And this was what he had not been looking forward to all day. True, Phibrizzo had seemed to still be in one piece when Xelloss had seen a glimpse of him at breakfast, but Hellmaster had also been addressing an individual who could not possibly be mistaken for anyone other than Amelia. Even Xelloss found her a little hard to bear at times; doubtlessly Phibrizzo would find some way that her presence was Xelloss's fault, which wasn't so threatening given the circumstances but still nothing to hope for.

The more significant problem, the genuine lapse, had been his inability to locate Hellmaster last night. If Hellmaster blamed him for that, all Xelloss could say in response was that he had done the best he could, a genuinely pathetic answer to a serious problem. He knew of two things which patients underwent if the Institute took them away, and considering that there were no reports of wide-spread deaths and disappearances this morning, that left the option of experimentation. What could they do to a Mazoku trapped in a human form? The fact that they were trapped in this form at all suggested some unpleasant possibilities.

Nonetheless, as he located Phibrizzo, he bowed perhaps a little lower than usual. "I couldn't find you last evening, Lord Hellmaster," Xelloss explained, and let that stand.