After about three hours of waiting, Huginn and Muninn returned. Huginn flew down to me and started cawing while Muninn flew in circles above us.
“Pram, Huginn said they might have found something.” (Keeno)
“Alright…Ask if there were any more gaps in the way.” (Pram)
I looked at Huginn and it cawed in response.
Huginn flew up next to Muninn and the two of them led the way toward what they found. It took us another two hours since we had to find decent footpaths around landslides, unstable snow, and fallen trees, but eventually we found a clearing seemingly carved into the side of the mountain. There were several crumbled pillars lining up what I think used to be some sort of pavilion. Pram and I stopped in the treeline just before the clearing.
“…You feel it too, right Pram?” (Keeno)
“The feeling of wrongness?” (Pram)
As the two of us looked over the ruins, I heard a noise and saw that a wolf walked into the clearing, clearly staring at us and growling. The second it fully stepped into the clearing, a dark reddish-purple haze flowed up from the ground and covered the wolf. It started whimpering in pain and stumbling around. Before long it stumbled into a pillar and started slamming its head into it until it couldn’t move anymore.
{I’m ba…What did I miss?}
“Hang on…Huginn, Muninn, come here and don’t go into the clearing.” (Keeno)
Huginn and Muninn flew down and perched on a tree limb just a little above us.
“Ok…Where have you been, Ama?” (Keeno)
{I was having a meeting with my sun’s Spirit King. He likes to draw things out longer than they need to.}
“Did we mess up again?” (Keeno)
{No, my preparations were perfect, so we didn’t have any effect on the world this time. He was mostly just complaining about insignificant things.}
“I see. Well, we’ve been looking for a well and Huginn and Muninn led us here. You just missed watching a wolf go crazy and kill itself.” (Keeno)
{Hmm. Let me see…Oof.}
“How bad of a curse is it?” (Pram)
{It’s an annoying kind. It’s the kind that feeds itself with the lifeforce of the ones affected by it. It corrupts a victim, makes it go crazy, then when the victim dies, becomes stronger. The good thing about it is it never expands, just becomes harder to purify.}
“Then I should get on to that. But first, how do I go about doing that?” (Keeno)
{Just go wild with your fire. Though I would advise Pram, Huginn, and Muninn stay away until you are done.}
“Then we’ll stay right here. Be careful Keeno.” (Pram)
“I’ll try. Huginn, Muninn, make sure to keep Pram safe if she needs it.” (Keeno)
I then turned back to the clearing and slowly walked toward it. Once I was walking more on stone than soil I started to channel mana and blue flames started to burn around me. Once I was as far as the wolf, I noticed that it was still alive, if only barely. I looked at the poor animal and set it alight with extremely hot flames so that it would pass on with no more pain. I then noticed the same haze from earlier come out of the ground again but the second it touched my flames, it started to dissipate with what almost sounded like a scream.
{Keeno, expand your flames to cover the entire area. If you don’t eradicate every single piece of the curse, it will only fester.}
“I thought you said it doesn’t grow, only become more powerful.”
{I meant it doesn’t grow much, and it’s not like it can’t parasitize something and move that way. Curses always have a small amount of near sentient malice in them after all.}
“Curses seems so confusing.” (Keeno)
I shook my head and expanded my flames until the entire entrance to the ruins were a sea of blue. I heard another scream like noise before I started on my way into the cave entrance. I pulled my flames to me and then made them flow into the cave, lighting it up completely while simultaneously destroying any of the curse inside.
{Keep moving in, Keeno.}
I nodded and started walking slowly. I kept the flames burning as I walked before stopping at a large opening.
“Come to think of it, isn’t this a bad idea? Fire and caves don’t normally mix well.”
{You’re fine, this place is well ventilated, or at least from what I can make out.}
I took one step inside the large chamber where I saw a giant ball of the same reddish-purple haze. It pulsed with a dim light like a heartbeat. I moved and expanded my flames until they were burning inside the entire chamber except the ball in the middle.
{Are you alright Keeno?}
“Yeah…Just need to finish this fast…it’s not as ventilated as you thought.”
Once I was sure that I got all the curse around the chamber, I moved to take care of the ball in the center. I made the flames converge on the curse core, making it look like a tiny sun in the center. I continued to condense it until it was a ball so small you could hold it in one hand and then snuffed it out. At this point my head was swimming a little so I slowly made my way outside.
{Good job, Keeno. Masterfully done.}
“Heh. I would hope so.”
When I made it outside, I sat down next to a pillar and leaned on it. I let the cold air fill my lungs and reveled in the refreshing feeling of it. I looked over to where Pram was watching and waved her over. All three of them walk over to me and Pram sits down next to me.
“Everything’s taken care of, let’s just wait a bit.” (Keeno)
“Alright. It is getting late, so how about we camp out right here for the night?” (Pram)
“Sounds good to me.” (Keeno)
Luna: Wait, if that is a place set up by Order, why was a curse even able to affect it?
Order: Because Knowledge Spirits have basically no other power aside from knowledge. They can understand a way to dispel a cure like that but have no actual power to do so.
Order: Don’t look at me like that, setting up Wells like that is already overstepping, if I actually did something to them after the initial set up, then Payto would have no choice but to punish me.
For the record, I’d break every single one of my rules for you, but I am happy you don’t.