Well, that hadn't gone as expected.

Rei was gone, and Mead had nothing to offer on the matter except an offer to 'neutralise' her from afar.

The instant Rial had awoken... activated... the weapon Rei had gone berserk. At first Rial thought it was simply fear, but it was much more than that. It was anger.

"That... thing is not part of nature."

Thinking it would help her understand, he told her the story of how he came to possess the weapon, about the traffickers and the slave market, about his days out on the plains. She listened intently, and at the end of the tale asked only one thing.

"Can you destroy it?"

Rial was speechless. Destroy Mead? Why would he possibly want to do that?

"My owner may order my self-destruction, yes. They can specify a contained implosion resulting in little to no energy release or a full-spectrum wide-area devastation routine on a gradable scale of distance/damage/fallout as they see fit."

"Shut up, Mead," hissed Rial.

He hoped Rei hadn't understood any of that. He was a little afraid he had.

"It isn't natural."

"No, it's not. People made it, long ago. Before we came from the stars."

"You believe that?"

"So it told me."

Rei stared at him, a wide-eyed look of disbelief.

"It told you, so you believed it? You are holding a demon in your hands, Rial, and if not a demon then a monster. It should be destroyed."

Things escalated quickly from there.

Now Rei was gone, taking most of her pack with her save a few snares, and Rial was sat alone besides the viscous pool.

"What is this, Mead?" he asked, pointing it in the direction of the pool.

"The upwelling springhead of a large underground water reservoir. A water source. A spring. Currently saturated with a sodium-leeching algal bloom and several by-products I am unable to identify, but demonstrating similarities to compounds associated with neurological deterioration and hallucinogenic effects."

Rial searched for meaning in the answer.

"So you know what this is?"

"Yes. It is a collection of billions of tiny organisms and their poisonous by-products."

"Can you fix it?"

"One moment."

Again, the tingling sensation Rial experienced when Mead 'scanned' him during their first meeting.

"The bloom runs deep into the channels below, and will require a significant amount of energy to eradicate completely whilst leaving the surroundings intact. It would be simpler to level the mountain."

"What? No!" said Rial. "We're here to restore the water, not destroy it completely."

"Purification will use an estimated 37% of current charge."

"But you can do it?"

"Yes."

"Do it."

The beam of light was brighter than any Rial had yet seen, forcing him to turn his head away and cover his eyes with his hands. Even then it shone through.

A bubbling sound began to reverberate through the clearing, accompanied by a low hissing. The light dimmed at the same time, and Rial uncovered his eyes.

A steady stream of yellow energy poured from the weapon and curved into the centre of the pool, where the water bubbled and steamed. Mead was boiling the water.

Very shortly steam rose not only from the pool itself but from the ground around it. Small cracks in the soil widened, darkening with condensation and beginning to steam. The shifting surface forced Rial to move back, carrying Mead with him and causing the beam to lengthen, but the movement did not seem to have any effect on its strength.

By the time the yellow energy abruptly snapped off the area was more akin to the steamy jungles Trian had told tales of than the mountain woods Rial knew. Vapour hung in the air all around, soaking his clothes and dripping from the leaves above, the smell of moisture overriding all other senses. The soil underfoot was soft and damp.

"Completed," said Mead.

"That's it?"

"That's it."

Rial stared at the pool, tiny white pockets of air bubbling to the surface and obscuring the water's true colour.

"Will the poison come back?" he asked.

"Unknown."

"What caused it?"

"Unknown."

"..."

"..."

"What do I do now?"

"Unknown."

So Rial headed home.