The captain ran to cover the sinks with a foam spell, after he made sure that the four sinks were covered and there were no leaks, on the way back to the concourse and stopped at the side of the box, a moment to think, he felt panic, he put his hands to his head, clenched his fists, clenched his teeth and with a choking scream with his elbow, as if sneezing, he knelt for a moment, while kneeling he seemed to think of many things, I do not stop mumbling all the time, I mumble so faintly that Ophelia worried, turned to see Caspian, but her face full of doubt, immediately gave Ophelia to understand that he did not know what to do either, the always cheerful and jovial captain had never shown himself like this before them, even in difficult moments he maintained a relaxed attitude, it was the first time they both saw the captain in that state and that was truly terrifying, especially Caspian felt a huge disconsolation when he account of the magnitude of the mistake he had made and the idiocy with which he handled the entire assignment.

Ophelia felt sad for the captain and partly for herself, she had always resorted to the captain in her moments of greatest need within the laboratory, every time the major wanted to replace her or threatened to replace her due to her clumsy work, the captain always defended her, looked after her and talked to the major so that did not happen, when she first arrived at the laboratory, the captain helped her by answering all her doubts, as well as advising her so that she could get along with Caspian, due to the very diligent nature of Caspian, he was not very open to making new friends at work, in addition to the fact that their attitudes clashed by nature, directly against each other, Ophelia naturally so carefree and clumsy, on the other hand nature would be and responsible for Caspian. They did not get along well at first, but as if it were a lubricant, the captain helped to reduce tension at work, and to always have a good work environment.

"Hey captain, what do we do now?" said Caspian.

"Ophelia, you stay here with me, we will find large containers to store all the contaminated water that is on the floor, your Caspian goes to the town hall and finds out where the wastewater" said Lucian, rejoining and with a serious tone.

Ophelia under running to the basement in search of some containers large enough to store all the water with worms, while the captain searched for containers on the surface, despite not remembering that there was something like that in the lower basement in the vague hope of finding something like that in the dark room that had given them so much trouble in recent days, under as fast as he could and once down, standing in front of infinite dark emptiness of the basement, Ophelia could discern the silhouette of the empty jars stacked in a protruding way from some boxes, hopefully taking out of one of the pockets of her robe a parchment with white phosphorus paste, like a ray of light that announces the dawn and a new beginning, the dark and empty basement of the laboratory was filled with light again.

Ophelia's heavy stride up the stairs with her hands full, the jingling of the crashing glass, the cracking of the steps, the vibrations of the glass, all felt so palpable in that solitude, like the water wetting his pants, the feeling of coldness in her legs intensified, and the idea came to her mind, the feeling that this time perhaps they could not overcome the calamity. The captain with his knees submerged in such dangerous water, hunted the small worms, like a bear in the river in search of food, waiting for the fish to jump in order to ensure their survival one more day. With a calmer expression, the sensibility returned to him the moment he was left alone with his thoughts, he remembered that he had not learned everything he knew, sailing through a calm sea, tragedy and conflict, the pressure had made him calm in the face of calamity, he had been marked in the forever, his first storm in the middle of the sea, he was so young that he did not have a beard even, when suddenly the water reached the bow, and the ship moved next to the outbursts of the sea, a young Lucia overwhelmed, simply stopped thinking, and in the middle of the storm he looked for the mast and with the strength that remained he held onto the mast until the storm passed, he managed to survive safely, although too exhausted, in the end the calamity passed. Now that an even greater calamity occurred he felt small again for a few moments, he felt that his effort was useless, unless they managed to locate the worms that had gone down the drain.

Now these cups were his mast to which he was fastened, but did he not know when the storm would last? how long would you have to hold on to them? this storm was different, it would chase him, until it ruined his life and his career, this catastrophe would go on and on until they managed to solve his disaster, Ophelia's heavy step going up the stairs with her hands full of hope of being able to repair things, Ophelia's expression of satisfaction when leaving the basement with jars in hand, was what encouraged him to follow the captain.

"Ophelia, help me with your magic, evaporate the water so that we can collect the worms faster, and as soon as there are only puddles of water left, we collect everything," Captain Lucían said as he stood up and showed a smile.

"Captain, it is necessary to wear gloves when picking up these worms" he said as he took out the parchment and prepared a piece of coal, phosphorus, and many rocks.

"They told me that worms do not affect people through touch, but anyway use them as a precaution, we need to study them even more" he said as he removed himself from the esplanade to leave the space free.

Ophelia knew how to enhance her fire with the help of phosphorus and other materials to be able to maintain the fire, that the water evaporated was simple, but they did not know the effect it would have on the worms, could they withstand the heat? but their critical situation did not allow them to spend more time outside, they preferred to kill the worms than to be outside wreaking havoc, so Ophelia set fire with her parchment and threw it into the water, which could not extinguish the fire despite being completely submerged, the water began to boil little by little and at that moment they realized that the steam could not escape due to the tightness with which they sealed the laboratory, the water evaporated, the steam gradually filled the place with a thick, hot and suffocating mist, since it was not pure water that was evaporating, (it had mixed with the acid), the feeling of suffocation was so much that Ophelia and the Captain had to leave the laboratory and wait with the doors open, for an hour for the steam to disperse completely, as soon as they entered, everything was wet by the steam and in the test area only a few immobile charcoal that used to be the parchment remained, scattered all over the floor of the test area the worms twisted like fish out of the water with such ferocity that they managed to advance on the solid ground, but it did them no good, as soon as Ophelia and Captain Lucía collected them, they managed to observe that some still twisted even inside the jars with water, while others remained motionless even before being captured, so they separated the worms that they left for dead from those that were not.

As soon as they finished, the captain went into his office to report what had happened, and two hours later Caspian returned from the town hall.

"Ophelia, where the captain is? I have something important to tell him" he said agitatedly.

"He's in his office, he hasn't left there since we just..." she was interrupted by a great noise coming from the office.

"Apparently the captain is very angry, angry and in trouble, he said he would tell his superiors what happened," ophelia said, head down.

"And it will get even worse, they did not give me good news at the city hall as soon as I ask about the flow of wastewater," Caspian said just as head down.

"Now if we spoil everything" said ophelia discouraged "Hey Captain!"

"Why are you screaming?" Caspian said annoyed.

"He asked me to let him know of your arrival."

Lucían opened the door of his office and I invite you both to enter.

"So tell me Caspian, they told you at the town hall?" he said in a calm tone even though there were files and ballots lying all over the floor.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

"I was told that all the wastewater passes through magic filters and then they are given a second ecological filter, made with roots of magic plants that clean any impurities, and then the water is used for cultivation and feeding livestock.

"Those worms are very elusive, those filters are not for human consumption directly they are usually given less maintenance, in addition the worms also have their own magic so they will be able to pass all the filters without problem, but they will not be able to enter the plants, so it will be a matter of collecting them on the surface of the crop fields, but if the animals take the water they will be infected and because they are animals we will not be able to identify those infected from the clean ones unless we do an examination of each one."

"Hey captain, since I was exposed to those worms when collecting them from the ground, and Caspian will also help solve the problem, I think we deserve to know what those worms are and what they can do" Ophelia said in a confrontational tone and with her head held high.

"I think it is fair, I love you both so I will tell you what we know about them, but you have to promise that you will keep it secret, because I have orders not to reveal anything to you, I do this because I trusted both of you, you understood!"

"Got it!" they both said out loud.

"It all began when one of the explorers, arrived on an island on the other side of the stormy mist, at first I did not notice anything strange, but while spending the days on the coast, he ran into some natives, he managed to communicate with them through drawings, and as soon as he gained their trust, the natives invited him to participate in a welcoming ritual, they offered him sacred water to drink, and the explorer when taking it, describes that he lost control of himself and he began to act on impulse, the distrust he still felt towards the natives was what led him to take a sample of the water and run away "I guess he did it out of fear", due to the involuntary reaction and the lack of verbal communication, these violent actions were taken badly by the natives of the island, which initiated a persecution, which we now know ended in the capture and death of our explorer, since he managed to send a distress signal before his capture, we learned that something strange was happening on the island, some time later 5 other explorers arrived in their search, they say that they followed the same familiarization process as the old explorer, and there were 3 explorers who took that sacred water, they say that they experienced the same bodily outbursts so unconscious, they describe that they felt as if someone else controlled their body, they were still scared and reacted violently, but their companions were there to immobilize them and prevent another tragedy, so the natives of the island let them go." "After the effect passed, the adventurers sent a report of what happened to the plant, later the government was interested in their testimony and sent them military and scientific help to find out what was happening, after a long time investigating and observing the natives they realized that the sacred water was made by mixing the juice of worms with water, although sometimes they also ate whole worms, their consumption is what causes that powerful effect on the human body, at first it was suspected that the worms were magical and took control of their predator, but investigations revealed that when eaten by humans, they for some reason die inside the stomach and their remains are absorbed by the body which causes a reaction in the body that translates into that feeling of being possessed, scientists can not yet explain why? of any of these things, even natives have been shown to be immune to the effect of worms. " "But as soon as the government learned of this effect, they immediately thought that, with enough research, they could develop a weapon with which the human body could be controlled, so they ordered that this discovery be classified and treated as a state secret, the government wanted to establish a base of operations on that island, to see how to cultivate the worms that grow and live in bodies of water for large-scale exploitation."

"And what happened to the natives of the island" Ophelia said sadly, anticipating the worst

"They naturally opposed, those worms are sacred to them, first they hid the worms and when they could not do it anymore because of the number of people who arrived on the island and the constant sieges by the army, the natives had no choice but to defend themselves using weapons, that is why when Caspian and I arrived on the island, the army was there on the island."

"But if they had everything under control why would they need the help of an external laboratory like ours?" Caspian asked.

"Although it seemed that they had everything under control the natives, they turned out to be formidable warriors, which made the army major nervous, since the natives with their unusual war tactics managed to cause great damage to the camp so the major made the request to transfer the investigations to the other side of the stormy haze, at first the government refused, because they wanted to keep everything secret, but as soon as the major exposed the risks of those warriors and the fragile position of the government in their investigations as well as losing all information, the government ended up giving in, and they transferred the investigations to safe land for them."

"And why did they choose our magical laboratory out of so many in the area?" Ophelia asked curiously.

"Finally, the reason why they chose our laboratory as part of the project is due to my history in the army and the quality of our research in magic, that is why the assignment of the work came in an emergency and I could not refuse it, nor could I tell them what was happening, and to avoid fraud, the major came to see me at the laboratory last week and to gain the trust of the high command of the government, he asked us to go and pick up the package in person, that was the reason why Caspian and I made the trip to the island of the Caxao tribe."

"The Caxao tribe?" Ophelia asked strangely.

"That's what I call that tribe since their language is different and the sound they have heard most often is Caxao, the worms that alter all our behavior were also called that way, because they come from the island."

"But moving on to the most important thing, I just notified the headquarters of the incident that, occurred here in the laboratory, they are obviously angry, and they will give us a punishment as soon as all this ends. For now I managed to negotiate with them so that they would let us solve this matter for ourselves and get them to accept, it cost me a lot of work and I had to ask for favors from old acquaintances in the army. They want us to round up or exterminate all the worms and make it as unobtrusive as possible, as it's something classified, it has to be as soon as possible, so I have an important job for you."

At that moment everyone got up, got on the wagon and once the wagon was full of jars of water, the horses pulled it and went in the direction of the village field, the field that had been indicated to Caspian at the town hall. Once they arrived they waited for the night and posed as pest control and with a magic lantern they managed to collect and isolate all the Caxao worms from the field. Once dawn came, Ophelia turned to see him and with the sun hitting him in the face, for a few moments she felt peace for the first time in such crazy days, she forgot for a moment the stress of being stuck in her investigation, the urgency of the work, the fights with her sister, they even stopped weighing the days she had been without returning home and without seeing her mother, when suddenly, Captain Lucían took her out of her trance state.

In the distance you could see a wagon with bars, empty inside, with two armed men in front and horses at full speed advancing with the dawn, like a god who brings the sun with him to illuminate everything and burn the unworthy, as soon as Captain Lucán saw how far the wagon was heading towards where they were, he immediately knew the major had betrayed him and ran towards where Ophelia and Caspian were and warned them to flee, he would stay. Caspian insisted on staying with the captain, but as soon as the wagon started firing fireballs at them the three of them had to flee.

* "Where are we going, Captain?" said Ophelia, shouting.

* "We can't go back to the lab, they probably already intervened."

* "Then it's our turn to flee?" said Caspian shouting.

* "Not as the person in charge of the mission is my responsibility, so I will let you capture me and talk to the major, you keep running" said the captain as he stopped in the middle of one of the streets of the town.

Caspian and Ophelia kept running, at that moment many things went through Ophelia's mind she thought about her mother and her sister in her friendship with Caspian, what she wanted to do after this, since, although she loved magic she did not see herself doing it all her life and now that the real possibility of dying is in front of her, only at that moment could she realize. But it looked like they were about to be caught anyway since Caspian was running faster than her and was leaving her behind, but suddenly a couple of men came out of an alley and knocked Caspian down right in front of Ophelia.

* "Ophelia closes her eyes!" Caspian shouted as he took out a scroll made of a ball from his messenger bag and it emitted a great blinding light.

Caspian recovered quickly while the men still blinded by the flash lay on the ground, immediately after Caspian headed towards Ophelia gave him his suitcase and pointed out that he should go to the outskirts of the village and flee while he distracted the men of the village. Ophelia followed his advice and ran and ran and ran until she reached the open field, where she found a carriage full of fruits on the road outside and taking care that no one saw her got inside and hid between the boxes in lying down, behind all the boxes. At that moment Ophelia felt that she could finally relax for a long time, she remained motionless hidden for a long time, and little by little her body began to demand what she needed and wanted so much. And finally Ophelia fell asleep.