Takuma dropped to his knees, his level of concern reaching new heights, as he inspected Dot. She was breathing heavily as beads of sweat formed on her brow, not a particularly good sign. This time he noticed a new entry in her description.
"Currently suffering from the effects of Miasma Poisoning." Takuma glanced up at the items on the counter and quickly deduced that they were the source of miasma. He hopped to it, placing all of the items in his storage as swiftly as possible. No less than a minute later he was done and proceeded to help Dot up to her feet. She thanked him then motioned to a nearby backroom.
If Takuma had to guess, the young woman lived in the shop since the room turned out to be her bedroom. He helped her lay down on the bed and made her as comfortable as possible before adding, " Wait here. I'll be right back."
He then dashed out of the store and ran down the street to Chloe's shop. "Pots and Oints", a quirky name for a quirky person. Takuma burst through the door, startling Chloe who was tinkering with a potion behind the counter.
"T-takuma!? You scared me senseless!" She stammered, her hands shaking.
"Chloe -- sorry, I didn't mean to. I have an emergency. Can I borrow you? It's important!" The expression of urgency was enough for her to agree. Together, the two hurriedly returned to the general store where Chloe was still lying in her bed.
"Takuma, this looks like a severe case of poisoning. What happened?" Chloe asked as she knelt near the bedside and began to pull items from her waist pouch.
"Curses. I visited this shop earlier and I noticed there were a ton of cursed items here. So I wanted to buy them, so I could purify them. As Dot was selling them to me she fainted."
"Curses? You mean like the one last night?" Chloe asked. She was shaken the moment she heard the word "curse".
Takuma nodded before drawing extremely close to Chloe and adding, "She's also been cursed."
"Is that possible?" It was clear the news caused Chloe to falter for a moment. Takuma could also tell that she was wondering whether the curse would affect her or not.
"Curses? That's rubbish." Dot said, her voice frail.
"I'm just a little under the weather. I've been pushing myself too hard. It happens often." She said through labored breaths. Chloe shot a glance at Takuma who could only shake his head in response.
"Okay Dot. It seems like you've got a case of blood poisoning. I'm going to attempt to remove it for you." Chloe said as she crushed a small vial of green colored liquid in her palm. The fumes rose upwards, twisting and turning as they flowed into Dot's nostrils. Takuma had seen this once before when Chloe used the same technique on him.
"Chloe Alfeim. Class Herbal Mage Rank 5/10
Height :152 cm
Weigh t: 59 kg
Party : None.
Guild : Midnight Ravens [Founder]
"
Dot fell into a coughing fit, her body shaking with each convulsion. After the fifth cough she spit up dark colored liquid, this was the poison -- at least that's what Takuma assumed. There was a great amount of black fluid coming out, so much so that Dot could do little else but lean over the side of the bed and vomit for a solid fifteen seconds.
Takuma had seen all manner of gore, blood and injuries yet somehow his stomach chose this moment to revolt. He looked away, fighting the urge to follow suit.
"There. Let it come out." Chloe said as she rubbed Dot's back. Takuma noticed a green aura around her left hand, a sign that Chloe was also soothing her nausea and restoring her vitality at the same time via magic.
He watched with bated breath until finally the ominous description faded from Chloe's tooltip. Though the curse remained, the poison was now gone.
"Takuma." Chloe said, grabbing his attention.
"Are you okay? You were exposed to the miasma as well, right?"
"I'm fine. My class offers protection. Also, I've got this." Takuma explained as he displayed the tucked Goddess Amulet from within his shirt.
Chloe nodded, then asked him to leave the room for a moment while she tidied up Dot.
Takuma exited the room, closing the door behind him as his thoughts began to work in overdrive. He had no clue that miasma could be so dangerous. To him it was little more than a bit of fog but to others, even Chloe last night, it was enough to render them ill in concentrated amounts.
It was the right move to purchase all of those cursed relics. Without Chloe's help to remove the poison Takuma shuddered to think of what might have happened. Though he'd spent nearly seven lifetimes in various worlds to date he despised the idea of good people dying senselessly. Unfortunately, it seemed to happen all too often.
After a few minutes, Chloe stepped outside the door and closed it behind her.
"How is she?" Takuma asked.
"She's stable for now. Takuma, you mentioned that she's cursed? How is that possible?" Chloe asked as she pulled Takuma away from the door.
"I don't know. I.. I improved my Relic Appraisal skill and now it lets me get a general idea of how powerful curses are. I can look and tell at a glance, and as she was assisting me with my purchase, I noticed she has a curse attached to her as well."
"Is it severe?" Chloe asked.
Takuma nodded, adding. "It's life-threatening. Unless I remove it, it will claim her life--for sure."
"What?" Takuma failed to notice the bedroom door open as Dot stood in the doorway listening in on their conversation.
"Dot…" Takuma began, but he wasn't really sure how to handle the situation. The last way he wanted her to discover this news was accidentally.
"So it's true then? Ha. Ha ha ha ha." Dot said as she began to laugh nervously. She laughed so hard that she began to cough again, a faint trace of black fluid dripping from the corner of her mouth.
"Dot….are you okay?" Chloe asked.
"Yes. I'm fine it's just...ironic. That's all. I can't believe….she was right." Dot replied as she turned to walk into her bedroom.
—------------
"Ever since I was a young girl, my mother would always tell me to make the most of life, that each day isn't promised. I thought it was just her way of inspiring me to live life in a meaningful way but…"
Dot sat down on the bed as Takuma and Chloe followed her into the bedroom.
"Eventually, on my sixteenth birthday, she pulled me aside and told me a family secret. She confided in me that my grandmother and her grandmother both died young. She also told me that her days were numbered as well. None of the women in my family lived past the age of thirty-five--and she said that she was next."
"She then told me that it was important to get married early, so that my future daughter would have enough time with me. According to my mother, it was due to a curse placed on our family several generations ago. Naturally, I dismissed it, it was ridiculous after all. A few years later, on my eighteenth birthday, my mother passed away at the age of thirty-five.
Almost as if she expected this to happen she further explained, on her deathbed, about the rest of the curse. She said that, once she passed on, the curse would be my burden to bear. And she told me that the reason my father was never around is that the curse also took his life in exchange for my birth. Can you imagine? Being told that you are responsible for your father's death? A man I never knew...but always yearned for?
She claimed that soon after I was born, my father died and that this pattern would repeat for my husband and child in time. Just listening to her words made me angry. It sounded as if she'd given up. Given in to fate.
What could I do? Really? She was dying before my eyes… it's not like I could defy her or deny her beliefs--but secretly I resented her. I rebelled in the only way I knew how. I refused to acknowledge the 'curse' and soon after my mother passed away I was determined to live my own life without limitation."
Chloe grabbed Takuma's arm as she listened to Dot recount the story of her early life.
"For the first few months, things went well, then one day out of the blue I fainted. I remember the first attack so vividly: labored breathing, my brow beaded with sweat, the sensation that something was clawing through my veins. After a few minutes, the fit passed but the sensation of being constantly afflicted remained. I immediately thought back to my mother's words -- and it made me even angrier.
My defiance grew, I absolutely refused to accept the fact that my life was controlled by anything other than myself. Now I'm twenty one years old, unmarried, childless and--"
Dot began to tear up as she covered her face in shame.
Chloe sat down next to Dot and placed an arm around the young woman.
"I should have listened. I should have tried to understand." Dot said through her hard sobs.
The sight was truly heart-rending for Takuma. For him it was always difficult to watch women cry, he considered it a personal weak point of his as it caused considerable grief in a past reincarnation. But that was a tale for another time.
Still, as he watched Dot sob uncontrollably, he felt spurred into action.
"There's a way to get rid of the curse, probably," Takuma said suddenly.
Dot slowly glanced upwards at him, her face and cheeks still red from rubbing her eyes.
"What do you mean?" She asked. Takuma could sense the faint glimmer of hope in her voice, and it was because of this that he'd been hesitant to speak up at all. He wanted to be one hundred percent certain that he could get rid of the curse before saying anything.
"I'm a Relic Meister. My class is special, it seems. I can only acquire new abilities and skills by taking on and purifying curses."
"Is that true?" Dot asked amid her sniffles.
Chloe nodded in affirmation, adding, "It's true. I've seen him do it."
"Can you….is it possible to.."
"Yes." Takuma cut Dot's question short. He wasn't about to make her plead for his help, it just wasn't his style. However…
He'd now agreed to a problem that he wasn't sure he could solve. The main issue was his purification abilities. With Partial Purification, he could remove the curse, assuming the skill worked on people to begin with. He could also see a vivid mental image of Chloe dying as the curse flared up. That also assumed that he had enough mana to even perform the purification, as he couldn't gauge the necessary amount just by looking. The last and most important thing to consider was, if the curse sapped her lifeforce, would using Partial Purification multiple times also shorten her lifespan? There were too many unknowns and Takuma was absolutely sure of one thing -- he didn't have the power to fix the problem. At least not at present.
"It will take some time. Luckily I am pretty close to another breakthrough." Takuma added.
"Until then, Chloe, is it possible to--"
"Um, hello? Is anyone here?" A young woman's voice rang out from the front of the shop.
"Oh! It's Lilah." Dot said as she attempted to get to her feet. Takuma held up his hand and instead went to the front of the store on Dot's behalf.
"Hi. Can I help you?" He asked.
"Hello. Is Dot here? Could you tell her Lilah is here with her delivery?" The woman's voice was "cute". It was the only way Takuma could describe it but it didn't match her appearance. Lilah "acted" cute to be sure, but the first impression Takuma got was mysterious. Perhaps even a bit dangerous. She was dressed in a hooded cloak that ran the length of her small, frail body. If Takuma had to estimate at her height, it would be around 128 centimeters.
Her style reminded him of classic depictions of Red Riding Hood. Aside from that her cloak was black with red trim around the edges. Her clothing matched as well, a black band of satin ribbon wrapped around her neck and wrists, her shirt and matching skirt were both red. The thing Takuma noticed the most, perhaps, was a band of black fabric tied around her eyes. It was thick, so thick in fact that Takuma doubted anyone would be able to see through it. This, in turn caused him to wonder why she might be wearing it at all.
Her skin was abnormally pale, grey in fact, and her hair --what little he could see-- was stark white. The contrast of her black lipstick against her pale skin made Takuma feel anxious even though the young lady was smiling. Or perhaps it wasn't her appearance that made him feel on edge.
He detected a faint chill from her, she seemed to lack warmth. Though he tried to view her description, it seemed the hood worked to conceal her information.
"???
????"
Aside from her given name, Lilah was a complete enigma.
"Dot's not feeling well. I'll take that on her behalf." Takuma said as she held his hand out to receive a wooden box no larger than a cubic meter.
"Oh, well that's unusual. I'm afraid I can't pass this off to anyone but Dot and…"
By this time Dot got to her feet and made her way to the bedroom door. She poked her head out and waved with a nod, confirming that Takuma was okay to receive the package.
"Well.. that confirms it." The young woman said as she placed the box on the table (instead of his waiting hands) and then pulled a scroll from within the folds of her cloak.
"Sign here, please!" She said with a girlish laugh as she also handed Takuma a black feather quill pen.
Takuma quickly signed his name and nodded to the young woman who smiled at him as she turned to walk away.
Takuma then turned to join Chloe and Dot in the bedroom. As he walked away, he noticed something which stopped him in his tracks.
"+1 Mana."
"+2 Mana."