Xelloss watched Zelas use a tool he couldn't quite identify on a section of matted fur on the wolf in her lap. He knew that, while she had seemed intent on her mysterious task, she had been paying attention to his report. He also know that she'd take her time telling him if he had been correct in presuming that he would be ordered to accompany Filia on her quest.

Suddenly, the matted fur was no longer matted, and the tool was put to the side. "Xelloss-chan, I must be getting too predictable. You guessed what my orders would be perfectly."

A feeling of dread washed over Xelloss. If there was one thing Zelas did not like, it was when anybody managed to predict her completely. It did make life easier; Deep Sea Dolphin was notorious for insisting her servants predict her every whim, which had a lot to do with her relative uninvolvement with events outside of her own small domain.

Xelloss was personally familiar with that, after Zelas had sent him for a short time to Dolphin to represent her. Dolphin was creative in both her whims, which even upon the rare occurrence when they could be predicted were impossible, and her ways of expressing her displeasure. It had been quite a learning experience, and he never again asked Zelas why she didn't like Dolphin.

Zelas was just as creative, though at least she didn't use pain so freely and was quite careful about leaving him intact. "You know, if you're going to claim that you're leaving to get married, you really should. It might be nice to have her living here, permanently."

Xelloss laughed nervously and scratched the back of his head. "We're only going to be saying that we're leaving for our wedding, and nothing about actually getting married. It would be awkward to be married to her, and I don't really want to have to kill her if something were to happen and I had to leave her."

Zelas grinned, and Xelloss wondered if he hadn't somehow dug himself deeper. "You are right about that. You had said you'd rather write an essay on morning glories than be married to her...

"But just because you tell me that you're not getting married to her doesn't get you out of writing that essay. I want it before you leave on this trip with her. I don't care how long it is, as long as it's at least a page long without padding."

"But Mother, you know I wouldn't lie to you!" Xelloss protested.

"Of course you wouldn't, Xelloss-chan! Write the essay. I know you like morning glories, you grow them in your garden along with all those poisonous herbs you keep using in your cooking."

Xelloss sighed in resignation and bowed. "As you command, Zelas-sama."

Xelloss looked through the surprisingly extensive section of books on botany in his private library. Most of them were books on poisonous plants, though he had a few herbals in there; mazoku had to use means other than magic when they had need to heal somebody other than a fellow mazoku. He had also stored somewhere among the books a volume of a certain strange man's Clair Bible manuscripts. None of his had contained anything particularly useful, not even one which contained instructions for a unique spell with which a person could call upon the power of the Lord of Nightmares to arrange for a personal (and only a personal) return to chaos.

This particular volume was about morning glories, all several thousand pages of it. Of course, most of it was drugged rambling which tended to repeat itself for pages on end. Xelloss wasn't sure what the man had been taking, except it apparently had been pretty good.

Several hours of skimming and a few paragraphs of writing later, Xelloss discovered that it had apparently been an obscure variety of morning glory that was used by a certain group of heretics which the author had been a member of in an attempt to have prophetic visions. He quickly wrote several paragraphs on this discovery, being careful to cautiously note the possibilities implied by the fact that it worked on the draconian members of the sect.

Xelloss suspected that hallucinating dragons could be really fun, particularly if this manuscript was any good indicator of how they'd behave. Of course, he'd not try it with Filia, no matter how tempting he might find that idea. She was one dragon he wanted fully in control of herself.

That was the most interesting part of what he read while filling the page. Xelloss did not care to read more than he had to of the particular set of manuscripts at any given time. Reading it tended to cause the mazoku equivalent of slight headaches with a chance of voices.

After carefully shelving the volume, he copied his original paper over on the basis that Zelas might just decide to make him write it again and longer if he didn't make sure she could read this one. When he was done he blotted the ink and carefully stacked the papers. He hoped four pages (with illustrations) would satisfy her.

Xelloss sat patiently while Zelas read his work for what felt like the hundredth time. He wasn't sure if she was simply very interested in it, or was trying to decide which section to order him to expand. He hoped it was the former.

Finally, Zelas put the pages down. "This is satisfactory. Come back intact, since I would like to find out how well your idea would work."

"Thank you, Mother," he said, and stood so he could bow to her. "I'll try my best." He then paused, needing to ask something before he left. "Um, do you want me to get married to her?"

Zelas smirked. "If you want to, go ahead. I don't care."