by J E Mueller
I followed her cautiously.
“Cam, Jake, make some room. Our friend here needs her space.” The two people moved from sitting opposite of each other to next to one another, leaving a lot of extra space around the fire. Lilith turned towards me. “I’ll grab you something to eat with and you can help yourself. There’s plenty. Cam can’t seem to cook for a small group, but the more the merrier.”
Cam, a young woman in her mid twenties, looked up at us as we approached. “I prefer not to let anyone be hungry,” she informed us, “Healers like you don’t know what a few nights without a meal can do.” She nodded at me. “Not fun, eh?”
I noticed her face had several scars, and a burn along her neck.
She saw that I had made note of her scars, but did not appear to be bothered by this. “We’ve all got our stories. Good news is mine hasn’t ended badly. Maybe yours will end good too.”
I was surprised by her words. Lilith set a bowl and spoon down by me and motioned for me to get some food.
“You’re not going to say it’ll be happily ever after then?” I asked Cam.
She shook her head, “I’ll say it gets better than this. Wherever you're at now isn’t where you’re meant to be. Stick with us for a few seasons and you’ll at least know what you need to do to get through life. Maybe even find a way to end your curse.”
“And all the maybes are supposed to convince me?” I gave Cam a doubtful look as I sat down with my food.
“A maybe is better than no chance at all.” She winked. “So what do you say? Is a maybe worth a few days of travel?”
I ate my food in silence for a moment before looking over at Jake. He seemed perfectly normal and I wondered why he was here.
Jake caught my stare as he got up to put his stuff away. “What’s your question?” he asked.
“What’s your story, then?” I asked bluntly.
Jake smiled. “Thorns and roses.” He winked while Cam laughed. “You see, I am a healer of sorts. What a wonderful trade to take up. A path parents may not always love, but it’s certainly noble enough. Except I can see your darkest secrets. I don’t even need to be very close. With the right distance and the right amount of concentration, and I can destroy lives.” He laughed without humor. “No one wants anyone to know those types of secrets.” He motioned to the group. “And so after some rather terrible misfortune I ended up with this lot.”
Jake looked me in the eyes, “So yes, I do know some things about you, but it was worth it for both sides to be ready with the gloves,” he admitted freely. “And you can be thankful or hate me for it, but either way I won’t tell a soul more than they need to know for their own safety. The tale is yours to tell, alter, or completely avoid mentioning. Whatever you choose, I’ll respect.”
Surprise filled my eyes. “What do you know?” I asked, half terrified, half amazed by such a gift.
“Just the recent history,” he said softly. “Enough to confirm what precautions should be taken. Touch curses are actually the most common. Which is unfortunate, as you know full well.”
I looked back at my food. I was too hungry not to eat more.
“Enough talk Jake, let’s get packed up. We can easily make it back in three days,” Lilith said, getting up and dusting off her clothes.
“But we brought three horses,” Cam pointed out.
“And you can ride with me. Thank you for volunteering,” Lilith replied firmly. “Sound like a plan?”
“I’m not well versed in riding,” I chimed in.
“That’s not a problem,” Jake said as he moved away to dismantle the camp. “Maple is a good old horse and will follow the others. You’ll be fine just sitting on her back. I’ll ready the saddle and everything.” He waved off my concern.
“But how do I get on?” I didn’t want to accidentally harm the horse or someone else.
“I’ve got this,” Cam said, getting up and going to a tent. She brought her pack out and pulled out some ribbon, “We’ll tie your clothes good and tight, lift you up there, and call it a day.” She kept pulling out more and more ribbon. “And yes, this has been done before.”
For a moment I smiled. They seemed to actually understand the full potential for disaster here. Maybe this was a good idea.
Chapter 7
The trip was problem free. Cam liked to talk about her different recipes, and Lilith knew a variety of sweet songs to keep the journey light and happy. Jake didn’t have much to say, but then again, I didn’t either. It was nice to be included, but even nicer being able to remain silent and keep my distance.
When we arrived we entered a low valley where many buildings were set into the hill. A few stood separate around varying fields, but most of the area was left open. The place felt monstrously huge and yet looked peaceful and inviting. There were people going about their tasks and sounds of animals in the distance. The first thing I noticed were the signs of magic all around. Patched up buildings, a few trees recovering from fire damage, and some dead spots in the grass where nothing wanted to grow. There was a large temple with a very long stone staircase leading up to the entrance. In the setting sun I couldn’t tell much more.
With all the magic bubbling about, it was no surprise they knew I was coming. I was given a quick tour by Lilith while the others stabled and brushed down the horses. First she showed me the temple. It was even bigger than I had expected. A wide room with nothing but pillars and statues made up the main entrance. There were clusters of people kneeling around each statue saying prayers and lighting candles. Lilith quietly pointed out a series of doors towards the back and mentioned services were offered on different days if I had someone I worshiped. The lie I had told Sam’s family came to mind. If I were to travel more, learning more about the Lady of the Early Dawn would be beneficial.
After a quick tour of some nearby buildings, classrooms, and empty practice rooms, we headed to the dining hall. The room itself seemed unorganized and terribly designed. As I stood in the doorway for a moment I realized it was actually perfect.
There were rows and rows of long tables and chairs squished together, and along the outside of the room were smaller tables with chairs spread out. While some sections looked over packed you could easily pick out the spots of people who wanted or needed the extra space.
Lilith patted me on the back, startling me, “Let’s get some food and get you to your room. You’ll find it a nice place to stay here.”
Nodding I followed.
The next morning I woke up in a small room. There was enough space for the shabby bed, a window, a chest, and water basin. While it felt cramped, it was all mine for as long as I chose to reside here. This seemed like the perfect place to get answers, but part of me couldn’t believe it would be that easy, and I was reluctant to get my hopes up.
To start the day, Lilith, who I learned was a mentor, had me join a group of three others near my age.
“I’m Grace.” The girl sitting in the back of the room said to break the ice. “I don’t do contact. I turn people into stone.” Her bluntness surprised me.
“Grace is the queen of the acceptance stage.” The girl nearest to me said. “I’m Amber, and also a member of the no contact team since I hate physical contact. I have healing magic. Do with the facts as you will.”
“Jay.” The final person, a guy a few years older than me said. “Amber is my sister. I’m not afraid of contact but I avoid it since I can’t get my strength in check. I may have accidentally broken a few people.”
I raised an eyebrow, “Don’t bones heal?”
“Yeah yeah yeah…” Amber chimed in for him. “It would be great if the family healer didn’t have a phobia of touching people. So now we’re here to work on being less problematic...or something.”
“Or something?” Her lack of confidence in her statement surprised me. Amber just shrugged.
“Well, why have you come here?” Grace asked but didn’t give room to reply. “To work on talents? To fight off a curse? Cast out with nowh
ere left to go because of your magic? Doesn’t matter what the answer is. You’ll find you’re safe here, and can learn things, and maybe you’ll find the answers you need. The only thing I can promise is this…” She stood up and walked over to me. “This will be the only place that will not cast you out for whatever past you have.”
Lilith cleared her throat. “That may not be fully true, but yes, you’ll find a home here.” She smiled brightly. “Grace, I’m sure you’ll gladly show Key here the different lessons and work to be done?”
Grace nodded. “Of course.” She turned her attention back to me. “Are you in the no contact group as well?” She looked at my gloved hands and nodded, “There’s enough of us for sure.”
“It looked like in the dining hall there were more that were not like us.” I pointed out.
Amber laughed bitterly. “That’s because this is the biggest school for healers. They’re always arriving and leaving in swarms.”
“No worries, sis,” Jay said, “You don’t need to learn how to heal. We just need for me to learn not to accidentally break someone’s spine by giving them a pat on the back.” He offered her a smile.
“That is more important,” she agreed.
Grace motioned for me to follow, leaving the others behind.
“Let’s do the fun tour.” Grace said with a smile, “Anyone can join any lesson they want, and the times and days are posted in the temple. It’d be a waste of time joining things you don’t have talents in, but you can always observe. Like the fire dancers.”
“That sounds fun,” I agreed.
Grace led the way around the back of some buildings to an open and fairly well scorched field. There were a few people spinning swords and staffs, the ends covered in flame.
“Is that from their magic?” I asked, happily impressed.
“Yep.” Grace smiled.
Someone started to juggle fireballs.
“That’s amazing control…” I watched in awe for a few moments until someone dropped their sword. The fire died on impact. “How?”
“Some have elemental gifts, some have fire curses. The control comes from inside,” she explained.
“That’s annoyingly cryptic.”
Grace nodded and held up her gloved hands. “Same for my problems. The answer lies within. Psh.” She looked back at the excitement just yards away. “The real answer varies, for everyone, of course and they highly recommend meditating on it. I’ve been here for so long…” Grace sighed deeply and paused for a moment before continuing, “I’ve heard rumors there’s an easy way to get rid of curses.”
“There’s no way it’s easy.” I looked at her skeptically but internally I was screaming with hope that she was right.
With a sly smiled Grace turned to me, “As easy as finding the demon that placed the curse and slaying it.”
I groaned loudly. “Has anyone apart from the jerks making a pact even seen one?” My heart sank and I flopped to the ground in defeat.
“They say several years ago the former king made a pact and demons fought his last battle for him. So I’d assume the surviving soldiers did,” Grace mused.
“I doubt they would know how to find one specific demon,” I grumbled. I didn’t bother mentioning that that exact battle was where my problem began.
“I heard those who commit suicide meet them before their last breath has fully left their body,” Grace added.
“Probably so they can collect the soul.” I shook my head and sat up, “I’m not going that route.”
“Me neither. So let’s go see what else there is and continue the blasted soul searching.” She motioned for me to get up and follow her.
I got to see the healers at work, and a class of lightning elementals learning to direct the currents of their talents before it was time for lunch. The day continued much the same with Grace remaining as my guide and travel companion. She enjoyed introducing me to others with similar curses, but what she really had fun with was showing me how many had conquered theirs. While Grace was clearly frustrated by her own curse, she was still inspired enough by the victories of others. Every day she would take at least an hour meditating on finding her answer.
Though I thought it would do little good, I decided it was at least worth a try to meditate myself. And so began my time there; I was determined to be hopeful that an answer was just beyond the horizon.
In the long run, my eagerness meant nothing, and none of the magic based courses seemed to make any progress for me. I was told to be patient, but couldn’t stop myself from wanting to rush to the end. It frustrated me, but I wasn’t alone in that. There were so many like me, and even the ones with different gifts and curses knew much of how I felt. Together, my newly found comrades and I told tales of our travels, our families. Some told stories of being thrown from their homes that made my own tragic tale seem like nothing, and others simply left home with the promise of returning someday. Thinking of home always brought a whirlwind of emotions and I never wanted to say exactly where I was from. Cursed or not, I would no longer be seen as an equal if they knew of my royal title.
Good did come of my time there. While I was with the Order of Reawakening I learned a lot of the differences between half curses such as mine, and full curses. Mine was brought on by a deal half kept. Full curses occurred when the pact was kept in full. Lessons about those who were able to break full curses filled me with hope and helped me stay on my path.
My first meeting with someone who conquered a full curse was with a girl named Liza who wasn’t much older than myself. Her hair was as messy as a birds nest, and her teeth were crooked. She refused to wear anything but the simplest of gowns and loved nothing more than to sit in the sun and work on her cross-stitch. Often, she would speak with newer recruits of the Order, such as myself, about her curse and how terrible it had been at its peak.
Liza smiled sadly at me when Grace introduced us.
“Another new friend, Gracelynn?” Liza asked.
“It’s Grace,” she corrected. “And this is Key. She’s another crabby member of the touch base curse team.”
Liza nodded and set aside her cross-stitching for a moment. “It’s often considered a terrible team to join, being born with curses that can harm or kill with a simple touch, but I think differently.” Her voice was like honey.
“What do you think then?” I asked, surprised. Her words made me curious.
“We are the best team. There is not a temptation in life that will cause us to fall to those nasty nightmare bringers, those coal monsters that taunt and tempt,” Liza pointed out.
“That’s her name for demons,” Grace whispered.
“All of them can be defeated. We just need the right direction to get there,” Liza said with a smile. “And I know it’s hard. It’s the worst thing any of us will live through, but live we shall.”
“Go on, Liza, tell her,” Grace said, leaning against a nearby wall.
Liza shook her head. “Always straight to the point and missing the path.” She looked at Grace. “But very well, we’ll cut corners to the hardest part.” Liza turned her full attention to me. “My curse didn’t do much damage until puberty. It came and hit all at once. My touch would instantly kill. Barely a sound could escape their lips it was so fast, but that was only if I didn’t catch their eye first. If I made eye contact with any soul they would turn to stone, but not your average stone statue.” She chuckled slightly. “No, so much worse. They looked perfectly normal. As if they were holding still for fun, but a touch confirmed they were stone.
“Everyone was lucky on that last part for a while. The first few that turned to stone unfroze after several hours of frantic worry… but the curse expanded and continued to grow. Hours turned into days, and turned into weeks. People were so afraid they would rather see me blindfolded and sitting still forever rather than risking me breathing in their general direction.
“My own mother finally turned on me and hoped that if I was stoned to death the curse would be lifted an
d free the remaining statues that seemed as if they were never going to recover. My only stroke of luck was that a healer from the Order overheard the plan and stole me away.” Liza paused for a moment before snapping out of her reverie. “I hear they all finally recovered, just as I did.”
“How? How did you beat all of that?” I asked, amazed and enthralled by her journey.
She shook her head. “To break the curse, you needed to understand what the core of it was. Once you know that, truly know what it was, then the rest came easily.”
Frustrated with her and her lack of a real answer, I didn’t speak with her again for some time. I didn’t care if her answer to her curse wouldn’t help me, I just wanted to hear how they could be cured. The conversation had left me with nothing. My curse was fire, caused by a demon bargain gone awry. What more was there to know? Clearly I was missing a piece of the puzzle, and it wasn’t one that could be found here. It felt like the answer was just out of reach.
By the time I reached the age of sixteen I’d had enough with the Order of Reawakening. I had seen many gifts and curses and was only growing more frustrated with finding no answers of my own. There were curses cured by solving riddles or using opposite magic to break the spells. Many were destroyed by true love – those tales were the most heartfelt – but only caused me pain. Others were cured by simple and beautiful inner peace. None of those things I saw helped me, and I decided it was time to leave.
With the promise to return to visit friends I set out once more. This time, however, I had a better plan formed than when I had run away.
Instead of avoiding people, I began looking for work. I joined the migrant worker force and started looking for seasonal work with room and board. I cooked, cleaned, mended, tended shops, and learned whatever I needed to to get by in the winter. I listened to stories and tales and tried to find the answer to my life-long problem of being cursed. When a way to cure myself didn’t appear at the end of the cold season, I picked up my journey anew. During the nicer seasons I traveled and did odd jobs. I tended to flocks, helped harvest crops, and kept up with market stalls.