(Again, Irene-chan helped me out. Among other things, she wrote Zelgadis's nasty attitudinous speech near the end of the chapter... WOW.)



Zel sat bolt upright. His eyes fell on the mirror first: his form was leaning nonchalantly against the opposite wall.

"Xellos," he muttered, through clenched teeth.

"Come on, you can't tell me you didn't enjoy that little escapade just now."

Zel stood up. "I didn't enjoy it half as much as I'm going to enjoy tearing you to pieces in a minute."

"Ooh, touchy, are we." Xellos shifted his weight, smiling. "It could have been a lot worse, you know. It can always be a lot worse."

"I suppose so. You know your vulnerabilities better than I do. But then... the same applies both ways."

"And you're still moping, are you?" he asked, blithely ignoring Zel's threatening tone.

"Moping? Not a chance." Mentally, he recoiled. No one in the Greywyrs family had ever been known to mope, and he was damned if he'd be the first. "Tell me," he pushed on, shelving the unpleasant thought, "what have you been up to? Since I'm the one providing the transportation, I feel I have a right to ask."

"But not a right to know."

Zelgadis felt his blood chill for a moment; he had never quite realised how wicked his own smile could be.

"Hey, I've been leaving the love troubles to you, haven't I?"

He gritted his teeth. "I would hardly know. Then again, you don't seem to have been doing anything but hiding from your numerous enemies."

"Oh, nobody's in town at this time of year. Nobody big at any rate. And if you keep dodging the issue you'll never make it any better."

If he doesn't stop that-- Zel bit down on his tongue, keeping back a rush of bitter anger. It was a moment before he could speak again. "Do you think I want to let you get your thrills from what your body may be doing? Whatever is going on in my personal life... that is a secret!"

To his surprise, Xellos said nothing. He merely closed his eyes and reached up to toy with a lock of spiny wire hair that lay across his forehead.

Then, after a pause, he smiled. "Zelgadis, do you know how obvious you've been about her? It's ridiculous."

"That doesn't make prying all right," Zel replied lamely. "Now go."

"No. I have this thing about chronic stupidity..."

All right, that's enough. He closed his eyes and began to gather magical energy. He'd given plenty of warning; now it was time to quit playing.

A harsh laugh sliced across his hearing; Xellos' anger rolled across him. "Again, Zel, whose throat are you slitting? Do you really want to stay trapped in a body whose attributes you are unfamiliar with, whose face you--and your friends--all hate?"

Zel smiled. A cruel, remorseless smile, one that was perfectly at home on this borrowed face. "Do you really think I wouldn't? Chimera or half-monster, neither is what I plan on being forever. Besides, the Ra-Tilt won't hurt that body. Only the soul of a monster therein. The question isn't whether I'm ready to stay in this body--it's whether you want to die in that one."

There was silence for a heartbeat; then the rage swelled and knocked him over. Or, rather, Xellos knocked him over, coming at him with unbelievable force. He felt his throat close: cold, stony fingers were wrapped around his neck. He couldn't breathe.

"I could ask the same of you," his own voice said, distantly, quietly. "You really are an idiot, Zelgadis, you know that? You're pathetic. You sit around and you mope about your problems, which I won't deny make for interesting entertainment, and you swing a sword when somebody needs it. You think that's lovable? I've seen delusions in my time, but that just about takes the cake."

Zel choked, struggling to escape the grip of what had, yesterday, been his own hands. He'd never been on the receiving end of his own strength and invincibility, never really known how the rock-hard hands would feel on human flesh.

Fear rose in him as he arched against the floor, trying to get free. And then he realised, the fear wasn't for himself.

It was for Lina.

When her magic power was low, when it was that time of the month, it would be so easy to take her down--as he himself had done before. Not even the gods knew, and probably not the monsters either, what Xellos would do to Lina (or to other innocents) with his body.

The air in his lungs was going bad, fast. He shut his eyes and concentrated--and teleported, a moment before his larynx would have caved in beneath the pressure.

He ended up on the other side of the room, still flat on his back. Not much, but before the dizziness hit he had time to get to his feet.

Xellos's confusion began to give way to anger when Zel got his balance and his breath back, but the distraction was enough to give him an idea of what to do next.

This time he closed his eyes and concentrated as hard as he could, not on a place, but on the one person who might be able to help him...



...it took over a hundred miles, and he felt as though he was being scattered, like sand, every inch of the way...



Sylfiel gave a gasp as, suddenly, Xellos, priest and monster, appeared out of thin air, huddled at her feet in an unconscious heap.



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