Curselock

Chapter 65: Letter

“I really wish the quest giver handed out more information about these bats!” Leland exclaimed to Glenny and Jude.

Glenny responded with a destitute nod. “What were his words? ‘The bats can be a bit loud?’ I’ll say…”

They looked to Jude expecting a response. The brutish young man looked between them, his face curling in confusion.

“What?!” he yelled.

Leland flinched back. “Why are you yelling?”

“What?!”

Glenny sighed, reaching out and removing the cotton from Jude’s ears. “Is that better?” he asked.

“Uh oh!” Jude’s eyes widened. “I can’t hear anything!”

“We can tell,” Leland said before looking to Glenny.

The young rogue was pressing his fingers together, squishing red liquid from the puff of cotton. “I think his eardrums burst.”

“Oh.”

“I think my eardrums burst, guys!”

Leland and Glenny gave him a sideways look, one that asked if Jude was playing them. But, as the berserker ambled around, opening and closing his jaw with different amounts of force, they decided he wasn’t faking.

“Take this,” Leland said, handing over his ring of regeneration. He grumbled for a moment, then handed over his canteen filled with potential lifeforce water. “And drink this.”

Jude took the ring greedily but hesitated at the water, thinking about his own canteen. But Leland’s look was absolute, and he eventually accepted the water.

It took an hour, but Jude’s hearing eventually came back. The trio was mid butchering of the bat corpses when a dull pop sounded from his ears. He laughed-coughed, finding the sudden pressure change oddly satisfying.

“So,” Leland began, “we need six more bat hides for the quest. Now that we know what they are like, we should have a significantly easier time, right?”

Glenny agreed with that. “No trying to solo the bats, though. We are a team, we should act like it from the start.”

Jude paused his bloodied hands for a moment, thinking through the battle. “I could have handled both by myself. I think.”

“Uh huh.”

“Righhht.”

“Sure I could have!”

Leland caught his friend’s eyes. “Jude, you were bleeding from your ears.”

“So?”

“So, you were injured,” Glenny answered. “What happens if you were injured to the point where Leland’s ring and your tattoo can’t heal you?”

“Then I’d be unstoppable. My Berserker Legac—”

“Doesn’t protect you from dying,” Leland interrupted. “We fight together, simple as that.”

Jude grumbled something but ultimately agreed. He didn’t want to fight by himself. In fact, he preferred not to. Why bath in the glory of battle by himself when they all could.

“I should make a contract with the Lord of Healing,” Leland suddenly said. “You know, just in case.”

Glenny raised an eyebrow at that. “You think she’ll give you a healing spell?”

“I don’t see why not. Her goal is to heal everyone, is it not? What’s one more healing spell in the world? One that is powered directly by her?”

“What do you mean her goal is to heal everyone?” Jude asked.

Answering, Leland said, “The Lord of Healing, or rather her Church of Healing, is famous for healing any and everyone regardless of status or wealth. She thinks healing should be free to any and everyone, thus her Legacies are often praised and in demand.”

Jude snapped his fingers. “Are they the ones that wear white and gold?”

“Yeah, the colors of their Lord.”

“Ahh… I think my mom took me to one of their clinics once.”

Glenny frowned at that. “Why?”

“I might have fallen into a cactus…”

The others looked at Jude with scrutinizing eyes for a long moment. Leland changed the subject. “Anyway. I think a healing spell, or something in that vein, would be a good option to have.”

“I don’t see any downside ,” Glenny said. “Unless the contract terms are ridiculous.”

“That’s true. I also don’t have much to barter with like the Moonless Lord contract. I would guess offering to kill rogue Healing Legacies would be more difficult.”

They fell contemplative at that and eventually brainstormed ideas. Nothing seemed feasible or frankly worthwhile as a trading point. Anything they came up with was too over the top or simply not worth a Lord’s time.

“Maybe I could just promise to heal those in need,” Leland plainly said.

“Would our enemies be considered in need?”

Jude laughed at that. “Imagine a big battle. Both sides are wounded, but we, of course, are the victors. Annnnd Leland has to heal the other side.”

Despite Jude’s cackling howls, the others held tight frowns. “Yeah that’s not going to work then,” Glenny muttered.

With a sigh, Leland said, “I guess I’ll just ask. Maybe the Lord of Healing will give me a quest or something.”

Glenny’s eyes widened at that. “Wait a minute! That’s perfect! Leland! Just make contracts with Lords whenever we need quests! You get a reward out of it, and we probably get to do something more interesting than killing bats!”

Leland scratched the back of his head. “I donno… I don’t want to force you two to do a quest you don’t want to do… And there’s not necessarily a monetary reward…”

Jude blew raspberries and snorted. “Money sh’money. If you get an epic spell out of the deal, who care about money!”

“I like to eat…” Leland said, his voice the volume of a mouse.

Glenny and Jude shared a look. “Hey, Leland?”

He looked up.

“Remember that we are a team, yeah? We know your ranking up issue has been kicking you, but we’re not just going to abandon you.”

“I just don’t want to be in the way.”

Jude scoffed at that. “Remember when you slowed that bat? That wasn’t ‘in the way.’”

“And the bat in the tree. If you didn’t break its wing, who knows how long it would have taken to kill,” Glenny added.

Leland tucked himself into a smaller position. “Thanks guys,” he mumbled.

Making use of his newest cantrips, Leland got to work starting a fire. They had moved back to the road leading through the forest, and set up for the night, acampfire, bubbling stew of bat meat, and the fatigue of a long day. They ate rather quickly before begrudgingly getting back to their feet. Hearth Bats were only out a few hours a day, so they had to make the most of it.

The next encounters went incredibly smoothly. Leland started out with multiple decimating casts of Fracture, which were quickly followed up by a single cast of Curse of Exhaustion on each bat. Since Jude didn’t alert the bats to their presence, the battle was over before it truly started.

Three more bats were cut through and butchered by the end of the night.

“What do they even use these bats for? Armor?” Jude asked.

“No, they’re too thin for that,” Leland answered. “I think it’s for binding books.”

“Oh… books.”

“Books aren’t that bad.”

Both Glenny and Jude stared at him.

Leland grumbled something and started off back to the campfire. They were only a few dozen paces away from the road, which gave him the security to wander off on his own. If anything attacked, Jude and Glenny would show up fast.

In the meantime, Leland wanted to write a letter. He sorted through his stuff, finding the stack of magical paper and ink given to him by Lady Onryo after successfully defeating the Sightless Cult. It took him several minutes to organize his thoughts, but once he started writing, everything flowed naturally.

Hi Mom and Dad!

Just wanted to give you two an update about our adventures. Glenny, Jude, and I are doing well. We’ve taken a few quests, helped plenty of people out, and, well… taken a few lives as well. There was a problem in the city of Shoutwell, one that involved cultists and Witches. I’ll spare you all of the details for now, it’s not really a story to tell through writing.

Just know that all of us are fine, even Glenny. We had a run-in with the local nobility, the Onryos, and the last member of the Icewillows before we even entered the city. William Icewillow, the man who killed Glenny’s mom, is dead. We killed him and saved a young Master from the Icewillows.

Again, more of a story for in-person, but I figured you might want to tell Glenny’s dad that.

Truthfully, none of us were expecting something like that so soon. But I’m glad we got it out of the way early. I don’t like killing. I really don’t, but it’s like dad always said, “kill before they can kill you back.”

Anyway, we met the Huntress and she only hurt us a little.

Jude and Glenny both evolved as well. But I’m still—

Leland stopped and crossed out the sentence. There was no reason to worry them, he thought. Instead he simply signed the letter and pumped it with pure mana. The soaked paper reacted with a blue sheen, one that lifted the page into the air before folding it into thirds. A moment later, it drifted into the sky, off to find his parents.

Leland sat there, the crackling of the fire at his side. He stared at the stars through the edge of the canopy. There was so much stuff he wanted to do, yet only one thing stayed on his mind. His grimoire appeared in his head and he flipped to the last page.

“Still stuck,” he muttered, leaning back.

He spent the next several minutes searching his mind for information from his Legacy. Only rushing wind and haggard screams were the spoils for his headache.

Glenny and Jude showed up not long after that, a bundle of bat parts between them. Leland spoke up. “I’m going to try to make that contract with the Lord of Healing.”

Glenny gave him a nod. “Good luck.”

With that, Leland laid back and started the curse.

Magic came to his mind, spinning around him with a whirlwind of glinting violet. Lifeforce and mana took to his command, forming into a crow’s quill. His Legacy spoke to him, telling him the exact words to say.

“Lord of Healing, I humbly wish to create a contract with you.”

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