Gracia woke up lying on a soft surface. She opened her eyes and found herself in a room with a girl of about 15 years of age sitting at the end of her bed.
"Hi!" said the blond girl. Then she turned around, opened the curtain separating the little room from the hallway and screamed: "Sylpheel, come here!"
After a few moments an angry looking young woman entered the room. She had long sleeveless white robes on and her dark hair was held in a ponytail. Her green eyes looked at the girl angrily.
"Ayla be quiet! You'll end up killing the patients!" she told the blond girl.
"She's awake!" answered Ayla pointing at Gracia.
"As is every patient in this infirmary for that matter..." she turned towards Gracia, "Hi, I'm Sylpheel, how do you feel?"
"Fine... thank you... Amelia! Where's Amelia?"
"Shh... don't get all worked up, there was nobody with you when we found you.... I'm sorry...." said Ayla not looking into Gracia's eyes.
"No! But...but that Mazoku, the one with blue hair took her, I have to rescue her..." Gracia started to get up and Ayla supported her.
"They took her? Does that means they’ve started taking prisoners?" the priestess looked at Ayla questioningly, but the girl just shrugged, "Luna has to hear about this. Ayla take her to Luna, she'll know what to do." said Sylpheel, "Well, I have to go now. There're a lot of people here I have to take care of." With those word she left the room.
Gracia still felt a little weak but all her injuries had been healed with a very powerful white magic spell. When Gracia exited the room, she could see that she was in some kind of hospital. There were beds and injured everywhere. Sylpheel and another black haired woman was attending them.
"That's Eris, she and Sylpheel take care of the infirmary." said Ayla, leading Gracia through a long hallway.
"Where am I?" asked Gracia looking at her surroundings.
The building was strange, no windows, long corridors, all light was provided by light spells that were floating around.
"Oh... This is Kayless, headquarters of the resistance." She said proudly. "We're several feet underground. This used to be the catacombs of a church, but it's been our base for almost 22 years. I was born here, you know." Ayla walked on smiling.
Kayless??... It makes sense... Gracia thought, an underground facility would be difficult to find by the Mazoku...
Gracia had heard of the resistance, but had always thought it to be only a myth, a feary-tale designed to lift the spirit of the survivors. And now she was walking through the headquarters of that myth.
She and Ayla passed by many people on the hallways, many of them waving a hand at Ayla as a sign of greeting.
While they walked, Ayla explained that she had been brought here directly from Slesia by Alya herself and her brother, who had gone out looking for survivors right after they had heard about the attack. She also found out that it had been Sylpheel who had tended to her injuries, Sylpheel who worked permanently in the infirmary in Kayless.
After a while Ayla stopped in front of a wooden door. On the door was a big escutcheon hanging. A blue dragon with four heads, one was attacking with magic, another seemed to be screaming in pain, the third head had strange look which Gracia couldn’t quiet place. The fourth and last head seemed to be looking with its light blue eyes intensively at her. Those eyes...
Ayla knocked on the door.
"Yes?" answered a clear female voice from the other side.
"It's me Ayla. I've brought a survivor from Slesia, she has some important news according to Sylpheel." said Ayla.
A young woman opened the door. She had shoulder length hair with long bangs that covered her eyes when she looked down.
"Come in.," she said gesturing them inside. "I'm Luna Inverse, Knight of Cephied." she said.
"I'm Gracia Will Tesla. That Ma.... Wait a second, you are the Knight of Cephied?!" Gracia looked unbelievingly at the woman.
"Yes, I am." she answered smiling warmly and showing Gracia a chair to sit down.
"Oh, L-sama, I’m very honored to met you Miss Inverse." said Gracia taking Luna’s hands in hers.
"Just call me Luna, okay. I’m not very good with formalities. Please sit down. I hear that you have important news to tell me." said Luna while sitting down on her desk.
"Well, you see the Mazoku took my sister, I have to go save her." said Gracia.
Luna looked a little startled, "I didn't know they were taking prisoners. Do you remember what kind of Mazoku it was?"
"Dunno. A woman with blue hair in a pigtail." said Gracia.
"Blue hair in a pig tail you say?" asked Luna to confirm that she had heard right.
Gracia nodded and looked at Luna who seemed to be lost in thought for a moment, but then the knight shocked her head returning her attention back to them.
"Thank you... this definitely is important information... Ayla, why don't you show her the town and get her something to eat? I'll see you later and don't worry about your sister. I'll see what I can do for her." said Luna and closed the door behind them.
Something moved in the shadows of the room.
"Hi Xellos." said Luna not turning around.
"Why is it I can never startle you sis?" asked the trickster priest coming into the light.
"Don't call me 'sis'. I'm not related to you." said Luna turning towards him.
"Oh, but I've been alive almost as long as you have and we've been through so much together, and you know I've always wanted a big sister and be - "
"You're weird." she interrupted him.
This was like a game to them. A game that had started about 1000 years ago. He would always call her 'sis' and she would always remind him that she was not, and he would try to convince her, and she would end up calling him weird.
"Well...?" said Luna.
"That girl is probably one of Sherra's latest toys...." said Xellos walking up and down the room.
"'Toys'?" she asked rising an eyebrow.
"It's her latest occurrence, she is collecting 'toys' to amuse her. I guess Valgarv isn't enough."
"Can you do something about it?" asked Luna, not very pleased of the idea a girl being a Mazoku general's 'toy'.
"I'll see what I can do... but I can't promise you anything, Sherra likes to break her 'toys'... see you sis." said the Mazoku kissing her check. He knew he would tease her by doing that.
"Xe - " she started to protest but he had already disappeared.
Luna sighed and sat down on her chair behind the desk. She looked down at the two Demonblood Stones around her waist, which Xellos had given her as a present. It was strange that the Knight of Cephied was best friends with a Mazoku general/priest and his lady, one of the Dark Lords herself.
They were powerful allies to the resistance, ever since Shabranigdu had taken hold of the body of Xellas' lover Lei Magnus.
The Lei Xellas loved had ceased to exist and the Beastmaster was determined to stop Shabranigdu from doing more harm, whatever the cost....
Powerful allies indeed... thought Luna before her mind drifted towards another powerful ally. She hadn't seen him in more than 20 years, but for a person that was almost immortal, it wasn't such a long time....
Luna was holding her baby sister in her arms, only weeks old. Luna's mother had died giving birth to Lina leaving Luna to take care of the baby. Her mother had been the Knight of Cephied, so now the title was passed to Luna and with it all of the responsibilities as the head of the resistance.
Lina was sleeping, her little chubby fingers grasping Luna's tumb.
"She's a healthy baby..." said a voice behind Luna.
There were very few people that could creep that close to her without her noticing it. He was one of them. Luna turned around towards the man with the red-purple hair. He was holding a little boy, of about 4 years of age in his right arm, his staff on his left.
Luna didn't ask about the boy, he would tell her soon enough...
"I'm sorry about your mother." he said looking at her with his blue eyes. (Note: as Shabby in Lei assimilated most of his other pieces, there is no piece inside Rezo, therefore Rezo's eyes are still open. ^_^)
Luna put little Lina in her cradle.
"Nice to see you again Rezo, the years have treated you well." said Luna returning her attention to the man.
"Thank you. You're the same as always. I see the new base is coming along pretty well." said Rezo motioning around the room with his staff.
"Oh yes, this is a perfect location... and there's so much to do..."
"I have a favor to ask of you." said Rezo. "This is Zelgadis Greywords, my grandson."
Luna took a better look at the boy: blue skin, pointy little ears, little rocks here and there and big eyes looking everywhere.
Luna had originally thought he was an elf.
"You made him a chimera." she said matter of factly.
"Malef was attacked, he was a weak child, he wouldn't have survived..." Rezo said staring at the wall.
"Malef.... your daughter?" said Luna.
"Dead." said Rezo, no emotions showing, but Luna had known him for a long time and knew how to read the signs in his inexpressive face, he was mourning.
"I cannot take the boy with me on my next journey." he said, his glance turning towards her once again.
"I can arrange for someone to - " Luna started to say.
"No, I want you to train him. He's should be very skilled in magic and his chimera form will make him a good fighter."
"But I can't.... I already have Lina.... and the new base..."
Rezo extended the arm carrying Zelgadis towards Luna.
Little Zel looked from the weird man who had turned him into something blue towards the woman who looked like mommy. He took his tumb out of his mouth and extended his arms towards the mommy-look-alike.
When Zel had put his small arms around Luna's neck, she knew she had lost the battle.
Luna shook herself out of the memory. Both Lina and Zelgadis had grown up into fine human beings, both were very skilled with magic. Zel had shown an aptitude for shamanism, while Lina had concentrated on black magic.
Filia and Xeres had been a great help teaching the children. The dragons certainly were very qualified teachers. Luna had to smile at the mental image of a nine year old Lina, a fifteen year old Gourry, thirteen year old Zelgadis and Sylpheel and a four year old Ayla playing tag in the corridors. They had been the only children in the base back then, the community had grown a lot in the resent years from original 20 to over 70 now, and new refugees found their way to Kayless everyday.
Luna sighed again, she had a lot of work to do....