Page 46 of I Married Amreth

“Will it cure her?” I asked, perking up.

She shook her head. “No. It’s just going to bring her down to a less critical state where her body will hopefully be able to fight back the prions while it adjusts to the changes of its evolution. Their two children have taken really well to the medicine, so I’m keeping my fingers crossed.”

“That’s wonderful news. I cannot imagine a greater gift for that poor male. His pain was so vivid, I could almost touch it. What you and your team are doing is phenomenal,” I said with deep admiration and respect.

She smiled shyly. “Thank you. But don’t forget that you’re now a part of that team, too. And with your discovery today, we could get even closer to success.”

“Like you said, fingers crossed,” I replied gently. “But you mentioned an incident?”

Ciara nodded. “After we finished testing everyone—and thankfully found no other cases—we began to administer the vaccine to all the people who had not been infected before. Two of them were adamant about not being injected.”

I pursed my lips and nodded pensively. “That’s not surprising. Frankly, I expected far more resistance from a greater number of people. But you cannot force someone to receive that type of treatment.”

“I know. All I can do is explain the benefits, but in the end, it remains their choice. Hopefully, seeing the others are fine and do not suffer negative effects from it may end up changing their minds. Either way, I pray that we can actually find a treatment or eradicate the source.”

“You think the berries are the source?” I asked.

“With its foreign origin, it’s extremely likely. There should be no strawberries on Kestria. From the events that Sora and Aku recounted to us, the doctors had been eating by the river. After Sora bit the man, they stunned her and then ran away. They never came back to pick up the food that they left behind. Neither did the Kreelars.”

“So the local fauna feasted on it,” I said with sudden understanding.

“Exactly. Berries are a nightmare for this because each one has a very high concentration of seeds. Those seeds will pass through the digestive system and will often come out intact in the stool,” Ciara explained. “Of all the fruits they could have come up with, it had to be the one that is very easy to spread and grow. Strawberries only need wet soil, some fertilizers, and plenty of sun.”

“All conditions that were met,” I replied pensively.

“Yes. Whether the animals that ate them got sick and regurgitated the seeds, or simply passed them through their stools, they disseminated them. I don’t know what quantity of berries there were or how many different animals ate them, but the location you showed me is very far from the area where this initial incident occurred.”

“So it’s spreading. But how did it appear on the other side of the river?”

“In the morning, we will need to do a thorough breakdown of their wildlife’s food chain. The small rodents and mammals that ate the berries would only travel so far with them. We haveto assume that some birds also ate those fruits, and they travel much greater distances. And then you have the larger predators who feed on both the birds and the small mammals. If any of those animals tend to roam or migrate, they would move along with them.”

“It’s been nearly ten years though,” I said with a frown. “Wouldn’t it have spread a lot farther and wider?”

My mate shook her head. “Not necessarily. These types of things tend to be exponential. It starts small, with one little patch here and then another one there. But the more patches you have the more creatures feed from it, and the more they spread it. Not every seed released in the wild will take root. The probabilities simply increase with the number of occurrences.”

“Can we wipe out all those berry patches?” I asked while shamelessly refilling my plate, this time with a mix of sides and vegetables.

She frowned and put down her fork on the side of her empty plate. “It is extremely difficult, and often impossible to fully eradicate an invasive plant. Once it starts spreading, there’s always some seed somewhere that will have escaped detection, or that is sitting in some creature’s digestive system just waiting to be released when and where you least expect it. So as much as you manage to cull their number, they almost always come back. It becomes a permanent chore to control their propagation.”

“So there are no solutions,” I asked, crestfallen.

“There are mitigation measures that we can use. But it will take quite a bit of time of thorough testing to make sure we will not harm the local flora or fauna in the process. We need to study all the animals in the area, both those who were infected and those who appear immune. We have solved similar problems in the past with nanobots designed specifically to prevent a certain type of protein from attaching to specificcells, keeping them from reproducing and thereby killing the organism.”

“That sounds like the perfect solution!” I said in a self-evident manner.

“It is if that cell is unique enough not to be found in other life forms in the area. We do not want to accidentally exterminate other plants or animals in the process,” she explained.

“Right, I didn’t think of that. That’s whyyouare the scientist,” I said teasingly.

She smiled. “We each have our skills and purpose. You were fantastic today. From the way you made me feel safe during the flight here despite my fear of heights, to how you help appease that poor male, when others would have just responded to his aggression with violence. And how you handled the mission we entrusted you with. You went above and beyond thoroughly investigating wider than the original path agreed upon.”

“It was just common sense,” I said, my voice sounding a little grumpy when it was in fact prompted by shyness at her praises.

“Believe me, common sense is far too often a rare commodity. Do not underestimate yourself. And for the record, I don’t think you noticed, but you earned a great deal of respect by not approaching the temple. I saw the look in their eyes when you said you turned around. No words can describe how freaking proud of you I am.”

My chest warmed, and I caught myself extending her hand towards her over the table. To my delight, she placed hers in mine without hesitation.

“The feeling is mutual, Ciara. I guess I didn’t notice what you saw because I was too busy noticing how they were reacting towardsyou. When we arrived this morning, their auras radiated distrust and despair. When I returned tonight, I saw relief but especially hope. What you and your colleaguesare doing is saving an entire species. There could be no greater honor for me than to be a part of this.”

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