Somehow Nes had smoothed things over so that when Gourry had returned with Adena and his cousins that evening things passed smoothly. It was agreed that Adena would remain with Nes for the time being, and that once Eica died he would bring her to Biar to meet her family. Everything else would be worked out between Petry and Nes.

Gourry left early the next day with Pollock and Mills for what turned into a seven day journey through the treacherous dunes. Both were eager to test themselves against the legendary training Gourry had received as a knight. Pollock was skilled enough, but still leagues below Gourry's level. Mills was just lamentable. But Mills has ways of making Gourry feel uneasy just as Pollock was starting to make him seethe with disgust over his general disdain for people.

By the time they reached the newly found diamond mines that lay outside of Biar Gourry was barely speaking to them. If either had noticed his brooding silence they said nothing. Both were too wrapped up in their conversation to pay him much mind, and Gourry preferred it that way.

"Why don't we stop by the mines, show you around?" Pollock said.

Gourry looked at the giant crater near the aqueduct and felt uneasy. Filthy people dressed in rags that did little to hide their skeletal bodies shifted through dirt and were overseen by people wielding whips. Pollock's talk of the mines had made him suspicious, but seeing it for himself made it unavoidable. Uneasiness gave way to outright sickness as an overseer started yelling, accusing a young man shifting through the dirt of pocketing diamonds for himself. As the man was searched, someone emerged from the crater with a wheelbarrow laden with dirt. "I think I should check on Mother first. The mine will still be there."

Displeasure shown in Pollock's eyes, "I'd forgotten how much of a mama's boy you were."

Gourry's eyes narrowed as the person pushing the wheelbarrow sat it down and started running towards them. "Gourry!"

"Not her." Pollock muttered as Gourry's confusion grew. Her voice was familiar, but what was she doing in the mines?

"Aunt Larsa?" Why was she calling and running to him? Larsa had never kept her dislike of him secret.

"Get back to work!" a man, who Gourry recognized as being a friend of his fathers, yelled at her.

She ignored him and continued walking towards them determinedly. "Now!" the man continued as he cracked the whip, but she continued forward undaunted, "Or you get this and you can do without your rations tonight!"

"Go to hell." She yelled at him as she reached Gourry. The man started to follow her but Gourry put his hand up. Pollock was furious, but he nodded, and the man stood down.

"What is this?" Gourry asked as she threw her arms around him and gave him what had to have been the most awkward hug he had ever had in his life.

"I missed you." She said as she held a baffled Gourry a little closer.

"Like hell you did." Pollock said, "Get back to work."

"Work?" Gourry asked, noticing the scars that lined her shoulders.

"Three years ago she led an army to try to steal the Sword of Light. She and the other traitors have been consigned to the mines." Pollock said.

Gourry stared at Larsa, whose bones poked through her skin and was covered in dirt and sweat but whose eyes were still defiant and felt a strange mix of emotions. He'd never liked Larsa. She had always been cruel to him. While part of him felt she was reaping what she had always sowed, he was also horrified. Treating people this way wasn't right. He looked to the crater and saw other workers, some of them so young that Gourry could only conclude that they were the children of those who had fought with Larsa.

Larsa was watching him closely. So was Pollock. "It wasn't enough for your father to steal the sword, he had to steal all of the food and water with it." She said deliberately.

Pollock smacked her and, weakened from malnourishment and overwork, she crumpled into the sand. Gourry knelt beside her, "Are you okay?"

"Are you okay?" Pollock mimed, "Why are you wasting your time with a traitor who always hated you?"

"What are you doing beating starving women?" Gourry shot back as he helped Larsa to her feet and felt her slip something into his hand.

Pollock was about to speak again when Larsa interrupted him, "Your mother died this morning." Silence followed her announcement, delivered so callously and laced with venom as she glared at them contemptuously. "Your father is at the house. You should get there right away."

Before anyone could say anything she turned around and stormed off back to the mine. Gourry wrapped his hand around what she had given him but didn't even think to look at it. Was Larsa lying? Surely that was it. She just wanted to hurt them. The thought of his mother dying before he could see her one last time and tell her good bye was unbearable. From his left he heard Mills gasp and saw him wipe his eyes as time seemed to slow down. "Let's go." Pollock said, his voice gruff, and Gourry followed mechanically as he clung to the thin hope that it was a lie.

The trip to the house was surreal. Biar looked so different from what it had when he was growing up. New buildings sat awkwardly next to old buildings, a hint of familiarity amidst a strange town and flanked by his brothers whom he was starting to despise. Eventually Pollock moved to the door of the largest house Gourry had ever seen and went inside.

Once inside Gourry realized that his father and remaining siblings were in there, along with Anga. But the smell of death clung to every crevasse of the house. By the time that Pollock had entered his mother's room and he had followed him tears were streaming down his face. He had just missed her.

"Gourry." Fyla, who was by the door exclaimed, when she saw him and quickly folded him into a reassuring hug. The feeling of strangeness asserted itself again. She was taller than him when he left, now her head barely came up to his shoulder. "She wanted me to tell you how much she loved you."

Gourry squeezed her a bit more tightly as the pain seared his head. On the bed lay his mother's body, already wrapped in a shroud. His father sat beside the bed, sobbing. Gourry could barely think about anything other than if he had just been a few hours earlier he could have seen her while she was still alive

Gourry patted Fyla on the back and pulled away, noting Gunther in the corner, staring at him appraisingly, seemingly unaffected. Gourry walked to his father and gave him a hug, feeling as though he were hugging a stranger, and quickly sat beside the bed to give his respects.

Gunther sneered, "All these tears over such a snake."

"You will talk respectfully about your mother!" Petry yelled, his voice choked with tears.

"She disowned us when she rejected your child! She's not been a wife to you for years." Gunther said, "You should have sent her to the dunes ages ago."

"Can't be too hard on her. She was a woman. Grandma was fooling around with Nes behind Grandpa's back." Pollock continued.

"That's a lie!" Petry yelled as the air became thick with tension. But Pollock and Gunther were young men and stronger than him now. He could no longer beat them to his will. A growing sense of unease grew within Gourry as he feared whether or not the family would come to blows.

"Never did learn who fathered Grandma. All women betray their men." Gunther said. "You expected too much from her."

Petry sprang to his feet, and Gourry got up, placing himself between them and finding himself joined by his sisters, aunt, and Mills. "This is a place for mourning, not fighting." Anga said.

"I've got stuff to do." Gunther said as he walked out. Pollock followed him.

Fyla wrapped an arm around Petry and sat down beside him. Gourry relaxed as Petry said, "Mother never with Nes, never!"

"I know." Fyla said as Gourry sat down, catching Anga's eye as he did. She looked to be well fed, but livid.

"Nes told me that Grandma was like a daughter to him." Gourry said quietly, "There was nothing improper about it."

Silence descended upon the room as Gourry clasped his hands together to pay his respects, noting the leathery material that Larsa had placed into his hands. He looked at it, surprised to see writing on it. Who in Biar knew how to write? He'd heard that his grandmother had, but had given up on teaching her children after a failed attempt to help them learn by writing letters in the sand. But it looked as though Larsa had somehow retained the knowledge through the years, for there on the bit of leather were the words "we revolt tonight."

Gourry stowed it in his pocket as he started to sweat. The room seemed stiflingly hot, and the fact that his mother's now decaying and smelly body was in it did not help. Taking a deep breath made it worse. All he could taste when he did so was death. Fortunately Petry and his siblings were too lost in their grief to notice. He reached for his canteen to bring it to his lips but found it empty. "Follow me." Anga said, who had not taken her eyes off of him, "I'll show you where the pump is."

Grateful for a reason to leave the crowded, foul smelling room and gather his thoughts, and disappointed in himself for not being able to endure it to pay his respects, he followed Anga, and as soon as they were out of earshot Anga said, "Things have moved from bad to worse since you left. Don't let the grandeur fool you."

Gourry wondered why she was telling them this. And why Larsa had slipped him a note telling him of her plans to rebel that night. His mother had just died! He was so overwhelmed with grief it was hard to think straight as Anga continued, "Your father has become as bad as the emperor. Anyone who disagrees with him ends up in the mines now. Your father sure loves his little pleasures but he's put the rest of the town on a strict ration, a gallon of water per family per day. Pollock is just like him. And Gunther has brought a bad crowd to Biar. His gang roams the streets at night, doing what they will, taking what they want. Petry lets him get away with practically murder."

Gourry's throat felt even drier. "Why are you telling me this?" he asked.

"Because you're not like them!" Anga hissed as she entered the kitchen and showed him the water pump. "You're a Gungnir Knight! You have powers! If Petry didn't have the Sword of Light he couldn't get away with this! Larsa and everyone else who stands up to him would have a chance!"

Slowly it dawned on him what she was wanting, and he felt a conflict of loyalties well within him as she took his canteen and filled it. She handed it to him, a look of sympathy in her eyes as she patted him on the shoulder, "You just lost your mother and we're placing this horrible burden on your shoulders. It's not fair of us to ask this of you. But we've been living under Petry's heel for nine years now, we can't suffer it anymore. This is our chance. This is your chance to right the wrong your father committed and see that the sword is given to Jula."

Gourry, who had brought the canteen to his lips and was drinking, nearly choked as he remembered the agreement he had come to with his cousins. Jula and Ketcher would be horrified to know about what was happening in the mines. Unlike him, Larsa had treated them kindly and they had fond memories of her. And learning that she, and possibly their cousins, were languishing in the mines after leading a failed attempt to stand up to him would rile them up. They would feel obligated to fight.

And Gourry knew that if either of them attempted to stand up to Petry, Pollock and Gunther they would be killed. Jula and Ketcher simply were not fighters. There was no way he could postpone this fight. They would insist on joining him. No, if he was going to move, he would have to move now.

"What do you need me to do?" Gourry asked.

Anga clasped him to her in relief as she whispered. "Just get the sword, and get it far from here."

Gourry nodded, and pushed her away, taking another drink of water and another deep breath to compose himself. "I've got to pay my respects." He said, feeling numb.

"Before you do, let's get you some food and water. Running out amongst those dunes without either is suicide. I've got some money for you as well. It's not much, but it should tide you over." Anga said as she started to open cabinet doors and pulled out staples such as raisins and hard tack. Numbly Gourry put what she set out in his traveling sack and, once provisioned so that he had enough for a month, much less a week, he tied it and swung it over his back.

Gourry wondered if he should tell her that he couldn't give the sword to Jula. Jula who was running a successful business and was so excited about her upcoming marriage and wanted nothing to do with the sword. It would all be destroyed for her if he gave her the sword as soon as his father and brothers tracked her down and demanded to get it back from her using any means necessary. But if she didn't have it they wouldn't have any reason to harass her.

He couldn't do that to her, or to Ketcher or Nona. If he was going to take the sword he was going to have to keep it, and get as far away from Biar, from the Elemekian Empire even, as possible. And he was going to have to make sure it never feel into the hands of anyone who would misuse the power it bestowed upon them. Hell, he was going to have to make sure he didn't misuse it! The burden he was taking on pressed down on him ominously as he walked back to his mother's room.

Quietly he rejoined his family. "Are you okay?" Fyla asked.

Gourry nodded as he took a seat by the bed and leaned forward, supporting his temples with his hands. His thoughts were slow and sluggish and full of resentment. He couldn't focus properly on paying his respects, his mind was so full of what he would have to do and all he had seen. Get the sword. But how? And get it far from Biar. He wanted to cry until the ache in his head was gone but it was not possible at the moment.

The hours passed agonizingly slowly, but late in the afternoon Petry announced he was going to the pub. Somehow, through the think morasses that his thoughts had sunk into, Gourry realized there was an opportunity there, and offered to go with him.

Quietly Gourry sat beside his father. He wondered if Petry noticed just how nervous he was but he didn't seem to. He was already drunk. Meanwhile Gourry had barely touched his ale. "How is my Adena?" Petry asked.

Gourry thought for a moment, "She's well. She's happy, Nes takes her to train with the sorcerer's guild and she can cast a few spells. She asks about you, she's curious. But I think she's scared, doesn't want to give up her training. And she is promising. It would be a shame for her to have to give it up."

Petry took another drink, "What does she look like?"

"Like Mother." Gourry said, glancing at Petry's waist and the sword holstered there.

"I still can't believe she rejected her." Petry said, his words slurry, "I tried to make everything up to her. Built the whole house for her, but she wouldn't even move into it! Stayed in the damn hut! It wasn't until she collapsed that I finally got her in it. Everything I did was for her!"

Gourry couldn't think of anything to say. He kept glancing at the sword as Petry kept drinking. "For years we suffered the drought together! Suffered it! But we always had each other's back. And then when Mother was murdered she goes and rejects my child and disowns me! And I wanted to make things right with her so bad, I tried everything I could think of to make her love me again, but she wouldn't."

Petry's eyes slowly blinked, and Gourry could see that he was getting very drowsy. His anxiety grew as he wondered if it was the right moment. Petry's eyes widened and Gourry saw the rage flare in them briefly and lost his nerve. He was grateful that Petry was too drunk to realize that his hands were shaking so badly he hadn't even dared to drink his ale.

"Thought on her death bed she'd come around. But she cussed me out for bringing her to the house, guess it couldn't be forgiven!" he said, and Gourry grew more nervous as he realized that he was getting himself worked up. Gourry knew he had to do something but he froze. He was a man now, taller and stronger than Petry but the impulse to act as though he was the terrified and small child was strong.

From somewhere he tapped into a vault of courage and Gourry managed to put a hand on his shoulder, "It's been a long day. Let's get you home. Things will seem better in the morning."

"The hell they will!" Petry protested. "I always wanted to give her everything. It's why I stained my hands. So she could have everything! I thought it would make her happy, but she hated me for it! Nine years she hated me!"

"Come on." Gourry said, pulling him off his seat. "You'll get to see Adena in a few weeks."

Petry stumbled, and as Gourry wrapped his arms around his waist to help him up his fingers brushed the buckle of Petry's sword belt. In the space of a time so small as to be immeasurable he realized it was his chance and he undid it, grabbing the sword and maneuvering it away from Petry as he helped him to his feet. Gourry held the sword with his left hand while he used his right arm to support Petry. "Come on, off to bed with you."

Slowly he helped Petry out of the bar, scarcely believing how easy it had been even as guilt was overwhelming him. Cautiously he moved Petry towards the house. His father was more of a deadweight than anything now, and Gourry had to fight the temptation to ditch him and flee. But seeing that Petry was safe in his bed was the least he could do, especially considering that right or wrong, in the morning he was going to wake to find that he had been betrayed by another loved one.

Suddenly he heard footsteps approaching and recognized the smell of tobacco that marked Pollock now. Gourry didn't think it was possible for his heart to beat any faster, but it was going so fast he worried it would explode. Pollock came in to view, he cussed when he saw them. "Damn Larsa goes and works the town into a frenzy again and you're drunk off your ass!"

That roused Petry a bit, "She what?"

"The miners are revolting!" Pollock spelled out before adding words that made Gourry's heart stop. "We need the sword. You're too drunk to do nothing about it."

"How stupid do you think I am?" Petry sloshed as he broke free from Gourry and walked forward a few steps, "Give it to you? I'd never get it back! I can still fight!"

He reached for the sword, patting the place by his hip as he came up empty handed. Gourry backed away as Pollock eyed him. "Damn sneak. Come in here spouting out ideas of nobility and he's gone and taken the sword for himself!"

Gourry saw him reach for his sword, and seemed to watch from outside himself as he realized that his first real battle was approaching, and that battle was going to be with his own kin. Petry looked at him, his eyes shining with the sting of betrayal. "You're going to hand it over to some little girl?" Petry asked.

"Jula has her own life. She doesn't want to get tangled up in this. So don't go bothering her because she won't have it." Gourry said, "I'm taking it, far away from our family before it does any more damage!"

"Bastard, you just want it for yourself!" Pollock said as he charged at him.

Gourry grasped the Sword of Light with both hands and raised it up, removing just enough of it from its sheath in time to meet Pollock's strike. Pollock charged again, and Gourry managed to remove the sword fully and met the blow. Gourry felt sick as he defended himself while his father watched from the sidelines, seemingly paralyzed with indecision. Gourry knew he could end this easily by giving the sword back to him, but after all he had seen that day he couldn't. But he also couldn't bring himself to move from the defensive to the offensive.

Gourry wondered how he could take the sword without seriously wounding or killing his brother and father. While he had resolved himself to taking the sword, he hadn't resolved to killing for it. How could he do that without becoming as bad as his father?

Fear held him in place. He defended himself, but he did not take the offense. Gradually people started to line the streets to watch as the sounds of fighting in the distance grew louder. But all Gourry was focusing on was Pollock's movements. Where would he strike next? How could he defend himself best? Mechanically he went through the motions, and the presence of a new player on the scene went unnoticed by him, lost in agony of his thoughts as he struggled to figure out what to do.

Pollock charged at him again, and Gourry moved to deflect him, but suddenly Pollock lost his balance, and Gourry felt sick to his stomach as instead of feeling the familiar reverberation of steel blades clashing, he felt the new sensation of his blade cleanly slicing through an exposed stomach. Gourry's eyes widened in horror as Pollock slide to the ground, already slick and bloody with his spilled guts as a horrendous odor filled the air. Behind Pollock was Larsa, her arms still extended from the effort of pushing him, and in her hands she carried her own sword drenched in blood.

"Pollock!" Petry screamed as he stumbled to his firstborn, and Gourry felt sick to his stomach as the crowd whispered around him. He felt the sword go weak in his hand.

Petry cradled Pollock in his arms as Gourry stared transfixed on the horrible scene, looking for any sign of life from Pollock. But there was none. Gourry felt as though he was going to vomit. It hadn't been him though, had it? Larsa had pushed Pollock onto his blade! But then they wouldn't have been fighting in the first place if he hadn't been trying to steal the Sword of Light. And he was better than that! He had let himself become distracted. There was no way Larsa should have been unable to enter the battlefield without him noticing.

But before Gourry could flagellate himself too thoroughly, Larsa abruptly clasped her hands around his blade, forcing Gourry to look away from Pollock and at her. "Give me the sword, boy."

Gourry remained frozen, and Larsa turned her hands, attempting to wretch the sword from his loosened grasp. He tightened it. "I know you want to do the right thing." Larsa said.

Part of Gourry wanted to give it to her. He didn't want the weight of the burden of responsibility that came with owning a sword as powerful the Sword of Light. Especially now that he was unworthy of it as he had killed the get it. And if he gave it up he could take whatever punishment that the city of Biar deemed appropriate and stay in the Elemekian Empire and close to his loved ones.

"You mean give it to Jula?" Gourry asked.

A trail of blood dripped from Larsa's hands as she kept her hands around the blade. "If she wants it so bad, she can come and take it for herself."

Gourry's stomach sank. The words "but not without a fight" hung in the air unspoken. Larsa had always been ambitious. And now that she had had to endure years of indignities under the heel of her older brother wielding the Sword of Light, her vengeance would be terrible to behold. No, Gourry had set upon this path. He knew he would have to keep it safe from people who would misuse it. And he knew it would be burdensome. He couldn't shrink it now, least he find the town of Biar in an even worse situation under Larsa.

Without speaking a word he located her collar bone, and jabbed his fingers behind it, forcing her to the ground as she let go of the blade. Then he ran, breaking effortlessly through the stunned crowded. He kept expecting someone to give chase but no one did. Were they simply too stunned to do anything? Were they so busy fighting amongst each other that no one thought to chase him? Or had the townspeople simply been glad to see the Sword of Light gone after being downtrodden by the man wielding it for so long? Gourry got to the border of the town effortlessly and kept running, unsure of where he was going. He would figure that out later. But for now he needed to put as much distance between himself and Biar as possible.

"So, what do they have in terms of firepower?" Lina asked, getting straight to business.

"Gunther is above average with a sword, but he doesn't have a magical one. And even then he's not comparable, that's why he tried to do what he did." Gourry explained. "As for Mills, the talent just missed him altogether. They seemed to have a gang of chimeras and beastmen with them, but nothing that shouldn't be too difficult for us to handle. And then there was a sorcerer."

"Two." Nes corrected.

"Hopefully third rate if these are the games they have to play." Lina muttered, "Good news for us, then, because between Gourry's skills and the Blast Sword, my magic, and with Nes being a dragon, we should have them cornered. Adena, I'm…"

"Dragon?" Gourry interrupted.

"Dragon! Keep up!" Lina said. "Anyway…"

"I'm confused." Adena said, looking as Nes, "What is she talking about?"

Slowly something started to dawn on Gourry. Old questions he had always had about Nes came to the forefront and for some reason he thought about Milgazia while Lina looked at the three of them in turn, her expression incredulous, "You mean you don't know?" Lina asked.

"I never told them." Nes said quietly.

"Told us what?" Adena asked.

"How long have you known him again?" Lina asked Gourry.

"All my life." Gourry replied.

"And in all that time you never figured out he was a golden dragon?" Lina asked, disbelief lining her voice, "This from the man who says he knew Xellos was a demon!?"

"You met Xellos?" Nes asked, alarm lining his voice.

"What are you all talking about?" Adena asked.

"Well, I'd fought other demons before." Gourry explained, "But Milgazia was the first golden dragon I met. Or so I thought. I mean, I knew there was something different about Nes, he's been alive for so long, but the older I got the less I thought about it."

"You're a golden dragon?" Adena asked, confused, "But how? I mean, dragons are huge!"

"There is a spell we can use to transform ourselves into human form." Nes explained.

Adena stared at him in disbelief and Lina folded her arms across her chest while Gourry mulled over several questions he had. "How come you never told us?"

"Hikara and I agreed that it would be best that Lucia never knew. And even after Lucia was dead, it just never seemed relevant."

"Hikara?" Lina asked.

"She was our great-grandmother." Gourry explained as he started thinking again about how they never knew who Lucia's father was. "Lucia was our grandmother."

"But why keep it from her?" Adena asked.

Nes was silent for a moment before explaining, "Children such as Lucia never really fit in anywhere. Unions between dragons and humans are not encouraged among my people for such reasons. The human element is so corrupting that if they are raised among dragons they feel their mortality, even though Lucia should have expected to live a few centuries had she not been murdered."

There was an unusual bitterness to his voice as though he was still furious about the stolen years and he stopped for a moment to gather himself before he continued, "Such children fare better when raised among humans, but if she knew about her true nature it would set her apart. We wanted her to fit in, so Hikara settled in the Elemekian Empire. Everywhere else it was well known that the Swordsman of Light was enamored of the golden dragon she traveled with."

Lina's eyes widened, "You mean you were there when Sairaag was destroyed? Oh man, I've got so many questions for you that…" she glanced at Gourry, "That can wait for a later time."

"You were her father." Gourry stated quietly as a lot of things in his life started to make sense.

"I was." He replied.

"So you're our great-grandfather." Gourry continued.

"Yes."

For some reason, the knowledge was comforting. Nes had always felt like family, and Gourry could not count the number of times growing up when, recovering from a beating, he had wished that the kinder Nes was his actual father. Knowing Nes was blood was reassuring, even if they were removed by more generations than Gourry and his father. Blood was blood, and just as he had aspects of his father running through him, he also had aspects of Nes.

Gourry got up and gave him a firm hug while Adena looked at them incredulously, "You could have said something."

Lina sighed, "Man, no wonder Milgazia's jokes had no effect on you."

"Have you heard the one he told about…" Nes began.

"Don't remind me!" Lina snapped. "Anyway, back to our game plan, unless they have any big players we don't know about, I say we've definitely got them outpowered."

"That won't be the issue." Nes said. "They were relying on catching you off guard and mutilating Gourry. Now that they have been stopped they are likely scrambling."

"Any chance they'll slink off with their tail between their legs?" Lina asked.

"They went to a lot of trouble to get here." Gourry said, "Going home to Father empty handed will not be an option."

Nes and Adena looked at each other in confusion. "What?" Gourry said.

"But of course he wouldn't know." Adena said.

"Is he dead?" Gourry asked, "But Mills said…"

"It sounds as though Mills was trying to intimidate you." Nes said quietly.

"And Father's not dead." Adena said, placing hand on his shoulder. "Gourry, he changed. Repented."

"Repented?" Gourry repeated stupidly.

"After Pollock was killed he made his way to my house, outcast and heartbroken." Nes said. "Losing Pollock woke him up to what his avarice was doing to his family. He apologized to your cousins for murdering their parents. And he was guilt ridden over the burden he placed on you and the hard choices he forced you to make. He took on the responsibility for Pollock's death on himself."

Gourry sat down on the bed in shock. Adena curled up beside him and wrapped an arm around him as Nes continued. "As repentant as he was, murder is not easily forgiven. I cannot begin to describe how I have struggled with it. Your cousins were also upset that you were driven from the Elemekian Empire. They were suspicious of an ulterior motive, and not ready to start the process of forgiveness. So I took him to the shrines at Elisia and brought Adena to visit him there often, though she has remained predominantly in my care. Gradually he recovered. He remarried and started a new family. He treats them with a gentleness he withheld from you. He wants to get it right this time."

Slowly the information sank in. He had always assumed that everyone in his family was furious with him for either Pollock's death or for taking the sword for himself. The idea that his father might have changed had never occurred to him. Petry had walked on such a dark path that turning around seemed impossible. But there was Nes, the father of the woman he had murdered, saying it was so.

But still.

"Jula isn't mad at me?" Gourry asked.

"Jula and Ketcher were madder at themselves. They feel they put you up to it. In some ways Jula was relieved that she didn't have to make the hard choices herself, but all the same she felt guilty that you took that burden for her."

Gourry wiped at his eyes as relief tore through him. "But Gunther and Mills, they were so well organized…"

"Gunther had set up quite the network before the family was run out of Biar." Nes explained.

"All of them?"

"Larsa took over after your father was run out. She and her children are thriving there. Your siblings and their families mostly managed to get out of Biar before Larsa could retaliate. Things are a lot more equitable under Larsa, though she was quite brutal with those who had been loyal and put up a fight. All told, I would not advise visiting Biar. While a lot of the town remains friendly to you for taking the sword from Petry, Larsa is still livid you did not leave it with her.

"As for Gunther and Mills, Gunther fell back on his resources and used all of them to track you down to get the Sword of Light. But he's also gained a bad reputation and more than a few warrants out for his arrest."

Lina's eyebrows raised, "So, if we track them down and force them to surrender we can hand them to the authorities and they'll take it from there."

Nes nodded and Lina smiled. "This will be a piece of cake then! Come on Gourry, let's get this done with."

Boldly she strode to the door and walked from it. Gourry smiled a little as he stood up, his worries about being able to maintain happiness with Lina and being a good father to their children starting to fade. If his father could tame the raging monster within him and treat his new family with kindness, then Gourry could certainly see that the monster never surfaced within himself. "The next time you see Jula," he said quietly, "Tell her she can stop feeling guilty. Because I took the Sword of Light, I met someone special. And because I met her, we saved the world a few times."

"If I didn't know any better I'd say that you're in love." Adena playfully chided him.

"I am." Gourry said with a smile, "Just don't tell her before I have a chance to."

AN: OK, I lied at the end of chapter 2 when I said that I listed that was all we know of Gourry's background. Mr. Kanzaka also stated that the Swordsman of Light's companion was a golden dragon, hence the inspiration for Nes. Now, whether or not Gourry is part dragon is unknown, and even if he is it would not account for his super senses as in the novels Milgazia is astounded by how sharp Gourry's senses are, implying they are better than his. But in both the novels and anime, Gourry is the one who breaks the ice with Milgazia, and Gourry and Milgazia's sense of humor is rather similar (and in the novels Lina describes him as the sole human in the room who was not adversely affected by it), so perhaps he is part dragon and the mannerisms are lurking deep within his DNA.