Lina stormed off, leaving small black clouds of gloom behind her, and Sylfiel was left to rummage through her companions' spell-books. There was probably an answer in here somewhere...
"Sylfiel?"
She looked up from one of Zel's volumes on black magic to see a rather bedraggled Amelia coming towards her.
"How was the food?"
Amelia burst into tears.
"It's not fair," she wailed. "Some Heavenly Gift! I ate the whole thing and I'm hungrier than I was when I started!"
"That's because you weren't eating real food." She pulled a handkerchief from somewhere at her belt and handed it to the girl. "Please, Amelia, don't cry. I've figured out why things are so weird around here."
"Weird? What do you mean?"
Sylfiel sighed. "You missed most of it, didn't you?"
"Most of what?"
"Well..."
Lina kicked a pebble a few feet further into the grass, then blasted it with a flare carrot. Stupid men. Stupid dress. Stupid frickin' haywire sorcery. Stupid, stupid, stupid!
She sighed and sat down heavily in the grass. Man, this was a bad day. Even on the days when she'd almost been pounded to bits by demon lords, she'd kept some shred of her dignity. But having to prance around in a girly purple dress like the village idiot's sister--that was true suffering.
And Zel had been mad at her. That made her uneasy. Normally she wouldn't bat an eyelash at having fought with one of her friends--after all, they couldn't seem to stay mad at each other for long, even if the irritation quotient was pretty high among the group. But Zel was kind of different. Not just a good buddy. He was more intelligent than Gourry and Amelia, for one thing... and...
And what? she thought. Sure, he's smart. And he can be funny when he's not Mr. Mope-along. But that's no reason to be upset about fighting with him...
Suddenly she sat up straight.
"Oh my God," she murmured. "Oh, hell. I like him."
"It must be an illusion-spell," Sylfiel said. "Miss Lina must have been pretty worked up magically, so when she wished the compass would at least look better..."
"You mean it reflected off the protection spell and became its own charm?" Amelia finished.
"In a way. It has a limited effect--we each got only one small wish, and even that was an illusion. The food you wanted may have looked and smelled like a real meal--"
"--but I'm still hungry." The small sorceress heaved a miserable sigh; Sylfiel gave her a reassuring pat on the back.
"Don't worry, Amelia. We'll get you some real lunch as soon as all this is cleared up. Right now, though, we ought to find the compass and see if we can break the spell."
"I guess so, but..." She trailed off, her large eyes growing pensive.
"What is it?"
"I was just wondering--I know what your wish was, and Mr. Gourry's, and mine. But what do you suppose Miss Lina wished for?"
Now things had officially gotten really, really bad. Were powerful sorceresses supposed to get crushes? Besides, a crush was what Amelia had for Zel. Hanging off his arm, blushing, laughing hysterically at something he'd said that wasn't even recognizably a joke.
But now that she thought about it... there had been that little twinge, when she'd seen him asleep that morning. She'd had those moments from the beginning: wanting to cheer him up, wanting to see him smile or at least put him at ease.
In fact, now that she thought about it, he was pretty damn cute, for a chimera. And kind of fun, when he wasn't moping.
She kicked at another stone. "This sucks. It's totally useless. I wish I could just get this whole Zel thing all cleared up."
No revelation hit, so she lay back down in the grass and let her eyes slide shut. Oh well. She could always try talking to Sylfiel... or maybe she was just tired, not thinking straight. Maybe she needed a--
--big ominous cloud to block out the sun?
Sylfiel set the compass in the middle of her makeshift magic circle--really just a few stones and some runes scratched in the dust--and planted her healer's staff in the earth, then sat, spread out her hands, and began to chant.
"By the powers of Earth, Wind, and Water, we call upon the healing power invoked in hours past..."
"Shouldn't that be 'ages past'?" Amelia whispered.
"No," she muttered, through her teeth. "We're altering the spell a little."
"But then how can you be sure it'll work?"
"I'm not sure. But the basic chant is the same."
"Well, okay..."
"Can we continue with the spell, please?"
"Oh. Sorry."
She opened her eyes. Zelgadis was standing over her, smiling a little.
"Are you doing the Sleeping Beauty thing today?" he asked.
Lina scrambled to her feet, embarrassed. "Zel, I thought you went to--"
"Well, I'm back now, aren't I?"
She paused. His tone of voice was gently teasing rather than sarcastic. She kind of liked it. And it probably meant he was in a good enough mood to accept an apology.
"Listen, uh, Zel, about earlier... I'm sorry I was such a pain."
"Not a problem. You know I could never stay angry at you, Lina."
She beamed. "Yeah, I know. Amazing how I'm like that. Just a little ol' fountain of boundless charm."
He smiled. There was a slight pause.
"That dress," he said, suddenly. "Did Sylfiel--?"
"Uh, not really. It just sort of, um... well, it sort of appeared and I can't seem to get it off."
"I can't see why you'd want to. You look... stunning. But then," his blue-green eyes took on a smile, "you always look good."
"Quit kidding around, Zel," Lina said weakly, trying for a cheerful tone.
"I'm not kidding. I know you hate it when guys say stuff like that, at least the guys we've met, but it's true."
A shiver started at the roots of Lina's hair, and worked its way down into her fingernails. What in the seven hells was he doing to her? Was he actually flirting?
And could he see how well it was working?
He stepped forward and touched her chin with a stony finger; she felt her face turn the same brilliant red as her hair.
"Lina," he said softly, "I've wanted to say this from the beginning, but I'm not really good with words..."
"Knock it off." Her voice was barely a squeak now. "Really--"
But already her eyes were drifting closed, and he was bending down to kiss her.
"...as it is your will, so is it mine; so may it be."
With a graceful gesture Sylfiel ended the spell; the compass gently shattered again, then went dull.
"There," she said happily. "Everything should be back to normal again. Here, Amelia, help me clean this up."
Foof.
Nothing happened. No kiss; only a slight puff of air against her lips. Lina opened her eyes, startled--he was gone.
She blinked, then remembered to be angry. Really angry. So angry that, for almost another hour, she couldn't even see straight.
