It's still Friday somewhere, right? (I'm sorry for the error in the previous announcement- these chapters will be every other week rather than every week due to various life factors going on. Thank you again for your patience!) As usual, I don't own anything. I'm just a fan writing some fiction. Please enjoy!

10- Heavy-Handed

Gourry helped Carmen up the last large step to the ledge where Lina was waiting for them. From that point they could see over the next ridge into the mine pit. Carmen's first glance into it was met with a gasp.

"What are all those lights?"

"Huh." Gourry squinted, leaning closer as if that would make any difference over the long distance. "It looks like there are… people. Or at least things that look like people."

"Doing what?"

"Excavating," Lina answered, offering Carmen her spyglass. "That's why you haven't seen people working the mine lately. They've been doing it by night."

Carmen took a few minutes with the spyglass to examine the scene, and she then handed it to Gourry. He didn't know much about mines, so he didn't know what he was looking for, and quickly passed the spyglass back to Lina. "So what does this mean?"

"I have a thought," Lina began, "but I can't be sure until I confirm something. Carmen- this place is a porphyry copper deposit, isn't it?"

"Pardon?"

"Porphyry copper deposit. It means that the ore was deposited by copper-rich geothermal fluids. Open pit mining is usually used for that kind of deposit, but I have to be sure."

Gourry's face was blank with incomprehension. "How do you know so much about mines, Lina?"

"Are you kidding?" Lina laughed. "Mines are the source for all our precious metals and gemstones. Why wouldn't I know about such lucrative ventures?"

He paused. "Lucrative… I remember you taught me that word… it means… ah! Something that makes a lot of money!"

"Bingo! I'm so proud of you!"

Gourry took a moment to bask in her praise before turning his attention back to the mine. "But Carmen said they were struggling. So the landslide couldn't be their fault- why would they destroy part of what is making them money?"

Lina shook her head. "That's the thing-" she began, "if the copper veins they're mining aren't enough, they'll have to either stop the project or find more copper. If they dig down enough to find the location of an ancient water table, they'll hit the jackpot: a copper-rich metal called chalcocite."

Gourry was a little lost, caught up in how you could make a table out of water, but Carmen had caught on. "And refining copper from this mineral would make them more money than the pure copper ore they've been mining?"

"Yes," Lina nodded, "because there's way more of it. Remember, for every tonne of rock they clear out around those veins, they only get a few grams of copper. Now imagine an entire layer of a mineral that's one part sulfur, two parts copper."

"One part, two parts…" Gourry paused to count on his fingers and gasp. "That's more than half copper. That's a lot!"

Lina giggled. "Gourry, you're on a roll tonight! What's with you? Did the cool mountain air wake you up or something?"

"Ah, I don't know." His face took on a look of pride and he stretched his arms, jumping down onto a lower ledge and offering a hand to help Lina down. "I'm just feeling really, uh… healthy, all of a sudden, that's all. Come on, let's get back down to the village. We need to talk to people about this information- and take Lucan off Shay's hands. I can hear him barking from here, the poor thing."

"Oh, okay!" Lina accepted his help down and watched as he escorted Carmen safely down the slope as well.

The trip back to Senagra was much livelier than the trip up the mountain. Gourry talked eagerly, and Lina was so relieved to hear him excited about something, she found herself strangely excited. Carmen lagged behind them as they continued down the path, but Lina chalked that up to her earlier injuries and simply tried not to lose her. It wasn't until they reached the outskirts of the village that Gourry offered to run ahead and find Lucan to give the village some peace and quiet. Lina promised to escort Carmen back to the hospital tent and would join him later.

"I'm amazed," Lina spoke up as they broke off on their own. "What'd you say to him? He was all mopey before, and now he's… not."

Carmen was quiet at first. "Mopey. That's an interesting way to put it."

"Well, how would you put it?"

"…"

There was silence between them, filled in only by the drone of insects carried by the wind. Carmen sighed and shook her head, finally managing to speak again.

"Never mind. It's not my place to get involved in your business. I was a little pushy with Gourry today, and I'm sorry for that. Don't give him a hard time, okay?"

Lina stopped walking, placing her hands on her hips and leaning closer. "If this is about him being sick, I know, alright? I get it. A lot of stuff happened all at once for him with his brother and his arm and a bunch of weird magic, and it was difficult to handle. He's not okay. But if he wants to act okay, then that's his prerogative."

Carmen frowned. "Acting okay when you're not is tiring. It eventually wears you down, and-"

"And what? I'm not a therapist! I can't fix him-" Lina cut herself off mid-sentence as she caught the look on Carmen's face. "Oh. You… weren't talking about him. I-I'm sorry. I forgot, you have it worse off than any of us right now. Your house, your village… it's all gone, and here I am yelling at you."

"That's not necessarily true." As Carmen spoke, she reached out and took Lina's hand. "Material things are replaceable. It's the people in your life that aren't. Remember that, okay?"

Lina felt a little awkward. Sure, material things were replaceable, but losing your whole house wasn't something that could easily be glossed over like that. She didn't like forcing Carmen to be the one comforting and supporting her and Gourry. It should be the other way around, shouldn't it? They came to Senagra to help people, after all!

"I'll remember that." Lina nodded. "In the meantime, uh, we received a courier dove from Taforashia this afternoon with some news. We sent it back with the mail from everyone in the village, so Michael and Jaime should get your letter by tomorrow. They'll know you're alright, and I'm sure that'll take a huge weight off their shoulders. Okay?"

"Thank you, Lina. I'm sure it will too."

By this point, they'd reached the hospital tent where some soldiers from Seyruun were still milling about, making sure that everyone was accounted for. Carmen started to wave at Lina, but Lina stopped her before she could go much further.

"Hey, uh, I know you're pretty good with white magic and all- do you know anything about breaking into protective barriers?"

The question took Carmen off-guard. "What? No, I can't say I do. What are you thinking? You're not going to break into the-"

"Tomorrow night once the recovery efforts have wrapped up for the evening, I'm going to see what kind of scouting I can do on the mine property. If AVA won't talk to us about what's going on, we'll have to go to them. I know it may not be the right thing to do, but… it's the right thing to do."

Lina waited for Carmen to reprimand her for using underhanded methods, but the scolding she was looking for never came. Instead, she laughed.

"Well, Michael always said that sometimes small evils are necessary for the greater good." She paused and offered Lina a smile. "I can't help with breaking that barrier or anything, but if you need any other help, you know who to call."

"Thanks."

By the time Amelia went looking for Zelgadis, he was already looking for her, and they both had an apology to offer.

Amelia was honest and opened up about all that Wilson had told her. Zelgadis had a laugh at her scandalized reaction to his parents' story, stating that teenage parents were more common than she'd imagine- after all, not everyone was a noble with status and a reputation to worry about.

Since Jaime had taken the cats to the lobby to play with some of the other refugee children, Amelia and Zelgadis were able to share some much-needed time alone before they went to help with dinner. It wasn't exactly romantic, with discussion topics ranging from the greenhouse specimens that Zelgadis and Wilson had picked out to the respiratory infection that was spreading among the refugees, but that was how it should have been. Neither were the type to get caught up in sweet nothings when there were more important matters that needed their attention.

The evening was uneventful up until everyone had retired for the night. But at some point a little after midnight, Amelia woke up to the sound of the room door opening and closing. She sat up, looking to the other bed.

"Zelgadis? Jaime?"

Jaime was the only one there, and he pointed to the door. "Nii-nii went to get me some water. My throat hurts."

Amelia noted the hoarseness in his voice with some dread. She pulled herself to her feet so that she could approach the other bed and sit down beside him. "Does anything else hurt? Are you hot? Cold?" she asked, placing a hand over his forehead.

"Just my throat," Jaime answered, burrowing down further into the blankets. "An' I'm cold… 'Cept for my face. My cheeks feel hot."

"You have a low fever. Once Zelgadis gets back, I'll go get you some ice to put on your face. For now, stay in bed and rest, okay?"

Jaime was dissatisfied with the answer, but Amelia didn't notice until she moved to stand up and he grabbed her hand to stop her. "A-nee?" he began, the look in his blue eyes suddenly so reminiscent of the way Zelgadis' looked when he was worried. "Did I get sick from the plant?"

The question took Amelia by surprise. "The… plant? Oh, you mean the greenhouse? Don't worry. That's a controlled environment to grow plants free of pests and disease. You won't get sick visiting a place like that. This is probably something you picked up playing with your friends today-"

Jaime interrupted her, sitting up with a start.

"No, we saw it! There was'a sick plant! It was the cow gull!"

"The, uh…" Amelia fell silent. She'd heard of a herring gull and a kelp gull, but a cow gull was beyond her knowledge, especially in a place like this. "…cow gull, you said?"

"Yeah. That's what Nii-nii said."

"I know he has an affinity for seabirds, but you normally don't find gulls living so far inland-"

As she spoke, the door to the room opened, letting in light from the hallway. Jamie placed his hands over his eyes and let out a little whine before Zelgadis closed the door again. "It's okay, it's only me," he spoke up. "I have water for you. Sit up and drink it slowly, okay?" He sat down, offering Jaime the glass and glancing over to Amelia. "I'm sorry- did he wake you?"

"It's fine." She shook her head. "He has a fever, and I think he's a little delirious. He was going on just now about some kind of seagull."

"Cow gull!" Jamie finished the sip of water that he was drinking. "Nii-nii, you 'member it? In the big plant house. Did I get sick from the plant? I don't wanna get a plant sickness!"

It took Zelgadis a moment. "Oh. Crown gall. That's what you're thinking of. And no, Jaime, you're a human. You can't get sick from a diseased plant."

"But the sick plant… and the guy who yelled at us…"

"He yelled at us because that room was private and we weren't supposed to be in there." Zelgadis placed a comforting hand on Jaime's head. "Don't worry. This is just a normal human virus that you picked up from a normal human, I promise. Get a little rest and it'll run its course. Alright?"

Jaime didn't look entirely convinced, but he was calmed by Zelgadis' reassurance and drank the rest of the water before resting back against the pillow and drifting off again. Amelia left to get an ice pack, and once she returned, he appeared to be sound asleep. She placed the pack on Jaime's forehead and returned to the other bed where Zelgadis was sitting, as Jaime was taking up the very middle of the bed they'd been sharing.

Zelgadis sighed, running a hand through his hair in frustration. "I should've known this would happen. Kids are always the most vulnerable to these sorts of things. Thanks for helping out."

"It's the least I can do for ditching you guys today." Amelia shrugged. "But I'm curious. Did he say that you found a diseased plant in the greenhouse?"

"Yes. Crown gall; it's a pretty common infection caused by a member of the genus Agrobacterium. I didn't think it was anything to be worried about, but I guess it made more of an impression on Jaime than I thought-"

"Did you report it?"

"Huh?"

"The disease. Did you report it?" Amelia repeated. "Remember, the greenhouse is supposed to be an environment free from pests and disease. If something has infected the plants, they need to know about it right away."

"It…" Zelgadis glanced away. "…it was in the private lab that Jaime wandered into. We weren't supposed to be there, remember? Of course I didn't report it."

Amelia rolled her eyes and sighed, but she couldn't argue with his logic. "I suppose if it was in a lab, the researchers must know about it. But why wouldn't they do anything about it?"

"It could be they're using the plant to produce the bacteria," Zelgadis suggested. "I don't see why some agar and a petri dish wouldn't suffice, but it's not my project. They might be interested in the effects of A. tumefaciens on the plant community."

"Why do you know so much about this particular plant disease anyway?" Amelia gave him a playful nudge. "Are you this nerdy about all kinds of plant diseases, or do you just so happen to be an expert on this particular one?"

"The latter, I can assure you." Zelgadis laughed. "I'd need a lifetime to learn about all the plant diseases out there."

"That many, huh? So why this one in particular? Did Rezo teach you about it?"

Zelgadis shook his head. "No, it was something that came up in my personal research."

"Why?"

"Because Agrobacterium tumefaciens was… an essential component in the first recorded attempts at producing chimeras."

The two managed to share Amelia's bed for the night, which was a feat in itself probably made easier by the fact that one of them was awake every few hours tending to Jaime.

But as little sleep as they got that night, Amelia didn't ask him again about the plant disease.

"Make us."

Adelaide's request was met with a clear response.

"If that's what it takes."

A physical form manifested in front of them, appearing as nothing more than shadows, and yet clearly solid as it blasted along the side of the mountain and made a beeline for the group. Holly screamed and grabbed onto Michael's side while Adelaide stepped in front of them to block whatever attack was coming. Unfortunately, her instinct was to reach for her sword, forgetting that she didn't have it. The action caused her to fumble for a split second, and that allowed her opponent to overtake her, the world around her dissolving into darkness.

"MEGIDO FLARE!"

Adelaide's spell shot out in all directions, causing both her opponent and her companions to scatter. She glanced over at Holly and Michael, motioning them back down the path.

"Go! Take cover! I'll handle this-"

She was barely able to finish her sentence before the creature engaged her once again.

Thankfully for her, the thing's speed seemed much more for defensive purposes than for offense. Either that, or it was too stupid to use its speed to attack directly. As Adelaide traded white magic spells for its haphazard strikes, she tried to size it up. It was definitely a Mazoku, that much was clear by the miasma that it seemed to be exuding. But with attacks that had little power behind them and a form that was far from humanoid, it had to be pretty low-ranking. It was clearly a sentry, put up to deter passersby from getting involved. As long as Adelaide could keep their fight one-on-one, she was pretty sure that she could take it.

Unfortunately, the Mazoku had figured that out too.

Adelaide's sharp ears had picked up the sound of Michael and Holly arguing about something a short distance away, but she wasn't going to concern herself with it. But she tensed up as she realized that the Mazoku had honed in on the sound as well. She couldn't see it well in the dark, but she could sense it changing focus… and preparing an attack.

No-!

Once Adelaide had yelled at them to take cover, Michael didn't hesitate. He started to sprint away, but as he made it a short distance down the path, he realized that Holly wasn't following him. Instead, she was standing between where he was and where Adelaide and the Mazoku had become hidden behind a cloak of smoke and dust.

Michael grabbed Holly by the shoulders, pushing her back down the path. "C'mon- Adelaide isn't covering for us so that we can stand here in the line of fire! The sooner we get out of danger, the better. Follow me-"

"No!" She dug in her heels. "I'm the one who's supposed to be protecting you!"

"This is not the time for that!"

"But I-"

"HOLLY!"

Michael wrapped his arms around her and shoved her aside, causing her to tumble over as one of the Mazoku's attacks barely grazed her. She heard a scream from Michael, and once she was able to open her eyes, she did so and followed suit.

Adelaide had turned on her heels, seeing the Mazoku changing targets, but it was too late. She first saw a pair of glasses, scuffed and cracked, landing on the ground at her feet. But as she raised her gaze to the field, the image of a man's body came into view, a crumpled heap of clothing and lavender hair outlined by dark red. Her blood went cold and she screamed as well.

"MICHAEL!"