Birth Rite Chapter 20: A Strange Arrival

Fandom: Slayers

Pairing: Xelloss/Zelgadis

Warnings etc. Original characters, yaoi UST, family arguments, crappy weather, etc etc etc

Thanks to Rosethorne for beta!

Chapter summary: Xelloss and Zelgadis assist in a rescue operation that leads them into an old mystery.

Kemara was up from her chair and at the door before the words - and the distress behind them - fully registered on Xelloss. While he and Myona sat there still too startled to move, Zelgadis jumped up and followed her out into the front hall.

Xelloss went after them, mildly curious. The person at the door turned out to be the cat-man they'd met in the village a few days ago, with Geki hovering nervously right behind him. Xelloss heard the cat-man say something about someone falling from a bridge, and then Kemara's gasp of horror stopped him in his tracks.

Naturally, that made him more curious. It probably was not unusual for the village residents to call on the High Priestess for healing whenever there was an accident or illness, but apparently falling from a certain bridge was something much more significant.

In the hall, Zelgadis stood behind Kemara, listening intently, while the cat-man and Geki talked over each other fast and frantically. Both of them pointed back down the hillside, to the southeast - toward the hooked point.

Before Xelloss could hear anything more enlightening, Kemara turned and dashed back toward the parlor. She grabbed a shawl from a hatstand by the door and called for Myona, who was hovering and fidgeting just behind Xelloss.

"Go find Mother," she ordered. "Tell her there's been a - an accident. We're going to fetch someone and we'll bring him back here; we'll need her healing. And you are to stay in the house."

The last words had the force of a Windy Shield, strong enough to make Myona take a step backward, and Xelloss almost did the same. The boy nodded, swallowing hard. He was as white as a ship's sail, and Xelloss realized he was not fidgeting now but trembling violently. His emotions were muted as seemed to be his habit whenever they were extreme, but his control over them was slipping, giving Xelloss intriguing little whiffs of inner turmoil.

In spite of whatever emotions he was struggling with, Myona turned and sped off toward the back of the house. Kemara was already out the door. She had nodded quickly in answer to Zelgadis' offer of help, and now she ran on ahead of Geki and the cat-man.

Xelloss followed the group down the hill through the south end of the village and onto a track that led, as he'd expected, toward the southern point. The land fell in a series of drops like huge steps, down to a level that was still several hundred feet above the tide. Here there was a narrow slice of land that joined the point to the mainland. The top of it was nearly smooth rock, scoured bare by wind and sea spray, with only a thick rope strung between iron posts as a railing to mark the path.

It was hard to imagine Myona crossing this precarious bridge, considering that he could not even bear to watch another person scale a cliff and trembled with horror at the mere mention of flying. But there was another way across to the point, if it was any less precarious to slip and slide down an almost vertical slope and across rocks slick with ocean spray and seaweed, no doubt lapped by waves at high tide, and then climb back up an even steeper slope on other side.

Near the bottom of this rock ladder of a trail, three people huddled over a fourth, holding cloaks above him to keep the worst of the rain and sea spray off of him. They pointed and shouted over the rumbling surf as they tried to figure out how to get the injured person up the icy path. Zelgadis took a quick look at the scene below and turned to Kemara.

"It's the man we saw out there yesterday," he said, pointing back toward the cliff.

"Ah, so it is," Xelloss said, peering down over Zel's shoulder. "The one who didn't need rescuing - at the time."

Kemara frowned at that, and even more deeply when they told her what they'd seen on the way back from visiting the Mala.

"Myona didn't mention it?" Zelgadis asked.

She shook her head once, her mouth set in a grim line. It looked like Myona was in trouble for his late night wanderings all over again.

"No matter," Zelgadis said hastily. "For now, we just need to deal with his injuries and get him out of there. I can put up a shield while you work Recovery on him," he offered.

Kemara bit her lip for a second, then shook her head, without looking Zelgadis in the eye.

"It's best if we bring him back to the house. Mother is by far the strongest Healer in the village."

Zelgadis raised his eyebrows but he didn't question the High Priestess.

"All right, I'll use Levitation to bring him up here, then. We should check his injuries first, though, to make sure it's safe to move him at all. You should save your energy for healing," he said.

Before he could Levitate himself down to the injured man, Xelloss stepped forward.

"Allow me please, Kemara-sama," he said.

He had no doubt that Zelgadis could bring the man up safely, but the High Priestess' distress compelled him to act in his own way. Before either of them could answer or protest, he lifted a finger. The injured man floated up from the ground.

"Don't jostle him - oh!" Kemara said.

Her voice was sharp, but she broke off when she saw that the warning wasn't necessary. Xelloss floated the man up to the level of the bridge gently and steadily, cushioned securely in the spell's energy field.

"I can't do healing spells, of course," he murmured, "but I can prevent any further harm..."

He could, that is, if a situation warranted it, even if it was just for the effect. In this case his only excuse was his acknowledgment of Kemara's authority as the Golden Lord's priestess, but the startled reaction from Zelgadis was worth the bother of it as well.

"Upstaging me?" he heard Zelgadis mutter, clearly amused after watching for a minute. "Hmph."

The other rescuers scrambled up the path, giving each other puzzled looks, but no one objected to the unexpected help. After he'd lowered the man to the ground at Kemara's feet with a shield against the rain and sleet above him, Xelloss glanced again at the place where he'd been found. He could have fallen from the narrow bridge of land or tumbled down from either side, or, for all Xelloss knew, he could have been coming across that way and slipped on the icy, seaweed-shrouded rocks.

None of which answered the question of why he'd been out there in the storm in the first place, unless he'd really tried to come ashore in that little boat and had simply found himself stranded there.

Xelloss looked out across the point to the dark hulk of the ruins, barely visible even this close through the rain and mist. He could plainly feel the dark aura stretching out toward them from the far end of the point. It certainly didn't seem like a place that humans would willingly visit, even though that didn't stop Myona.

"Oh!" Kemara said as she knelt next to the fallen man. She quickly passed her hands over him with a divining spell to check for hidden injuries. "It's that professor fellow. I didn't know he'd come back."

"Professor?" Zelgadis echoed. He quickly leaned over her to get a better look.

"Yes, his name is Plover. He's a - ah, you know of him?" Kemara said, seeing the expression on the chimera's face.

"This is Professor Plover?" Zelgadis exclaimed, looking much more closely.

Xelloss took another look as well. The man was drenched, bruised, and half-frozen, his face was stark white set off by short-cropped hair that was darkened and spiked by the rain. Other than that, there was nothing remarkable about him. The long, gray coat Xelloss had noticed yesterday was torn and caked with mud.

Zelgadis laughed with no humor in the sound. "He was taking the hard way around if he wanted to explore the ruins. Professor Herringull wasn't joking when she said he would get washed ashore in a storm some day," he added.

"He's been there before, but not recently that I know of," Kemara said while she continued to magically examine him. "He does keep coming back to the village. He's convinced he'll find evidence of the lost city here someday." She shook her head, brow furrowed with concern. "He's very smart, but not very practical."

"Huh. Utterly lacking in common sense would be a better description," Zelgadis observed. "Was he really out there all night? He was way over on the other side of the point when we saw him. He would have had to get all the way up to the top and be crossing back to the village before slipping and falling from the bridge."

"Rather ironic that he managed to crawl up the steeper, higher cliff only to fall from a less dangerous height," Xelloss observed.

Kemara bit her lip and said nothing to that. Zelgadis raised an eyebrow.

"You don't think he fell from the bridge?" he said, too quietly for the other rescuers to overhear.

"It might be that he didn't," Kemara said after a pause.

Zelgadis knelt next to Kemara. He passed his own hands over the man, also plumbing for internal injuries Xelloss supposed, but he paused and leaned closer. Xelloss saw what he was studying; in addition to scrapes and bruises, there was a series of odd red lines that criss-crossed his skin in places, and there were similar tears on his clothes. They looked as if they had been sliced with a very thin blade.

"What would make marks like that?" he wondered.

Kemara pursed her lips then but she said nothing. She rose to her feet and turned to Xelloss.

"If you would be so kind as to bring him back to the house, I would be indebted to you, Xelloss-sama."

"No no, don't speak of it!" Xelloss insisted, waving off her gratitude before he gestured the man into the air again.

She led the way back to the house, with a bedraggled, softly muttering clump of the other rescuers following. Xelloss saw Myona standing on the porch with a woman behind him, one hand on his shoulder, the other holding the hair out of her face against the wind.

Xelloss knew at once that this must be the true High Priestess, Kemara's and Myona's mother. Delora was dressed in the same Temple robes of gold and black that Kemara wore, and she had the same wild wreath of hair except hers was silvery gray. She was built much the same as her daughter, with Kemara's buxom curves softened by age, but when they were closer he saw that she had Myona's large, dark, mournful eyes.

He found that she also had the same quiet but commanding presence as the Acting High Priestess. Xelloss felt naturally compelled to bow to her as he brought the injured man to the door. Delora gave him a brief smile and tipped her head in turn, but clearly formal introductions would have to wait; she had a patient to attend to. She directed him to bring Plover inside and led him to healer's room near the front parlor.

Xelloss set the man down gently on the bed and stepped back to join Zelgadis near the door. Delora quickly passed her hands over the unconscious man, and Xelloss leaned back a little more. The white energy of her Recovery spell was bright enough to hurt his senses.

As far as Xelloss could tell, Plover was not badly hurt. There were many bruises and scrapes, though not any more than would be expected if he had tumbled all the rocky way down from the higher path; there are the odd cuts, and he was soaked through and chilled, and he remained unconscious. Xelloss quietly cast a spell to dry his clothes, but that's all he could really justify doing to help. At any rate it was clear that Delora and Kemara could take care of the rest. Even Zelgadis' considerable skill at healing would likely not be needed.

While her mother cast Recovery, Kemara heated water and gathered herbs from the cabinets in the room. Zelgadis hovered nearby, ready to help if he could. The scrapes and bruises faded quickly, and the blush of warmth and life returned to Plover's skin.

The red lines also faded, but only as long as Delora concentrated the healing power of the spell on them. To Xelloss' surprise, they returned as soon as her hands moved away.

Zelgadis made a soft exclamation at this, but neither of them dared to interrupt the healers to question it. Kemara bit her lip and frowned, though her mother's expression barely changed as she passed her hands over them again and again. Eventually, slowly, they gave way to the healing spell.

Xelloss became aware of the faint storm of dark emotions emanating from the man even while he was still unconscious, and even after any physical pain would have given way to the healing energy in the hands of the High Priestesses. In fact, normally he would have been rather uncomfortable in the presence of such strong healing powers, but that effect was countered by the turmoil he sensed in Plover's spirit.

While Delora applied the healing magic of Recovery to Plover's injuries, Kemara had prepared a concoction of herbs filled with her own potent White Magic. She sprinkled this around the bed now, filling the air with the soothing scents of rosemary and chamomile. Zelgadis leaned forward and breathed in the scent subconsciously; the effect was powerful enough that Xelloss felt the chimera's familiar swirl of dark emotions fade noticeably.

Even so, as Plover began to drift toward consciousness, his dark emotions grew in waves rather than fading. His breath had deepened under the healing magic, but now as he began to wake up, it became quick and erratic, and his limbs twitched as if he was trying to fight off wakefulness.

Delora continued to shower him with White Magic, murmuring soft words that encouraged him to return to the world and awaken. Plover's face twisted, wincing as if her voice stung, and his head rolled from side to side in denial of her gentle command to wake up.

Kemara glanced from him to her mother, biting her lip, her own face distressed with doubt. Delora ignored her and continued to coax Plover to come back to the waking world. Plover obeyed with every sign of reluctance, shaking and moaning in protest until he suddenly bolted upright, with eyes wide open and with arms flailing, and screamed in pure terror.

Xelloss took a step back and hissed softly as the dark energy slammed into his senses. Plover waved his arms wildly, trying to escape from whatever nightmare he'd awoken to. One wildly swinging fist knocked the steaming bowl of herbs from Kemara's hand.

Delora shook her head and continued to utter a healing incantation with a sad, gentle smile that Plover clearly could not see. Kemara ducked to pick up the bowl and threw the remaining drops of liquid at him forcefully, more like a priest performing an exorcism of demons than a gentle healer of the soul. The two priestesses tried to hold his arms still and pull him back to lie down and rest again, but terror gave him extra strength. Delora was knocked back against the wall with a flailing elbow; a second later she was back at his side again, still murmuring the same gently coaxing, useless words.

"Mother," Kemara pleaded. "You can't ... Just let him be, please!"

Delora shook her head again, and Kemara, with a brief cry of distress, continued to add her white magic to her mother's. It was clearly pointless. Delora's face was pale and damp with sweat from the effort of pitting her powers against the nightmare that gripped Plover's mind.

Delora at one side and Kemara at the other, they wrestled to gain Plover's attention even for an instant. He threw both of them off with a shout, physically as well as mentally, and then huddled into himself, screaming.

Zelgadis stepped up to the bed and clapped his hand to the man's forehead.

"Sleeping!"

Plover stiffened, and for a second Xelloss thought the terror that held him was strong enough to fight off even the chimera's spell. Then he flopped back onto the bed, as limp as a string of seaweed.

Xelloss gasped in the silence as the storm of emotions was suddenly cut off, and then caught himself. It was rude at best to have stood here enjoying the influx of negative energy, under the circumstances. All that was left was the inner turmoil of the High Priestesses, and he certainly had no business enjoying that!

Before Zelgadis could turn on him with an accusing glare, he dematerialized and left the room.

He didn't go far, though. Curiosity, if nothing else, demanded that he stay near Zelgadis and the injured man to find out what was going on. He simply went back to the parlor. Geki and the other rescue helpers were huddled near the fire, drying off and sharing worried glances. Obviously they'd heard the screams from the infirmary.

Myona was in the parlor too. He stared out the front bay window, or at least, faced in that direction. He was no longer quaking with fear, but his amazing control over his emotional energy was shaky now. Xelloss sensed a nameless cloud of dark emotions seething in the boy's spirit.

Xelloss ignored the others and made his way through the cluttered room to Myona. His arrival should have been silent and unnoticeable, but the boy turned toward him with wide, fearful eyes before he had a chance to speak.

"Myona-kun?" Xelloss said gently.

Myona blinked once and then turned away again. His fingers wandered over the rigging of a model ship on the windowsill in front of him.

"He'll be all right," Myona murmured, as if he thought Xelloss needed reassuring.

"I'm sure he will be!" Xelloss agreed cheerfully. "Your mother the High Priestess is one of the most powerful healers I've ever met."

This was not an exaggeration, even though he'd been in the presence of some very impressive wielders of White Magic before. That only made Delora's difficulty in healing the odd cuts and soothing the man's mental state more puzzling.

He was about to ask Myona if this had happened before when he recalled what Kemara said after they'd first met her brother, how he had been plagued by nightmares as a child until his grandmother told him to make friends with the monsters in his dreams.

"Perhaps Dream Master could help him?" he suggested.

Myona's jaw dropped, then he shook his head and actually laughed, though it was a bitter kind of humor.

"Him? Of course not!" he scoffed.

"Oh?" Xelloss remembered that he had seemed to sense anger when they had seen the man clinging to the cliff yesterday, and he also remembered Myona's amusing reaction to any mention of Plover's former partner, Professor Herringull. And of course, he could not forget that Myona had sneaked back out onto the Point last night.

He might have asked about that, too, but he heard a door open and close in the hall outside the parlor. A moment later, Kemara came in, followed by Zelgadis. She glanced over at the two of them, but went first to the group by the fireplace. Xelloss heard her speak softly but firmly to the rescue party, and a moment later, they all shuffled out the door, with many curious and concerned glances back over their shoulders.

Myona didn't turn but his shoulders hunched, bent over the model sailing ship. Kemara came towards him, ignoring Xelloss, and paused a few feet away.

"Myona," she said, with the soft command of an Acting High Priestess over the concern of an older sister.

Myona slowly turned to face her. His expression was almost blank when he looked up at her, which did not seem to reassure his sister in the slightest.

She held out her hand to him. "Please come with me, Myona," she added, more gently. "I need to talk to you."

"Is Mother all right?" he asked, without moving.

She nodded and managed to smile, almost reassuringly. "She's fine. The patient is resting for now." She gestured with her outstretched hand. "Come and talk to me, please?"

After another second of hesitation, Myona took her hand and let himself be led toward the door. Kemara glanced back at Zelgadis and Xelloss.

"Excuse us, please. Would you mind staying? I'll be back in a few minutes."

Xelloss looked to Zelgadis; the chimera raised his eyebrows but shrugged.

"Sure, we'll be here," he answered.

Kemara nodded her thanks to them and left with Myona. After watching them go with a puzzled frown, Zelgadis made his way over to Xelloss.

"What on earth is going on here?" he asked in a hushed voice.

"You're asking me that? I'm as much of a stranger here as you are, Zel-san!"

"I'm starting to think even my life is not as strange as this place," Zelgadis said, but then he shook his head. "No, you're right. We don't know these people well enough to guess what's going on. Maybe this is nothing unusual around here."

He gave Xelloss a sharp, questioning look. "What about Plover, though? You must have some idea what that was all about."

Xelloss shook his head. "I hardly know any more than you do, I'm afraid. He was terrified, obviously, but I have no way of knowing what caused it. Mazoku can't read minds, you know!"

"Thank goodness for that!"

Zelgadis pursed his lips, gazing back in the direction of the room where Plover rested. "Did you have the impression that the healers weren't surprised when he woke up screaming? Like it was something familiar, something they expected as soon as they found him."

"I did think so, and yet that didn't help them know what to do about it."

"No, clearly it didn't," Zelgadis agreed. He shook his head and made a dismissive sound, but stopped short of calling the efforts of the High Priestesses misguided. "Did Myona have anything to say about it?"

"Only that his friend the Dream Master would be unlikely to help cure Professor Plover of his nightmares; he seemed quite certain of that!"

"Not surprising, since Dream Master isn't real... at least, I assume there's nothing more to it than a boy having an imaginary friend," he added thoughtfully.

"I assume the same. But a visit to the ruins might be the best way to test that assumption."

Zelgadis laughed shortly and grinned. "I wondered when you were going to bring that up. I'm surprised you haven't 'ported yourself out there already."

"Ah, well, I haven't been quite interested enough to bother until now," Xelloss said. "And now I can't go until we've spoken with the Acting High Priestess, since she asked us to stay."

"Good. I'm curious about it now, too, so you're not going out there without me!" He folded his arms and tipped his head to the side. "You don't think Myona's horror story is actually true, do you?"

Xelloss was sure Zelgadis very much wanted him to say that it wasn't, and considering some of the twists the story took, he felt the same about it. The truth was that he had no way of knowing if it was or not.

"I can only say that I've heard such stories before, though not the same in every detail. The name of Bosasillzogu is not one I've ever heard before, but then again, I certainly don't know the name of every Mazoku who ever existed!"

Zelgadis shook his head, though he was clearly not surprised. "You're no help when it comes to facts, as usual!"

"Zel-san," Xelloss pouted. "I assure you it's no secret! I truly can't tell you what I do not know myself. For all I know, The Mala's story of his illustrious ancestor sailing here in a golden ship is the true tale in this case - though I very much doubt it."

Zelgadis rolled his eyes. "Well, in any case, I think it's high time we make our own visit to the mysterious ruins."

He glanced out the window. The rain and sleet had become no more than a cold drizzle, and white fog was filling up the bay. Both the hooked cliff and the northern point where the Mala lived were hidden.

"It's a lovely day for exploring!" Xelloss said cheerfully.

"You would say that," Zelgadis replied, shaking his head.

Xelloss found himself wishing he had visited the ruins already, on his own. For some reason, he didn't like the idea of Zelgadis going there, at least not until he'd investigated the place - especially if, by some chance, mazoku were involved. It could become awkward if he had to protect his curious chimera from his own kind. Not that Zelgadis would be easy prey for any average mazoku after the lessons Xelloss had been giving him, but he'd rather not have to put those lessons to such a practical test right away.

He was trying, without much hope, to come up with a reason to delay Zelgadis from visiting the ruins when Kemara came back a minute later. This time she closed the parlor door behind herself and paused briefly before coming over to them, as if to catch her breath. Zelgadis went to meet her near the door.

"Are you all right, Kemara?" he asked.

She nodded and managed a smile, though it was far short of her usually bubbly cheer.

"Is your mother really all right?" he added. "She looked exhausted."

Kemara nodded. "She'll be fine. She pushes herself... This is the trouble with being a healer, you know; sometimes we're too impatient and forget that Nature can heal as well, if we allow it to work in its own way..."

"This has happened before, hasn't it?" Zelgadis said quietly.

Kemara nodded, then seemed to catch herself as if she hadn't meant to confirm that. She turned away and paced for a moment, ending up by the bay window before she started to speak again.

"People tend to blame anything odd that happens or any kind of bad luck on the ruins, you know, and any accidents or mishaps, or any bad dreams, are said to be 'from the stones' - meaning the black stones of the old temple, even if no one knows the true story of their origins. Or maybe that's why it's easy to blame them for anything we don't understand. There have always been stories of people getting lost near the Bridge, and there seem to be more injuries and falls near it, although Grandmother used to say that was the story people gave if they didn't want to explain how they got a bruise or woke up lying in the street after staying too late at the tavern."

She spoke quickly, not looking at either of them, then seemed to catch herself and took a breath.

"The only other one who certainly fell there that I know of is Myona."

"Ah," Xelloss said softly. "And that is when his nightmares began?" he asked, though by now it didn't really seem to be a question.

Kemara nodded.

"The injuries, we healed those, of course, but he woke up terrified. Mother... she sat with him for days, trying to calm him down. Nothing worked. He only slept when he was exhausted. He lost his voice from screaming. We couldn't do anything."

She twisted her hands together, her voice getting softer and smaller as she spoke.

"It was at least a week before he even seemed to know where he was. Gradually, after that, he came back to himself, and got better, but only as long as he was awake. That's when the nightmares really began. He hardly spoke when he was awake - we thought for a while he'd truly lost his voice - but he would never talk about what happened, how he'd come to be at the foot of the bridge. He said he didn't remember going there."

She turned toward the window again, one hand wrapped around herself. The fingers of her other hand fidgeted with the mast of the model ship.

"We didn't know what to think, really. He always played along the shore, all up and down the bay, right along the water's edge. Mother and I worried about him constantly, but Grandmother said we should let him be." She turned away from the window to face them again with a vague gesture, a wave of her hand that might have been meant to indicate something in the room or the whole house around them, or something else entirely.

"Well, you see, our father was lost at sea when Myona was a baby. Grandmother said it was good that Myona wasn't afraid of the waves, but it was almost as if he was defying the tide to come and sweep him away. He didn't seem to be afraid of anything, back then.

"And then the fall happened, and the nightmares started. He changed so much."

"Until your grandmother gave him the key to drive away the bad dreams," Zelgadis said.

She nodded. "That helped. He's still ... he never used to be so shy. He used to tell his stories to the other kids all the time, and pester the Loremasters for more tales. Not such dark stories as he tells now. Grandmother always told stories about the Mazoku, and now those are the only ones that interest him."

She gave Xelloss a crooked smile. Not certain if that was thanks or blame, all he could do was rub the back of his head and grin back.

"In all the tales he's told, he's never revealed what happened that time, not unless it's hidden in a story somewhere," she went on. "But if it was something about the ruins that frightened him, I don't know why he loves to go there all the time now."

"As he did last night, apparently?" Xelloss added. "We did try to tell him not to, but he seemed rather displeased to see someone else there yesterday."

Kemara shook her head. "It's certainly not your fault, Xelloss-sama. I don't think a Holy Magic barrier would be able to keep him away from those ruins now! But I don't know why he would care so much if someone else was out there."

"He doesn't seem to think much of Professor Plover," Xelloss said. "Though he did say that he didn't know who it was on the cliff at the time."

Kemara twisted her hands together, shaking her head again. "Professor Plover has visited the ruins many times before, but I don't think Myona ever met him." Her brow furrowed. "That's what I wanted to ask him about. He says he didn't see the professor there last night, or anything else unusual. When I asked him why he didn't mention seeing him yesterday, he just shrugged and said it didn't matter. Actually," she said with a halfhearted smile at them, "what he said was that Dream Master wouldn't care if that man was there, so it didn't matter to him."

"Ah yes," Zelgadis said. "His friendly imaginary monster who keeps watch over the ruins, apparently."

"Something like that," Kemara admitted. "I guess it makes sense, if whatever started the nightmares had something to do with them. He says that's what keeps him safe out there even if the weather is terrible, and also that it's why no one else should go out there - they wouldn't be as safe as he is."

"But he doesn't know what might happen to someone else who does go there - or what already did happen, in this case?" Xelloss added.

"No. And he said nothing like that would happen to him there, but he's still afraid. I know he is."

Xelloss was certain of it; Myona had been terrified from the moment Geki had mentioned a fall from the Bridge, but he didn't add to Kemara's concerns by saying so.

"Those cuts that were so hard to heal," Zelgadis said thoughtfully. "Do you know what caused them? Did Myona have them as well?"

Kemara nodded once, quickly; Xelloss sensed her wince at the reminder. "He had the same kind of marks on him. That's the strangest thing, really. We could never figure out what caused them. You saw that regular healing magic hardly worked on them, but Mother could never detect any spell that would make them so hard to heal. I couldn't either, this time."

"Nor could I," Zelgadis confirmed. Xelloss shrugged in agreement, and Zelgadis shook his head. "If it wasn't for those marks, I'd consider it all just as likely that Myona and Plover both scared themselves with their own horror stories, or perhaps that someone played a very nasty prank on both of them. But those make it seem like there must be something else involved here."

Kemara grimaced, then bit her lip, staring down at her own clenched hands.

"I hate to think anyone from the village is capable of causing so much harm as a prank," she said quietly. "But I suppose it's possible. If it was just Professor Plover - well, I have to admit he's made himself an easy target with his careless wandering and his wild ideas! But what happened to Myona was years ago now, and I don't know why anyone would have played such a cruel trick on him back then."

"Or why they wouldn't have done it to others until now," Zelgadis added thoughtfully. He looked at Xelloss. "Well, maybe we'll find out something about it when we check out the ruins ourselves."

"Ah," Kemara said, raising an eyebrow. "That was exactly what I was going to ask you, to be honest. I was wondering if you've been there yet, and what you thought of it. I guess I thought you both might be curious about it."

"We haven't gone there yet," Zelgadis said, "but I was definitely planning to."

"We most certainly are curious," Xelloss added. Even if they hadn't been, he supposed there was no way to keep Zelgadis away now that Kemara had all but requested them to investigate the place. "But I shall be very surprised indeed if the ghost of Bosasillzogu is lurking there! However," he went on, eyes opening a little wider than usual as he thought about the tale of the greedy mazoku, "If he did appear, I would not hesitate to send him back to oblivion, and make quite certain that he stayed there this time..."

He became aware that Zelgadis and Kemara were both staring at him with raised eyebrows, and then he realized that he had inadvertently raised enough aggressive dark energy for a High Priestess and a shamanic swordsman to notice.

"Ah, aha, never mind me!" he said quickly. He flapped his hands and gave them his most innocuous smile. "I was carried away by Myona-kun's marvelous storytelling for a moment. I meant no offense to you or to the rule of the Temple, High Priestess-sama!"

"Oh, no offense taken, Xelloss-sama. And it's Acting High Priestess," she corrected, and then sighed. "Which reminds me that I have tasks to attend to, especially now that Mother has a patient to watch over. Thank you both for all your help," she added, bowing to each of them with clasped hands. "Especially for listening to my little brother's stories. That means a great deal to us."

"He's still welcome to come to the Mala's library with us tomorrow, if that's all right with you," Zelgadis said. "Maybe the distraction will be good for him."

"Thank you, Zelgadis-san, I'm sure it will be!" Kemara said.

They collected Zelgadis' cloak and left soon after that, with a promise that if by some chance Plover should awaken well and lucid, he would not be allowed to leave until Zelgadis had a chance to talk to him.

The fog was thick outside, puffing and billowing in gusts of icy wind. They stood at the corner of the Temple wall, peering through the mist; even the Gate nearby was just a ghostly shape in the fog. The points of land and the great sea beyond could have ceased to exist, for all they could tell.

"What perfect weather to explore a haunted old ruin!" Xelloss said cheerfully.

Zelgadis smirked. "Lina would call it a perfect cliche, you know."

"Ah, yes, but she wouldn't let that stop her, would she?"

"Not for a second," Zelgadis said, and set off down the hill toward the point.

Fairly bouncing with curiosity by now, Xelloss followed.

TBC! Coming up, a visit to the ruins and some lessons about the lore of lore.