.
"He's pretty fast."
"Gourry, don't you get the idea that Zangulus may not like you?"
"Don't worry about it," Gourry waved away Val's concern. "He's always like this. But he's really a nice guy underneath. In fact, you know how I was gone for awhile recently?"
Val nodded.
"That was because of my grandmother's birthday. I completely forgot but Zangulus came and dragged me back home. Wasn't that nice?"
"Be quiet!"
How could people get along only by fighting? Val looked over at Filia and Xelloss. The Mazoku must have made another innocent remark that Filia took the wrong way. An explosion seemed imminent. He supposed it would be too much for them to get along after all of this time?
As Val went toward them to somehow diffuse the situation, Filia turned toward him.
"Val, what are you doing slacking off? Just because I let you out to help with this doesn't mean I'm letting you off the hook for scaring me like that yesterday. And furthermore...Val?"
"Val-kun?" Why was the Ancient Dragon who was coming up to stop his fun again looking like he saw a ghost?
"Eh?" Val blinked. "Oh...nothing. Trick of the light I guess..."
Xelloss and Filia looked at him blankly. Val tried to laugh it off but the uneasiness remained. What he saw couldn't have been a trick of the light. It had to be his Sight. By why did he suddenly see his mother covered in blood?
"Hey, bro!"
Zelgadiss pulled his hood farther down over his face as his exuberant younger brother bounced up.
"Where are you going?" Jedah beamed, falling into step with his brooding Zelgadiss.
"None of your business."
"Ouch, cold. Where is all the loving and caring older brother of mine?"
"Apparently, you have me mistaken with someone else."
"Come on, Zel. It's Terisa who is supposed to be the cold-hearted bi - , er, you know."
"Watch your language. Especially considering who our mother is."
"I wonder where mom is anyway? Did dad ever find her?"
"We'll know when we know."
"Soooo, you coming to Xelloss's little party tonight?"
Little? Everyone who was someone would be there. And everyone who wasn't would try to crash it with Xelloss's unspoken permission.
"No."
"Please?"
"No."
"Pretty please?"
"No."
"Lina?"
"Where?!" How could she be here without his sensing it?
Jedah snickered. Zel was so transparent when it came to that sorceress. Obviously, Lina wasn't anywhere in sight and Zel should have known that. All those times he tried to break his brother's composure and all he needed was a certain Lina Inverse.
"If Lina was there, would you go?"
"...what does that have to do with anything?"
"Do I see something blushing beneath that black hood?"
"Just leave me alone!"
Jedah watched his brother storm off in a not very random direction. Wonder how long it would take before he realized where he was headed. Zelgadiss needed to realize what was up soon or Jedah was going to bring in some help.
"And just why are you still using that chimera form?"
Of course, Jedah would know that he would hear that. It also wasn't the first time he had been asked. Before Jedah, the most recent person who asked was...Lina. The ghost of his guilt, which haunted him continually, always reminding him of his unworthiness for redemption.
So why did he keep torturing himself by being near her? He couldn't stay near her, but he couldn't stay away either. The former raised the gnawing guilt of betrayal, the latter the chilling fear of loss. He hadn't been plagued with all of this during his self-imposed exile! Zelgadiss sincerely considered of finding another place to hid away in until the end of the world.
"You are looking for Lina?"
Startled out of his thoughts, Zel automatically raised a hand to pull his hood over his face. The old man speaking to him looked only vaguely familiar.
"I'm sorry but you are...?"
"Oh, we've never met. But I've seen you around. Always with or watching that young girl. Not proper that, an unmarried pretty girl like her living alone in a rooming house. No family, no friends. And such a dangerous job as well. You one of those odd people she works for right?"
He took Zel's silence to be agreement.
"I don't mean to pry into other people's business but I don't approve of people like you, making others do your dirty and dangerous work. No consideration, no consideration at all. Life isn't all money. No, it isn't," muttered the old man as his thoughts strayed.
Ignoring the senile man, Zel extended his senses to Lina's room but she wasn't there. A moment of panic touched him. Was she attacked by Renegades? Not possible, the whole city block would have been flames and rubble. So where was she?
"Do you know where she is?"
"Remember when dragons flew high and proud in the city. So many couldn't see the sun," muttered the old man. "But those days are gone. The Age of Dragons has left."
"Do you know where Lina went?" Zel asked more forcefully.
"Lina? Where does she have to go? No family. No friends. Money isn't everything."
Zel took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. There was a meaning in the old man's rambling, usually. If Lina wasn't in her room, and she most certainly wasn't at Xelloss's place with all of the noise there, then where else would she be? Xelloss had mentioned that Lina used to work for one of the teachers in the library? Maybe she still had an office there.
"Achoo!" Lina rubbed her nose as she continued rummaging beneath the desk laden with loose papers, books, random writing utensils, odd sculptures and broken clay pieces, among other things. Didn't anyone ever dust behind these desks? "Achoo! Achoo!"
Someone knocked timidly on the door of her office.
"What is it?" she snapped. Though, because of her being under a desk, it came out more as a muffled 'Come in'.
The door slowly opened.
"Umm, there's someone here to see you, Miss Inverse..." stammered the young student. He was a new one so he only heard stories of the furious frenzy an angry Lina Inverse could wrack. That didn't make him feel any safer having to actually talk to her.
Lina sighed. Who would want to see her? And she was covered in dirt and dust and gods know what else because of this rummaging. If they wanted to see her, then they probably already knew something of her reputation.
"Who is it?"
"Uh, some person in black. He wouldn't say his name."
Black? Lina felt her breath catch.
"As in all black with a black hood and cloak covering his face?"
"Ye-Yes."
Why was he here? How did he even know to come here? Oh wait, he's a Mazoku Lord. Of course, he could figure it out someway or another if he wasn't always spying on her most of the time.
"Let him in." Lina coughed as she disturbed a large patch of dust. "And I look like a mess too."
"She said - "
"I heard."
The guest strode past the nervous student into the office and firmly closed the door behind him. With a big sigh of relief from his near escape, the new student made sure to put as much room as possible between himself and Lina Inverse's office.
Zelgadiss looked around the cluttered, messy, but at the same time very barren office. Lina's room at the rooming house was stark, devoid of any personal touches. He had thought perhaps she lived more on the road or in her office where she worked. But this room was stacked to bursting with tomes, manuscripts, notebooks, various artifacts and objects from the past, but nothing to mark that this place belonged to anyone. Nothing that says this was the place of Lina Inverse.
"Achoo!" Lina sneezed as she backed out from underneath the desk. "Finally found that key. So it was you, Zel. What are you doing here?"
I was worried. I was scared you had disappeared. I'm a glutton for emotional pain. I need to come up with an answer that will not enrage you enough to try a Dragu Slave even if that won't affect me anyway. Since he couldn't think of a suitable answer, Zel only looked around the office again.
"Quite a mess."
"Well, excuse me! I've been on the road a lot and this stuff has been piling up," Lina retorted, waving a hand at the stacks of boxes and chests whose contents she still hadn't catalogued yet.
"What is that key for?"
"Key?" Lina looked at the dusty key in her hand as if she had no idea how that had gotten there. "Key...oh yeah. This is supposed to be able to open another box I have. Now where did I put it? How did it get up there?"
Bemused, he watched Lina reach up to grab the desired box off of a shelf much to high for her. She scowled at it as if that will frighten it enough to lower itself. However, since Lina had overweighted its shelves with who knows what, it wasn't feeling too generous toward her.
"Damn," Lina grumbled, climbing onto one of the lower shelves to try and reach up higher.
"Let me."
Another hand reached over hers and got the box.
Lina turned around, finding herself face to face with the Mazoku Lord and caught between him and the shelves behind her. Not this situation again. Last time, he had been trying to convince her that he was Zelgadiss and she was Lina Inverse, well, the first Lina Inverse that is.
She could barely breathe, her heart seemed to pound irregularly. Everything seemed to slow to a crawl and disappear except for them. All she could do was look into his eyes so close to hers. But this didn't feel like fear. Why? What was she feeling?
One of his hands, the one that wasn't holding the box, raised up to her face. Lina froze. Wait. What was going on here? What was he planning to do?! Um, hands? Feet? Anything? Respond and do something before...before...
His fingers, oddly warm, brushed her face.
Then he stepped back as if it was the most natural thing in the world. Lina blinked. Was she the only one affected by that?
"Here's your box."
Lina just looked at him.
"Wha-What was...What were you..." she stammered.
"You had some dust on your face. There's still some."
Zel traced a line down his face.
"...oh."
She rubbed the back of her hand against the dust smudges but that probably only made it worse. But why did she care about that? And what the hell was with that atmosphere earlier? Lina had to be out of her mind to think that he would ever want to...
"So what's so important about that box?"
"This? Nothing special," Lina shrugged as she sat down at her desk, shoving several things to the floor to make room for it. "...to anyone else."
Zelgadiss gave no indication that he heard that quiet addendum.
"You must spend a lot of time on the road," he commented, idly leafing through an old tome on the history of Sairaag.
"Why do you say that?"
"Your office and room are quite barren."
Lina could dispute the claim that her office was barren. "How would you know what my room looks like?"
"..."
"Has being a Mazoku completely erased any consideration of privacy?" Lina asked acidly.
"Like it matters. All you ever do there is sleep," Zel defended. "...as the people around the place tell me."
"Sure."
They lapsed into silence. Zelgadiss was unsure of what to say without putting his foot any further into his mouth. Lina was torn between anger and embarrassment. She knew he was watching her but that could only go so far!
"Anyway, what did you mean by barren?" Lina asked finally when the silence became even thicker than the dust layering her office.
"Never mind."
"Hey, you brought it up so of course I mind!"
"If I brought it up, then I can drop it."
"You are always, always, always, always, always like this!!" Lina screamed pulling at her hair.
Outside, veterans of the library immediately scurried for the nearest bomb shelter in fear of the coming explosions.
"You have things you don't want to talk about either."
"Like what?" Lina asked defiantly.
"Your past for one thing."
"What's the point?" she shrugged. "What's done is done and you can't change it. If I don't remember, then that's just less emotional baggage."
"Really? Is that really how you feel?"
"Why would you care!" Lina snapped.
Her fury slapped him harder than if she had done it herself.
"I was thinking that it might be related to those dreams, or rather nightmares, you've been having."
"More of your spying?" Lina's defiant tone belied the fear he could sense.
"What is it?" he asked softly.
"It's nothing," Lina said too quickly.
"You aren't even laughing it off. It must be something very fearful to you."
"I'm not afraid of anything!"
Her own words rang hollow in her ears. Unwillingly, images that were forcibly pushed away when she awoke broke the surface of her consciousness, gripping her in a fear that she couldn't escape. It closed all around her, in her, cutting off everything, sight, sound, touch. There was nothing, except the lingering question of existence.
"Lina?!"
Zel had never seen this, a cloud of thick fear erupting from Lina in a matter of seconds. It was visible only to his Mazoku senses but her distress was clear in the vacant red eyes as she hugged herself tightly. Was this a daymare?
"Lina! Snap out of this!" He shook her but Lina didn't respond. Maybe the music box, like last time. He fumbled with the clasp, nearing dropping the box in his haste. The song burst forth, somehow touching and calming the girl he supported.
It was receding again, the darkness, the void. Why? What made it go away? Lina moved her numb fingers, strained with senses that had been extinguished to find what it was that could free her. Music? No, more than that, a song.
"This song..."
"Lina, are you alright?"
She looked at the owner of the concerned voice, suddenly noticing that one of his arms pulled her toward him. Lina jerked away, both from the contact and from the faint yearning to take the offered support.
Zelgadiss stifled the surge of something, it was only natural that she would jerk away. He was after all a much feared Mazoku Lord even with his long inactivity. Would Lina, his Lina, react the same way if they met now?
Trying to cover her bewilderment, Lina looked around for the nearest change of subject which came in the form of the music box. She reached out a hand but Zelgadiss quickly reclaimed the item and it disappeared into his cape.
"What was that?"
"I think it was quite clear what it was."
"I was talking about the song!"
"It's just...a song."
"And you're just carrying around a Demonsblood Talisman," Lina retorted rolling her eyes. Seems like she's recovered from her earlier confusion. "Try another one. I bet it has something to do with the Lina Inverse doesn't it? You always shut up when it comes to her."
"It's none of your concern."
"Like hell it isn't. I'm the expert on Lina Inverse and I have to know everything about her!" Lina stamped her foot and raised a cloud of dust.
At least she was acting more like herself now. No, Zel amended, she was acting more like the Lina he knew. They were two different people, they were supposed to be two different people even with reincarnation. No two people should be that similar.
"What exactly do you want to know?" Zel sighed. As long as it wasn't something personal...
"Ne, how about the lost years?" Lina grinned, pulling out a notebook from the mess on her desk.
"Lost years?"
"Yeah, those years after you defeated Dark Star and reincarnated Val until the rise of the Destroyer. What happened?"
"What makes you think I met Lina during those years?"
"Oh please. You're in love her and you don't even try to get a glimpse of her or follow the gossip about her?" Lina smiled, though she noticed it was somewhat forced. Why should she care?
Zel's face began to steam. "H-H-How did you..."
"With Xelloss, Filia, Jedah, and Val all either subtly or unsubtly mentioning every other sentence when you're around?"
He made a note to privately talk to them and tell them to all stay out of his personal life.
"So, what juicy stories are there?"
"What makes you think this is some racy romance novel?" Zel asked in exasperation.
"Don't tell me you never told her. Why are men so wishy-washy!"
"You can't expect me to tell her when I was like this!" Zel gestured angrily to his chimera skin. "Who can love a monster like me?"
She bit back her reflexive response.
"My point exactly."
"Hey, just because I didn't say anything didn't mean I agreed with you!"
"Then why would you be silent?"
"I was trying to think of something tactful to say!"
"That's a first."
"With your attitude, it's no wonder people don't get near you," Lina grumbled. "You're arrogant, cold, one finger width from complete rudeness, ruthless, self-centered - "
"I am a Mazoku."
"From the accounts I have, you were like that before becoming a Mazoku Lord," she retorted. "If you didn't act like the monster people think you are then - "
"Then they may begin to doubt all of the prejudices they ever held against non-humans. They would begin considering the exception as the rule."
"I ask for stories and I get a lesson in philosophy."
"You thought you would get what you wanted for nothing?"
"I think you owe me big time for all of that peeping you've been doing. Who knows what you've been watching."
"I don't watch all of the time."
"I hope not," Lina snorted. "You still owe me for the invasion of privacy anyway. A story isn't too much to clear the debt."
What a focused mind. Zel could easily just ignore her and leave. But he didn't want to leave. It was probably just a play of the light streaming through the dirty window, didn't she ever clean here, but Lina appeared ghostly, outlined by light and floating dust. Why was he disturbed by that?
"Oi, Zel? You there?"
Zel blinked.
"Well? I'm waiting." She tapped a pen on the open notebook meaningfully.
It couldn't hurt to talk to her. Could it?
"I only met Lina again once during those ten years. Believe it or not," Zel's lips twisted into a bitter smile. "It was because she got kidnapped by my self-proclaimed destined rival who was going by the book about how to defeat me."
"Lina Inverse got kidnapped?!" she asked aghast. "No way! What did this guy do? Slip a sleeping pill in her food?"
Zel nodded.
Lina sweatdropped. "...it does make sense I guess. But she couldn't have been happy about being the damsel in distress."
"Oh she wasn't," Zel chuckled. "You could hear her swearing all through the canyon."
"Canyon?"
"Lez chose a high plateau in the middle of a canyon as the site of our final showdown."
"This Lez character, he's your self-proclaimed destined rival? That sounds waaaay to much like a story."
"I didn't take him to serious at first either. But he's as good as he claimed. I barely beat him."
"Barely? You?"
Zel nodded.
"What was this guy? Another chimera? A Mazoku?"
"A human. An utterly normal human. Except that he could fight me to a draw. With both magic and sword."
"But, normal weapons and most magical weapons can't really hurt you..."
"He wasn't carrying a normal magical weapon. I doubt you've heard of it, a sword that can cut through anything."
"If it can cut through anything, you wouldn't be able to put it in a sheath."
"He didn't."
Lina swallowed. "So...this sword can cut even you?"
"I wasn't about to find out but he did cut some stone columns in our way so I assume so."
"Then you couldn't attack him head on. And spells?"
"Dodged or was protected against most of my spells. He had done his research."
"But you won..."
"I think the more appropriate term would be survived."
"Lez is dead?"
"He'd better be. I barely got out of there alive."
"How did you defeat him?"
"Lured him into a cave and then brought the whole place down on both of us," Zel said simply.
"You brought down a cave on the both of you?!" Lina blanched. "You idiot! Did you think about what would happen if you died?!"
"If I died, I'd be dead."
"What about everyone else? You think Lina would have been happy about that?!" Hell, she wouldn't! She'd bring him back from the dead to kill him herself! Wait, he was Hellmaster, he could control the dead. Silly her.
Zel was startled by her sudden outburst. What was she so upset about? Why would she care? Wait, she cares?
"Th-That's just what I was talking about earlier!" She tried to cover up her earlier slip. Get a grip, Lina. The guy is already taken by someone you worship and is long dead so you can't even compete with her. "You don't give a damn about the long term consequences of your actions! All you think about is yourself!"
"Naturally," Zel replied with indifference, long experience allowing him to mask his thoughts more successfully. He was only seeing too much into things. She was only interested in her idol. She'd never turn an eye to him. He didn't deserve a second chance. He didn't deserve anything, especially her. "Humans are self-serving."
"And as a former human, I should take your word on it. Terrific, the doomsayer of the human race. Who needs Demon Kings and Dragon Gods? Humans can kill themselves off quite perfectly. Just sit back and watch the show." Lina threw her arms in the air in exasperation.
The water clock rang the hour five times.
"What? It's already 5? I still need to take a bath and get ready for that party!" Lina leaped up from her desk and tried to run out of the room but stumbled over some scattered boxes. "Itai. What idiot put those boxes there? Don't answer that."
The last was directed at Zelgadiss who pretended to be very interested in the sparkling cloud of dust in the late afternoon light.
"This party you're talking about..."
"Xelloss's of course. Though it's actually for Filia who is the only person who doesn't know it," Lina said matter-of-factly, limping slightly from the bruise on her shin. "You...are coming aren't you?"
Damn you, Xelloss. You know I hate parties.
Zelgadiss sighed. "It seems like it."
"Good!" Lina grinned widely, grabbing Zel by the arm and dragging him out of her office and the library. "You need to cheer up. Besides, I always get the creeps when you're watching me and I can't see you. Might as well be there in person ne?"
Zelgadiss blushed. Lina was talking very loudly. People were staring at the petite red-haired girl dragging by an arm a young man with blue skin. And his hood was off. But that was just like her.
"You, really are like Lina."
"Of course," Lina agreed with a mischievous grin but sad eyes.
"Humans have the oddest things to do to waste time," she fumed, looking herself over in the mirror. The light pink sequin evening gown began with a high collar and fitted her slim form down to the floor. A slit ran up one leg to mid-thigh and a thin gossamer shawl hung from her arms. "They are hardly going to fall for this."
"Don't be silly, my dear," purred a bodiless voice. "You look ravishing."
"Hardly," she snorted, double checking that the long blond wig would stay in place. "I wouldn't even fool myself in this get-up."
"You don't need to fool yourself, though that would be a very good disguise. There are only five people you need to be careful of recognizing you and two others you need to be wary of."
"I know, I know," she grumbled. "But of all the coincidences in the world, who would have thought that Hellmaster, Dynast, Chaos Dragon, and the only Ancient Dragon would all be in the same city? And even in the same place tonight?"
"Good fortune is largely the result of being prepared, my dear Yllia."
Yllia glared at the mirror in general since she couldn't glare at her superior. As much as she wanted to get Dynast with her own hands, this was definitely on the outer boundaries of what she would do to accomplish it. And to play nice and sweet to all of those humans and them all night until the appointed time...
She hoped she wouldn't cause herself irrevocable damage.
Running her hand over the wig again, she wistfully remembered when her mother used to do the same. But that was before she died, in the Second Kouma War.
"It was all your fault, Xelloss," Yllia hissed. "And I'm going to make sure you pay the debt back tenfold. I'll take away your most precious possession, grind it to nothing before your eyes, and worst of all, I'll force you to relive it over and over again. Welcome to my hell."