The next thing Xelloss knew, he was tucked into Zelas's bed, surrounded by white from the whitewashed dressed walls to the softly draped bed clothes. The only thing in the room that wasn't white was the ironwork frame of her canopy bed, however the effect of all the white was not bleak or icy but rather warm. The warmth was enhanced by the two curtains hung over window frames in one wall, softly glowing; Xelloss had always wondered if it was an illusion, or if there were real windows behind Zelas's curtains.

He couldn't remember how he got there. The last thing he could remember, clearly, was a gigantic mouth, the right size according to what he had been taught for a kraken's mouth but it couldn't have belonged to a kraken because kraken didn't have any teeth, no less the humoungous knives of the mouth that had been closing upon him. Kraken, according to the books his mother had given him and her own words, gummed their pray to death.

Still, he was in a warm bed and seemed to be whole even though he didn't feel quite that way. Not only did his form ache, he knew that he had failed Zelas-sama and was only there because she had saved him. He didn't deserve to be still around, and whole: he had failed her miserably.

That he had probably been saved from that monster and had definitely been put back together by her only made it worse. Xelloss sighed, dropping his head back down to the pillow and closing his eyes. Mother probably has been ordered by Hellmaster to save me just so he can punish me himself, he thought miserably to himself. Zelas-sama would have let me meet my well-earned fate...

He jumped at the unexpected feeling of Zelas's hand gently smoothing his hair. She smiled at his wide-open eyes, and giggled. "So you're finally awake Xelloss-chan! Don't you dare make me have to rescue you again. You're much too valuable to me, and I don't want to have to replace you so soon."

"Zelas-sama...?" He was confused. She shouldn't care so much about him, really; he was only her servant, only her offspring in a technical sense. He was supposed to be disposable, particularly if he was so pathetically weak to be that easily taken to the brink of destruction. Why would she care enough about him to save him, and repair him, without being ordered to do so?

But she was Zelas-sama, and his place was not to contradict her, particularly when it was to his benefit, since however unworthy he might be of it he certainly was not worthy enough to argue with her.

"Xelloss, you are to go out and retrieve the stolen Eye. If you do not find it, and either kill or capture all of those who were involved directly in stealing it, I will be forced to give you to Phibrizo for punishment. If you succeed... I should be able to convince him to let me take care of your punishment myself."

Xelloss stared at her. Her offer could only mean that she had yet to tell Hellmaster about the theft, which would mean that, if he failed, Phibrizo would be quite unhappy with both of them.

"After I retrieved you, I sent a minion to follow the boat. It returned today to inform me that they had landed near the southern edge of the Desert of Destruction." Zelas's hand moved, somehow pulling a staff holding the remaining Eye in one end out from nowhere. She placed it in his arms, his hands automatically curling around its shaft.

Xelloss hadn't thought it was possible for something even more surprising to happen to him. However, as his hands closed upon the staff, he knew, innately, that the staff was a part of him. Zelas laughed at the look on his face. "Yes, Xelloss, it's yours. This way I can be certain that you won't easily loose this Eye.

"Now, my spy will guide you to where the thieves can be found. I hope that, this time, you will succeed." Zelas turned and left.

Xelloss looked around the beach, ignoring the now-burning boat. The shore the thieves had landed upon was one that, if he was right, was only used by those either trying to sneak through Hellmaster's territory and by those carrying prisoners overland to disorient them. The badlands that started almost as soon as the beach itself ended had only a few 'safe' paths through it, and it was said that none of them ended anywhere near the ends of the others.

Thankfully, they had not left the beach so long ago that their tracks were gone, and Xelloss was Zelas-sama's own priest. If he couldn't track them through such terrain when they were obviously doing nothing to discourage even the most simple tracking methods...

Besides, the sun was going to be soon low enough in the sky that it'd be getting too dark to travel through the rocks without using lights, and since they were not from Hellmaster he doubted they would try that. They would camp for the night, and wouldn't be too far away.

Xelloss crept carefully closer to the fire. He wasn't quite sure how sensitive the people surrounding it were, mainly towards the presence of other people in general. He had some idea how sensitive they might be to the presence of a mazoku nearby, though, and he wanted to get as close as possible so he could at least see what he was up against, and who had the stolen Eye.

He had learned, not particularly happily, that this was not a place to take the wrong path in, nor was it friendly in any way to exploration. He suspected that Phibrizo was responsible for several of the creatures he had encountered already, and certain that Phibrizo had definitely had something to do with the creature that called itself 'Rawhead'.

Anything whose lair had a full set of dragon heads (lovingly but lousily done; the stuffing leaked at points, the sewing tended to gape, and surprisingly cute buttons attempted to serve as eyes) was not something he really was eager to mess with. A couple of those heads belonged to species of dragon Zelas had explicitly ordered him not to get into any fights with until he was older, and she would tell him when he was old enough.

Since he didn't want to have to chase after them, he had to make sure that he could cut off any of them that might panic and flee. It wasn't too important that he get them all, though that'd certainly be for the best that he did, but it was essential that he get the one with the stolen jewel.

Xelloss froze as a stone rattled after his foot accidentally hit it. Damn! he thought, knowing that anybody who wasn't on alert after hearing a noise like that here wouldn't have survived this far. He waited a few minutes, straining to hear what was going on in the camp.

The unexpected silence worried him. There should have been the sounds of them getting armor on and weapons prepared, or at least the soft rustle of movement. Instead, there was...nothing.

Xelloss let the restraints he had put on his astral senses relax; before, he had suppressed them to the level of sensitivity of a human, to lessen the chances of being sensed as mazoku. Now, though, he wanted to know as much as possible about the terrain, no matter the chances of detection.

Xelloss cursed under his breath as he realized that, though he saw that there were people down there, he couldn't sense anything significant living. All that was there was the usual background noise, which Zelas told him was from tiny living things too small to see easily and truly incapable of emotions.

He slipped down there through the astral plane, and frowned. It was obvious that the two elves and the stunted-looking young Golden had been killed by one of their companions. Their bodies were much too intact, much too neat, for them to have been killed by the local wildlife.

A quick search revealed two sets of tracks, and he quickly followed after them, staying alert for their makers. Hopefully, they'd be too busy fleeing through the dark in the wastelands to be watching for him.

He almost fell over one of them. He looked down and cursed mentally as he saw that the tracks ended here; the other person must have killed this one, and then started doing a masterful job of cleaning the tracks as whomever it was fled the scene. He could understand why; he could sense that the dead dragon had been the Knight of Ceified.

He knelt down warily to check the body, hoping that the jewel was still there but knowing that wasn't at all likely, and praying that whomever had managed to kill the Knight wasn't going to come back. Zelas had been quite clear about how powerful Ceified's Knights were when she put them on the list of things he wasn't to get into fights with until older, and he wasn't too eager to start an argument with anything that could kill one.

Filia watched Xelloss, worried, after he stopped telling his story and just stared at the last few sips of tea, now cold, in his cup. Even though his hair hid his eyes completely, she knew somehow that he was haunted by whatever had happened afterwards. "Xelloss? What happened after that...?"

He shuddered, and looked up. Filia shuddered herself as she saw the look in his eyes, her teacup rattling against its saucer. "Hellmaster Phibrizo demanded me, so he could punish me...

"If the war had not started as soon after that as it had, I would definitely not be the same mazoku I am now. Zelas-sama was able to get me returned before the Hellmaster had actually started my punishment, and... I do not like thinking about what did happen, and what had almost happened to me."

"Oh!" Filia moved over to Xelloss, and wrapped her arms around him, pulling his head to her chest. "I'm sorry, Xelloss. I shouldn't have asked you..."

Xelloss just sighed, nuzzling against her breasts. She smiled at him, and let him.

She's so warm, Xelloss thought to himself. The warmth was comforting, a soft warmth, offered out of a welcomed kindness. He could hear her heart, the tide of blood within her, and the air moving in and out of her lungs. Those sounds, and the slight movements of her chest, were somehow familiar, even though they were exotic to him.

I wish I could stay here forever, he thought to himself and was surprised by his desire.