"That is not true."

Sister Theresa's sharp voice snapped like a whip, catching everyone's attention as she made her way over to the bed they were all clustered around. She looked down at the children at the foot of the bed with a kind smile. "Why don't you children go play outside while we talk?"

The kids got up reluctantly; they wanted to hear what was happening, but they knew better than to fight Sister Theresa. So instead, they chased each other outside, laughing the whole way. When Sister Theresa sat in the chair next to the bed and looked at Marie, the little girl clutched tightly to her brother's shirt with a stubborn look on her face. As Gauche wiped the blood from his face, Sister Theresa gave Marie a small smile. "You can stay, dear. It's okay."

Marie perked up immediately, smiling brightly.

"Now," Sister Theresa started, directing her attention back to Mariela. "Why are you still saying that this is your fault? It's a lie, and I won't have anyone lying in a church."

Mariela flinched at that, and the nun softened with a sigh. Before she could continue, however, Gauche decided to bite the bullet and just ask the question. "What happened?"

Mariela noticeably stiffened. "Our parents..." she started, but she trailed off, her voice already strained. With a look to Mariela to ask her permission, Sister Theresa let out another sigh before taking up the story.

"The Eye of the Midnight Sun," the nun began, and Gauche noticed Mariela flinch again at the name. "When they were on their way to Sosshi village, they went through the village that Mariela and Marlin's family were living in." Sister Theresa's face darkened, and Mariela dropped her head, her blonde hair falling in front of her face to cover her eyes as she stared down at her brother. Gauche noticed that she'd never stopped stroking the boy's hair, but her hand was visibly shaking at this point. "Even genocidal cultists need to eat, need supplies. They get those supplies from the villages they destroy while on their murderous crusade."

Sister Theresa paused, seemingly to gather her thoughts, and Mariela started to speak. Her voice so quiet that Gauche could barely hear her, she whispered, "I was at the river when it happened. I didn't know. By the time I had figured it out, it was because the smell of fire had already spread so far." Her voice strangled, Mariela choked out in a raspy whisper, "They used mage fire. It was cursed. I… I couldn't put it out. By the time I got home…"

Mariela gave a soft gasp as she used the corner of Marlin's blanket to dab at his forehead lightly—her tears had finally fallen. Sister Theresa put a wrinkled hand on Mariela's knee, looking at Gauche and finishing the story for her. "The fire was cursed. It was a miracle that she managed to pull her brother out of it, but by the time she did, he was… comatose."

Mariela whimpered softly, her arms tightening protectively around her little brother. The action made Gauche tighten his own grip on Marie. "I took us to Hage because it was on the edge of the Forsaken realm; I didn't think I'd be able to find anyone who could heal him, but it was the only place I knew I could make the yul to get us here. It… it wasn't enough."

The last few words out of her mouth sounded like they'd been wrung out of her, and, with a soft sob, she finally folded herself over him completely and buried her face in the blanket covering his frail body.

Sister Theresa put a hand on her back, and Marie reached out to put a little hand on Mariela's head as she shook with quiet sobs. "You have done so much more than could ever be expected of you," the nun said softly, but Mariela shook her head viciously, her face still buried in the blankets.

"No," she sobbed, the sound muffled. "I couldn't save them, and I didn't really save him. It's all my fault. If I had been there—"

"You'd be dead." Gauche felt bad for his bluntness, especially when Sister Theresa gave him a look that could turn a weaker person to ashes. But when he saw Mariela's shoulders still, he repeated, "You would be dead, and there would be no hope at all for your brother if you'd been there. It isn't your fault that a pack of murderous psychos tore your life apart."

Slowly, Mariela lifted her head, careful to keep her face down as she used the blanket to wipe at it. When she looked up, her eyes were still bloodshot, but all the signs of tears were gone. She didn't say anything, just stared until Sister Theresa put her hand on Mariela's head lightly.

"He's right," the nun said quietly. "I've been telling you the same thing, Mariela. It was a gift from God that you weren't there, that you were able to get Marlin out of that house. That the fires didn't—"

Sister Theresa cut herself off abruptly, glancing at Mariela, who had stiffened under Theresa's hand. Clearing her throat, she finished, "This was not your fault, and you have been hurt by them as much as your brother. You must stop blaming yourself."

Mariella gave a small nod, and Gauche tightened his hold on his sister again, holding her close and letting her nestle herself under his chin. This was worse than a ghost story; having just faced the assholes from the Midnight Sun himself, and having almost lost his own sister to them, Gauche could understand. He didn't agree with what she thought… but Gauche understood it.

Mariela took a breath, then looked at Sister Theresa. "When was the last time the healer was here?"

Sister Theresa hesitated, but answered reluctantly, "Before the last time you handled things."

Mariela seemed to pale a bit at that but nodded. She turned and smiled at Gauche, who smiled back instinctively. "You and Marie should go spend some time together," she told him and gestured to the door the kids had all run out of earlier. "Enjoy your hooky day while you can."

For likely the first time ever, Gauche hesitated. As much as he did want to spend time alone with Marie—as much as he always wanted to spend time alone with Marie—there was something about the way that Mariela looked that told him she probably shouldn't be alone. He was about to ask her if she was sure when Sister Theresa yanked him up by the collar of his shirt.

"Hey!" Gauche barked at the nun as she yanked him out of the church. Mariela, laughing, waved as he went. Marie, who had somehow managed to dodge Sister Theresa, was still sitting on the edge of Marlin's bed and staring at Mariela intently as she closed her eyes and started to chant. Gauche caught a glimpse of her grimoire—just the hazy pale green glow that surrounded it—right before Sister Theresa had yanked him out of the church doors. As soon as they were outside, Gauche wrenched himself away from her. "Watch it, you decrepit witch!"

Sister Theresa narrowed her eyes at him, but Gauche realized then that her breathing was laboured and she was leaning on her cane more than he'd seen her do so yet. He gave her a moment to catch her breath before asking, "What do you want to tell me now that you couldn't tell me the first time we were alone outside of the church, old woman?"

"Watch your disrespectful tongue," the nun snapped. Taking another second to breathe, she walked around to one of the small windows on the side of the old church. Gauche followed and was about to ask her how she was justifying her spying to God when he glanced through the window himself and saw exactly what she'd wanted him to see.

Shoots of thin green vines had sprouted from the wooden floor and the wooden bedframe. They wove into each other and wrapped around Mariela's waist, her arms, and her chest, climbing up and around to her neck where a pair of thick green thorns were sunk into her. Gauche had been wrong about her grimoire; it shifted colours, rotating through pastels seemingly without any rhyme or reason. It floated next to her and, as he watched, it seemed to slowly glow brighter and brighter. As it did, the vines wrapped around Mariela started to bloom with white star-shaped flowers, more and more of them sprouting as the glowing got brighter. It would have been beautiful if not for the fact that Mariela seemed to get paler and paler under the vines; it almost looked like…

"This is how her brother has survived," Sister Theresa said quietly. Gauche glanced down at her, but the nun's face was carefully stoic.

When Gauche turned his attention back to the window, he was greeted by the terrifying sight of all the flowers on the vines—it looked like she was buried in them, the vines having spread through her hair and down her face—turning crimson, the colour spreading through their petals like seeping blood. The colour spread further and further, getting darker and darker, until there wasn't a speck of white left. Then, with a bloody flourish, the thorns that had been sunk into Mariela's neck seemed to yank themselves out. They snaked down her arm, weaving through the darkened flowers, until they got to her brother. Just as they had with Mariela, the pair of thorns sunk into Marlin's throat. The boy didn't even flinch. Slowly, the flowers started to wither, turning brown and shriveling before falling from the vines.

"What…" Gauche trailed off, feeling a bit queasy. There was something so unsettling about what he was watching. Clearing his throat, he tried again. "What did you want me to see this for?"

"You'll understand as soon as she's done." Gauche caught Sister Theresa looking at him out of the corner of her eye. "If this is too much for you, you should say so now. But I'll have you know that your sister has spent every session since Mariela and Marlin got here helping Mariela through this because she wants to. So, if you can't handle this, you're not only a thug, you're a weak one at that."

Gauche scowled down at Sister Theresa viciously but didn't argue. Reluctantly, he watched the flowers fall from their vines—they had started by falling one by one, but now they seemed to be raining down from the vines, disappearing into vapors of mana before they could rest on anything. As the vines cleared more and more, Gauche watched in horror as Mariela came back into view.

She looked ghost white and was shaking violently; at first it looked like she was fighting to hold herself upright, but as the vines finally started dissolving into pure mana and disappearing, Mariela started to slump over further and further until the vines support was totally gone and she was slumped over her brother's body, eyes open and glassed over and face deathly pale.

Gauche felt frozen. He wanted to move—but he also didn't want to be the one to check for a pulse and find nothing there.

"She's not dead," Sister Theresa said softly. Marie had moved over to smooth the hair from Mariela's face and hold her hand. "But this is how these sessions leave her. Every time."

Gauche took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "Every time?"

"Are you deaf?"

Gauche, with herculean effort, bit back the sarcastic remark on the tip of his tongue. "What are you trying to tell me, you cryptic old hag? Why can't you just be clear?"

Sister Theresa stomped her cane down on Gauche's foot, who yanked it back and only managed to bite back the very loud curse he wanted to scream at her because he didn't want his precious Marie to hear it. When he met her eyes, however, the look of worry there made Gauche feel ashamed.

"What are you not getting about this?" Sister Theresa snapped. "You're selfish, boy. You're changing and you're getting better, and whether you believe it or not, I'm proud of you for it. But what you're doing right now is getting involved with someone other than your sister, no matter how similar she may seem to your sister. And I won't have you leaving that poor girl out to dry because you realized too late that your selflessness still only extends as far as Marie's direct involvement."

Gauche gritted his teeth. He wanted to get angry at the old witch—had, in fact, already gotten angry at the old witch—but it didn't change the fact that he understood what her point was. Further, if he thought about it even a little more thoroughly, he was also confused as to why he would care this much about anything other than Marie.

As if she could sense his hesitation and the meaning behind it, Sister Theresa narrowed her eyes. "She needs work, but she needs support more. If you can't give her that, then she shouldn't be taken away from here, where we can give it to her while she looks for work in town."

Gauche couldn't help but snort at that. "There isn't work for her in this town and you know that. How long has she been looking? How long were you planning on letting her look, hag?"

This time, Sister Theresa rapped her cane against the front of Gauche's shins and made him hiss a curse so foul that she threatened to hit him again. "Watch your tongue. I have been preoccupied; in case you've forgotten about my almost dying."

Gauche rolled his eyes. "Please, you're going to live another hundred years just to spite me, witch. Anyway, she needs work, and she's got it with the Black Bulls. Why are you trying to scare me out of helping her with that?"

Sister Theresa just shook her head in frustration. "I won't keep explaining this to you, you ignorant thug. If you can't understand it, all you need to understand is that, if watching over Mariela becomes too much for you, you are to bring her back here to me and her brother. Don't you dare abandon her anywhere, or I will make you regret it."

With that, the nun started back into the church, moving more quickly than she had on her way out. Gauche glanced back through the window and flinched away from the sight of Mariela, still totally motionless as his precious little sister stroked her hair. While he watched, Sister Theresa came around the bed and put glowing hands against Mariela's unmoving back. A heartbeat passed, then another, then, finally, Mariela started to stir. Gauche released a breath he hadn't known he'd been holding before turning to walk—slowly—back into the church.

By the time he got back to her bedside, Mariela had sat up and was smiling. She still looked tired and pale—far, far too pale—but she was up.

"Hello," she looked up at him with a tired smile. "I'm sorry that I keep taking your sister from you. The next time visits happen, we should alternate the days."

"That's ridiculous," Gauche said immediately. "Anyway, how… are you feeling?" It felt like such a stupid, worthless question to ask with her laying there, visibly half dead after sucking out her own lifeforce to inject into her brother. Gauche had already noticed the colour that had come back to Marlin's skin and the flush that had returned to his cheeks. He didn't even seem to have any marks on his neck where the thorns had sunk into him. Mariela, on the other hand, had two vicious holes in her neck that had closed with clotted blood. The skin around the wounds was already starting to darken with the bruising. As if she could sense his eyes on them, Mariela's hand went to the side of her neck to cover the punctures.

"I'm doing just fine." Mariela had started to sway gently back and forth, but she hadn't seemed to notice. "Are… are you supposed to be going back soon?"

"Well, technically," he started slowly, "I wasn't supposed to be here in the first place, so there isn't really a time that I'm supposed to start heading back."

"Degenerate thug," Sister Theresa groused. She sat in the same seat next to the bed and was glaring at him. "I should have known it was something like that."

"Bite me, old lady," Gauche snapped back at her. Turning his attention back to Mariela, he continued, his voice much softer, "I'll take us back when you can safely go back."

Mariela hesitated at that, then started to chew on her bottom lip. "I don't know… how long I'll need."

Gauche nodded. "Then we'll stay here until you're ready to leave."

Mariela shook her head, stopping abruptly with a pained look on her face. "You can't stay out here indefinitely, you're a Magic Knight."

"I'm Marie's brother first, and she's here, too," Gauche pointed out. Sister Theresa made an aggravated sound and stomped her cane on the floor in front of herself.

"Enough." She stood slowly but kept her back straight as soon as she was up. "I know a spatial magic user who can get you both back to the Black Bulls safely. I'll go ask if he'll come here and do me a favour. Mariela, please lay down and rest; I'll be sure that Gauche gets back to the hideout if you aren't well enough to travel."

Mariela gave the nun a grateful smile before laying down carefully next to her brother and gathering his still form against herself. "Thank you, Sister," she said quietly, her voice already softening into sleep.

Sister Theresa paused in the doorway of the church before leaving and turned. "Gauche," she said sharply. "Think very carefully on what I said while I'm gone." And, with that, she turned and left.

"What did Sister Theresa tell you?" Marie asked. Gauche had taken the seat the nun had just left, and he pulled his sister into his lap so he could wrap his arms around her and hold her tight.

"Nothing important."

Gauche had the spatial magic user that Sister Theresa brought back portal them to just outside the hideout with the hope that he wouldn't need to deal with any of his squad mates. At first, it seemed like it might work, too; the night was quiet for once, and there weren't even the telltale flashes of Magna and Luck's fighting lighting up the night around the place. His luck even held up, right until he got to the stairs.

"So, I see things went well for you." Gauche froze mid-step and glanced over his shoulder to look at Noelle, who was staring pointedly at Mariela, unconscious and cradled in Gauche's arms. He scowled at that; even if she hadn't meant it to, after the day he'd had, the comment chaffed.

"Yeah, and you and the meathead finally hook up or what?" Noelle went bright red and snapped her head to the side, her arms crossed in front of her chest.

"Don't be so vulgar in the presence of royalty," she huffed. "And for your information, we spent the day training."

Gauche had already started to move up the stairs again—he didn't have the time or the energy for this. He was already trying to figure out what he was supposed to do about leaving Mariela in her room again; it didn't seem safe to just drop her off the way she was and leave her there by herself.

"Hey," Noelle called up to him and, with a groan, Gauche stopped again to turn back to look at her. Before he could snap at her, however, Noelle gestured toward Mariela. "I don't know what happened, but I'm not an idiot. She's obviously either sick, injured, or both. I don't know what your relationship is, but I'm guessing you don't want her to be alone."

Gauche said nothing; just stared at Noelle and waited for her to get to the point. Finally, she pointed up the stairs. "I'm assuming you don't want anyone to know for obvious reasons. Take her to your room or stay in hers. I don't know where Yami went, but he took Magna and Luck with him, and Finral, Charmy, and Vanessa are out at a bar for the night. I don't think Grey or Gordon would say anything… well, if they did, I don't think anyone could understand either of them, anyway. If you need someone to cover for you, I will, but I don't think you'll need it." And, with that, Noelle turned and started walking away, calling over her shoulder, "Her room is much less likely to have random people break in unannounced, I'm assuming."

Gauche felt stuck to the stairs as he watched Noelle walk away, letting the facts sink in. Noelle was right; he couldn't just leave Mariela alone, something that he'd already figured out before she gave him the out he needed not to have to. But still… he glanced down at Mariela, still unmoving in his arms, her breathing still barely there. Sister Theresa had said that she was always like this after these sessions—did that mean that he could leave her alone and trust that she'd be fine, so he didn't have to deal with the many, many different things that came with deciding to stay in her room overnight, especially if she didn't know he was going to beforehand? Sister Theresa had also only told him that because she wanted him to understand that he couldn't treat helping Mariela like taking in a stray cat, which was what this argument with himself was beginning to make it feel like.

Damn the old hag for always being right.

Gauche started making his way up the stairs again, stopping briefly at his own room to grab a blanket before taking Mariela to her room.