"So, tell us a bit about yourselves!" the current crown prince of Seyruun declared in his unnervingly boisterous voice. Renima and Akira seemed somewhat nervous in the presence of the incredibly tall, muscular, and whiskered man who was Philleonel el de Seyruun. Many a time had the comparison between Phil and the Dwarven race been made, but it was more of a reference to his build and personality, not his height, which far exceeded that of a dwarf.

"Daddy, we're all right here at the table. There's no need to shout," Amelia commented as though her father would never learn.

"Oh, yes, of course," Phil stated in a quieter and slightly embarrassed voice, "Anyway, dinner conversation is an art, correct? So let's be artists."

Renima looked around the table. The four travelers to Seyruun, Amelia, Phil, and the sorcerer previously mentioned by the princess were the only inhabitants to the incredibly long banquet table. The dinning hall looked quite strange having so much space but only seven inhabitants (not counting the servants who looked rather bored on standby).

"Umm. . .didn't you say we were going to discuss the tactics for tomorrow's operation?" Renima politely tried to keep the whole ordeal professional.

"Nah!" Phil shook his head, "You and Akira are here because you are friends of my daughter's friends, and that makes you friends of Seyruun. If you really want to keep this whole deal strictly to the bone, you can go have dinner in the barracks with the rest of our amassed forces."

Apparently Akira and Renima didn't like that idea. Renima looked to her master as if desiring permission to tell a little about themselves. Akira hesitated for a moment, and then nodded.

"Well," Renima began in a tone that attempted modesty, "My master, Akira, was once one of the most respected mercenaries in the west."

"You two are from the west?" Amelia asked.

"Akira is. He's from one of the island city-states. I'm from the south," Renima explained.

"That's nice and all," Lina commented sarcastically between mouthfuls of yakitori. Her normally enormous appetite was not in the least diminished by her strange attitude.

"Hmm?" Renima replied.

"Why don't you tell us something that's a little more important?" Lina quested, "Like how come you can read Akira's thoughts? Or why he can't speak in the first place?"

"Well, my master suffered grievous wounds when he was hired to act as a bodyguard for the King-Sorcerer Viroi,"

Lina's eyes widened in sudden recognition of the name that belonged to the king in question when she had witnessed the battle between Yume and the soldiers. Lina tried to remain cool, hoping no one would notice her reaction to the name.

"He was the only survivor of the skirmish which took place between the soldiers and the woman who assassinated the king. The battle left his face scarred and his throat permanently silenced."

"Cut out his tongue, eh? My condolences. When was this?" Lina sought more information from these two who might know something relating to her disturbing dreams of late, but a thought at the back of her mind bothered her. She didn't remember there being any survivors of the battle between Yume and the soldiers. Lina shook the though off, whatever was causing these dreams was obviously tampering with her mind, so not remembering the presence of Akira might not be something to worry about.

"About three years ago. Before Akira-kun and I had met," Renima responded to the other sorceress's question, "Why?"

"Never hear the phrase 'just curious?' Whatever, continue your silly little narrative,"

"So anyway, that explains why my master always conceals himself so deeply as well as why he doesn't talk. It was a scarring incident, both literally and figuratively," Renima continued when she was sure that her tale had the attention of all present, "About a year later my master was hired by a merchant in the south to act as a bodyguard. The same merchant hired me, also being a mercenary in the immediate area. What the bastard had failed to tell us though, was that the reason he needed guarding was because he had pissed off a local gang of organized crime. Needless to say, we had a little confrontation with the outlaws,"

"Typical," Gourry commented, only half paying attention to the tale.

"Anyway," Renima continued while blushing slightly and leaning her head against Akira's shoulder who sat next to her, "I was taking on too many of them by myself, and I honestly thought I was about to be killed. But at the last moment, Akira-kun selflessly defended me against the foes! He looked so gallant, taking out all of them single handedly! They didn't stand a chance against him! Without taking so much as a scratch from their blades, he ended their pitiful excuses for lives and rescued me! From that moment onward, I declared myself to forever be his slave and serve him when he needed aid!"

Renima's voice dropped considerably, but she continued to mutter something or another while blushing. Amelia, who was sitting closest to them could only make out the occasional word "Akira-kun."

A large sweatdrop rolled down the side of Akira's hood as he was forced to listen to the over dramatization of their meeting.

"How'd he do that with a hood on?" Gourry asked in amazement.

Amelia shrugged, "Beats me. I've seen Zelgadis-san do it too. Must be anime magic."

Lina chewed her lip in annoyance. Phil watched Renima with a somewhat doubtful thought to her sanity.

"Ahem! Anyway. . ." the guest sorcerer broke in the middle. He hadn't spoken at all since the seven had sat down, but Lina had noticed that his eyes had often strayed back and forth between Renima and Amelia, or, to be more accurate, their chests.

"Great, just what we need. A bishounen playboy sorcerer. . ." Lina mumbled under her breath. The sorcerer probably would be considered bishounen by most women's standards. He had long brown hair that fell in front of his shoulders and a warm inviting face with a very charming smile.

"Say something?" Gourry asked next to her.

"Nothing. Nothing at all. . ." Lina couldn't decide if the sorcerer's presence, or the fact that he hadn't stopped to look at her chest, was more bothersome.

Renima just leaned happily against Akira's shoulder while forgetting the food she was eating while talking earlier. It had been explained earlier that Akira refused to eat in the presence of others. He simply sat in his chair with an empty plate and his mask securely over his face while inwardly praying that Renima would stop such shows of affection if front of other people.

"Dammit! Stop letting your stupid hormones grip your mind and tell us why you can read his damn thoughts!" Lina shouted after everyone had given up on learning more of the two and returned to silent eating.

"Huh?!" Renima asked is if waking from a trance, "Oh yes! The reason I can read his thoughts is because I'm an elf."

Renima lifted her wavy white hair with to display her pointed ears as proof. Everyone else but Akira stopped suddenly and stared in disbelief that such an incredibly rare aspect such as that was revealed by her as though it was an everyday spectacle.

Lina was the first to recover from her surprise. "But I thought elves could only read the thoughts of others if they shared a soul bond. . .oh, right. . .never mind. . ." Lina went back to eating as she grumbled about the stupidity of her own comment.

Renima just continued leaning against her master's shoulder and sighed happily. Now it was the turn of everyone in the room save Renima to sweatdrop.

"So what's this about the assassin that killed the King-Sorcerer Viroi?" Amelia was the first to break the silence.

"Haven't you ever heard?" Renima asked after mental prompting from Akira.

"Heard what?" Gourry asked simple-mindedly as he spent more of his mental prowess deciding that it wasn't a good idea to fight Lina for food like they usually did. Her temper seemed somewhat calmed by the distraction of food, but he could tell she was still testy.

"Starting around twenty years ago, there was a spattering of murders all over the continent," Renima explained after Akira had mentally fed her the exact information regarding the woman assassin, "The murders took place quite variably in regard to both time and place, but a pattern to the killing was discovered. All the target victims were sorcerers working on anti-Mazoku sorcery. The deaths of everyone else involved were merely collateral."

"Yes, I recall hearing periodic reports of this," Phil, who hadn't spoken in a while, broke in, "I remember it was quite a stir when they first started twenty years ago because the woman was apparently only a young child back then,"

Akira nodded assent. Apparently he had done his research into Yume as well.

"Only a child?" Amelia asked in astonishment, "Why! It's unjust enough that anyone would carry out the will of evil, but a child? Whoever influenced her to do such a thing shall never be forgiven in the light of Heaven!"

"My sentiments exactly!" Phil declared while both he and his daughter struck heroic poses.

"Daddy!"

"Daughter!"

The two overly zealous members of royalty shared a hug bathed in the warmth of their devotion to what was morally upright. Lina, Gourry, and the servants nearby were familiar enough to ignore it, but Renima, Akira, and the bishounen sorcerer watched with confused expressions. After a moment the two returned to their seats

"Apparently the people suspected the young girl was possessed by a Mazoku or at least some sort of lesser demon, so they sent an exorcist to purge her. The next time anyone saw the exorcist he was a bloody pile of body parts," Renima went on with a very serious tone that contradicted her normally happy personality.

Lina didn't have trouble believing that Yume would do that even if only a child back then, but everyone else seemed taken aback.

"The whole string of murders lost publicity after a while though, because there tended to be a large gap in between the times of the incidents,"

"How eerie. . ."Amelia commented more to herself than anyone else.

"There still isn't too much information to go on," Renima went on, "The only thing known is that she's approximately twenty-six years old currently. . .well, if she's still alive that is. There hasn't been any Shadow Phoenix murders since Viroi three years ago, so I guess it's possible that some vigilante managed to kill her and never reported it to the authorities."

The bishounen sorcerer seemed to be growing more and more uncomfortable with the discussion at hand, but that didn't stop him from interjecting a question. "Shadow Phoenix? Is that some sort of reference to this woman?"

"Yeah," Renima nodded, "That's one of the nicknames for her. The others are rather offensive, including 'Death's Whore' and some other stuff I probably shouldn't mention at the dinner table. No one seems to know her real name."

"Yume. . ." Lina mumbled. For some reason she thought that Renima did know the assassin's name, yet didn't say it.

"Say something, Lina-san?" Amelia looked to the fiery-haired sorceress for clarification.

"I didn't say a damn thing! I'm tired of this shit!"

Lina got up and stormed off towards the guest hall and her room. Everyone watched in astonishment at the sudden and unprovoked outburst.

"You really find some weird characters to help you out, Prince Phil," the bishounen sorcerer commented.

Lina stormed down the long white hallways of Castle Seyruun. She really wasn't sure why she had made that sudden outburst, but being angry felt good right now, so she willingly let the rage take her.

"You really ought to learn to control your temper," a voice from a side hallway commented to Lina.

"What the hell do you know, asshole?" Lina instinctively countered before she completely realized whom she was talking to.

"Not much, apparently," the man who spoke to Lina admitted, "If I really did know that much, I still wouldn't be in this body after all these years."

"Zel?!" Lina asked in astonishment. It had been quite some time since the two companions had met. Zelgadis noted that Lina had grown taller, but the shaman himself hadn't changed since their last meeting.

"Quiet!" Zelgadis commanded in a forceful whisper, "I don't want my presence here known."

"Even to Amelia? I'll be she's dying to see you again after all this time,"

"Especially to Amelia," Zelgadis said with a dark tone in his voice.

Lina had been preparing a snide comment to give to the shaman, but something about his demeanor stopped her cold. She stared at the gray, rock-like skin of the man in front of her. A chimera. That's what he was. A perversion of the natural order. One-third human, one-third golem, one-third Mazoku. Apparently Zelgadis's eternal hunt for a way to turn himself back into a normal human had yet to bear fruit.

"You're always so amusing," the young sorceress commented with a half-hearted chuckle, "Why all the secrecy?"

"You'll probably find out soon enough," Zelgadis informed her stoically as he wrapped his cloak tightly around himself and walked off down the hallway.

"All this friendliness is very fine indeed," the bishounen sorcerer commented tired after hearing some more tales told by various members of the dinner table, "but shouldn't be we concerned with tomorrow's operation?"

The dinner had been going quite nicely in Amelia's mind. Any opportunity to temporarily forget about tomorrow was welcome to her. The princess of Seyruun never did like matters concerning large-scale war, and tomorrow would be just that. It had bothered her that the kingdom had resorted to the usage of spies to find out about the massing bandit horde. It bothered her even more that Seyruun would be taking the offensive in this fight, but she realized that in order to protect the ideals of her people, such underhanded methods could not be overlooked.

"I don't mean to be rude," Renima responded to the sorcerer, "but my master is curious as to what your name is, sir. You have yet to introduce yourself."

"My apologies, my fine lady," the sorcerer offered. Renima felt somewhat uncomfortable with his tone of voice and the manner that he looked at her. She quickly cast her gaze at Akira, trying to discern whether or not there would be any jealously between the two men, but the idea of seeing Akira's emotions was futile to begin with. The cloaked mercenary simply sat still, his mask hiding any sense of intrusion he might have felt concerning the sorcerer.

"My name is Cray," the sorcerer introduced himself while standing from his chair to do a proper bow, "Cray Cyppris."

"Cray," Renima said, following the request by her master to speak, "How is it that you have come to be here at this table?"

"He is my guest," Prince Phil interrupted, not taking the least bit of offense at Renima's somewhat blunt question.

"His Highness and I met some time ago," Cray explained, "And once the current situation arose, His Highness decided to summon me and my party to aid against the amassing bandit forces."

"Your party?" Gourry, who had been quite silent until now said.

"I'm a professional demon hunter. I have a band of about a dozen sorcerers who work with me as their head. Though fighting against other humans is not something we specialize in, I can assure you that we are much more capable than many of the so called 'bandit hunters' in the area,"

"The operation will begin tomorrow morning," Prince Phil wasted no time with further formalities, "The bandit hideout has been located as the abandoned mines to the east of the city. Our main forces will be positioned in the woods at the feet of the mines. Cray's unit will move against the entrance with a feigned attack. The enemy will not be expecting us, and thus will assume that Cray's unit is the brute of our forces. . ."

"That makes sense," Renima commented, "From their point of view it wouldn't make sense to have a weak portion of the army waste a pre-emptive strike like that."

"Yes," Cray continued, "But while we waste our pre-emptive we will draw the bandits out of their haven and into the forest, where our amasses forces are positioned."

"Wait!" Amelia broke in, "But what about the forces that are to be the diversion? Surely they won't be able to survive the initial confrontation. . ."

Phil lowered his head as if in shame. Amelia looked at him curiously.

"I didn't want to sacrifice the lives of the just. . ." Phil muttered, ". . .but we don't have much choice. The bandit forces must have some financial backer, for they are well organized and they are many. My advisors thought over this operation many times, and though we must sacrifice our people, it will result in the least loss of life."

"B-but!" Amelia stammered. She was not in the least bit proud of the things that Seyruun was being forced to do to win this war. First it was the spies, then the mercenaries, and now this?

"I know how you feel, Amelia," Gourry commented, he had been listening patiently. Gourry may have been dense, mentally slow, and sometimes just plain ignorant, but when it came to the art of battle tactics, he knew about as much as there was to know.

"Gourry-san. . ." Amelia looked at him, her eyes pleading with him to try to convince her father on a different tactic.

"We did a similar maneuver during the Old Wars about ten years ago," Gourry shook his head sadly, "The tactic worked almost perfectly. This is our best option."

"No!" Amelia shouted as she stood up, knocking her chair over, "I won't let you people sacrifice our soldiers like lambs on an alter! That's wrong and absolutely unjust!"

"Where is the justice in letting hundreds more of our troops die because we chose to fight on more fair terms?" Cray also had stood up suddenly knocking his chair back.

"If we sink so low as to such things then we are no better than the enemy!" Amelia insisted.

Cray was becoming visibly angry. He slammed his fist on the table causing some silverware to jangle, but before he could speak Gourry interrupted.

"Calm down!" he pleaded as he too stood, "Amelia, this is our course of action. No one is forcing you to agree with it, nor are they forcing you to participate. I suggest we all get to bed now, we'll be starting out early tomorrow."

Ameila's mouth just stayed open, both in surprise that such meaningful words came from Gourry's mouth, and also because she was aggravated with her inability to supply an argument that would defeat the current course of action. Times were changing; she could see that. Gourry had apparently changed for the better, seeing as he could actually be intelligent sometimes, but events were changing for the worse. True, it wasn't exactly all fine and dandy a few years earlier when there had been a lot of Mazoku activity across the world, but now that the Mazoku seemed to have left the spotlight for a while, domestic problems arose in abundance.

"Well, you people decide what you like," Renima, who until now had just been observing commanded, "Akira and I aren't paid to plan the strategy. We just follow orders. But as for now, we're going to take Gourry's advice. Good night, all."

With that Renima and Akira got up from the table and left the dining hall. Cray sighed heavily and did the same. . .quite possibly just so that he could see as much of Renima as possible before she went to her room.

"Daddy. . ." Amelia protested meekly.

Prince Phil just held his head low, almost in shame. After an uncomfortable pause, he got up and walked to his room in the wing for royalty. Gourry was simply staring at a most fascinating flaw in the weaving of the tablecloth all this time, but he decided that it would be a good idea to also go to bed.

"Leave me, please,"

All the servants who remained to vigilantly wait on the princess followed the command without a word or the sound of a footstep.