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Post by Echo Ashaelyr on Sept 20, 2011 0:25:22 GMT -5
It should have been an easy job. Echo had been tipped about a rat-like demon prowling the streets of London's outer suburbs, and grabbing her sword, she had left to take care of it quickly. She'd encountered the dark magical creatures before. Cut off the head with spelled steel and they would die.
So why was she standing at the gates of Hogwarts, rain pouring off her long duster, slicking back her hair. Teeth gritted and shoulders hunched.
The demon was easy enough to track, the skilled hunter followed its tracks to its lair in a sewer pipe. Setting a trap spell underneath it, she used another one to drive it out. Once the creature was stuck inside the spell, Echo raised her sword to finish it off.
The gates swung open at her touch, allowing Echo to stride quickly through the mud and cold rain to the tall oak doors of Hogwart's entrance hall. But she turned to the side and followed the wall to a smaller door on the lower level.
But when she swung the sword, everything went wrong. A flash of darkness obscured her vision, like a veil across her eyes. Her arm jerked and the blade went wide and struck the stone wall with a bright clang. The demon snarled and leaped at her, scratching her across the face. She punched it with a heavy fist, but again her hand wouldn't obey her. And that's when realization hit her like a bucket of icy water.
The door to Curse's office swung open quietly, admitting the bedraggled figure of Echo. She was rain-soaked and looked like she'd lost a fight with a niffler. The scratches were all superficial, but she looked very cranky.
"Curse...I need your help." She said, only a slight flick of her eyes towards the right arm tightly pinned to her side, gloved hand shoved deep in her trenchcoat pocket.
"I hope this isn't a bad time?"
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Post by Curse Kameren on Sept 21, 2011 2:32:16 GMT -5
"Now, extend your arm as far upward as you can."
"I am bloody doing it." Curse Kameren sat in his office with his chair facing his fireplace. His doctor's face burned in the embers of the fire, his look obviously a bit concerned. Curse was holding his arm parallel with his shoulder ,with the slightest movements causing him to grit his teeth in pain. Under his shirt were still bandages, helping hold his shoulder together as the tissue slowly mended after his battle with Mosrael. There was still a ways to go.
"Try to get your fingers above your shoulder."
"Dammit Milton, I can't." Curse grimaced with the pain as he tried. He physically couldn't do it. The muscles weren't there. "I thought this treatment was supposed to help..."
"With time, Kris. It was some strange magic she used on you."
Curse scowled, feeling the bandaged area gingerly as he let his arm drop. No amount of physical therapy would help him build severed muscles. And in the meantime, he looked like a fool in front of his students when he couldn't reach the top shelves of his classroom. His wandless magic suffered from the lack of movement as well; his newest wand sat unceremoniously on his desk: ebony, with a core of phoenix feather. It fit him well so far, but Curse wasn't sure if it had properly chosen him. The wands had been restless with him, and he was having trouble finding one that knew him.
"In the meantime - " The doctor was interrupted by a different voice, from the door.
"Curse...I need your help."
The professor's head turned to the door, and he arched a brow at Echo Ashaelyr's disheveled demeanor. What was so urgent that she come find him at Hogwarts, instead of sending an owl? Milton greeted Echo through the fire; Curse didn't bother introducing them. Though he had been unconscious during Echo's first meeting with Dr. Bonham, he knew they recognized each other. Curse turned in his chair towards his friend, for the time being ignoring the fire. "What can I do for you, Echo?"
"I hope this isn't a bad time?"
"Not at all," Curse sent Milton a telling look, and with a nod the good doctor vanished from the flames. "We were just attending to some business. What can I help you with?"
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Post by Echo Ashaelyr on Sept 21, 2011 3:07:20 GMT -5
Echo was relieved to see that Curse's office was empty, save for the head in the fireplace, which she recognized as the doctor who had helped during the time in the hospital. The doctor nodded and vanished, returning the fireplace back to a normal, cheerily-burning fire.
For a moment she regretted coming to see him. What right did she have to drag him back into her problems? But the proud, loner hunter knew when she was in midair without a broomstick.
"Seems like every time we run into each other lately there's always trouble around. Sometime you need to invite me to dinner so we can hang out normally." Echo realized she was shivering with the cold, and she lifted her wand awkwardly with her left hand and waved it. Instantly her clothes were dry and the shivering stopped.
"I need a potion that slows the growth of poison, but this time not poison, but magic? I don't know what you can whip up, I'll reimburse you for the ingredients, but I need a custom Kameren-designed potion for this. Maybe it can have the property of also slowing the body down, and numbing parts of the body? Look, it's safe," she reassured him before taking a deep breath and then pulling her hand from her duster pocket.
"This is the problem."
Echo pulled off the duster so she was wearing jeans and a red sweater. What was left of the red sweater at least. All along the hand, arm and shoulder the crimson yarn had been torn apart, dissolved by the strange black tendrils clinging to her skin, where black-gold patches marred her skin. Her hand kept twitching.
"See look, double protected." Echo had to assure her friend that he wasn't in danger of curse flaring up around her. She pointed to five bands of silver spaced along her arm.
"It happened recently. I just need a potion for it, and I'll be out of your hair. Something to slow it down at least. I need to ask Ari too." For the first time since she arrived, Echo sat down, studying Curse. She felt her hand twitching sporadically, but didn't look at it.
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Post by Curse Kameren on Sept 22, 2011 23:49:33 GMT -5
"Seems like every time we run into each other lately there's always trouble around. Sometime you need to invite me to dinner so we can hang out normally."
"I'm not sure if that's possible, nothing seems to work normally for me lately." Curse smiled crookedly, standing up and pushing his chair back behind his desk with his good arm. He picked up his wand, stowing it in his pocket before meeting Echo's eyes readily. "What can I do for you?"
"I need a potion that slows the growth of poison, but this time not poison, but magic? I don't know what you can whip up, I'll reimburse you for the ingredients, but I need a custom Kameren-designed potion for this. Maybe it can have the property of also slowing the body down, and numbing parts of the body? Look, it's safe," Curse arched a brow as Echo revealed her demon-infected arm.
"The infection is growing." Curse set his jaw, eyeing the black tendrils clinging to his friend. He flexed his bandaged right hand hesitantly before taking a step closer to Echo to examine her curse. Curse's own curse had been dormant since the night he used it against Mosrael, where it had burned completely through his skin. He wondered if it would ever come back, but he definitely wasn't sad to see it go. "You should have come to me sooner, it's no good letting it progress this far."
"It happened recently. I just need a potion for it, and I'll be out of your hair. Something to slow it down at least. I need to ask Ari too."
"Echo..." Curse sighed, sitting on top of his desk and running a hand through his hair. "I'll do my best, but I'm not sure what to tell you. I know potions and poisons, but I don't know demons. Have you talked to Cain? He's a cursebreaker, and he has a lot more experience in demon curses than I do. I can talk to him and Arianna and see what I can piece together for a potion, but it could take months."
Curse met his friend's eyes apologetically; he would do all he could for her, but there were limits to his knowledge. There was only so far he could push potions, and there wasn't a magical cure for everything. If there was a cure for a demonic curse, the Ministry wouldn't just be disposing of them, they'd be helping them. "I have a rough idea for what I can do, but even the preparation for that would take a few weeks. Do you still have a stock of the other potion I made for you? That should help in the meantime."
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Post by Echo Ashaelyr on Sept 23, 2011 2:04:40 GMT -5
"Yes, I've been taking it. I have enough for a little while. Can I increase the dose at all? At this point I don't really care about safe dosages."
For once Echo's demeanor almost crumbled. It happened quickly, and was gone in a second, but the fear raging inside of her almost clawed to the surface.
She was dying.
Summoning the demon, absorbing its memories, all of that had increased the rate of infection. Should she tell Curse how it happened, that she'd dealt with demons, surged towards her demise, in order to find his son? She adored Max, and the Kamerens. They were her first true friends, and they'd helped her when she was still a stranger to her. Echo knew it was worth it, was glad to have done something worthwhile with her empty life before she lost it. But should she tell him?
Echo stood up and paced the floor for a moment, not looking at her friend. She fought for control, put up walls to block the fear and uncertainty. She was a hunter, a fighter. And she'd vowed never to let it gain control. There were measures to take, plans she'd made. Contingency plans.
A voice whispered in her mind. Something stirred. Her head jerked to the side, then Echo was back to normal.
But she knew Curse had seen. He was very perceptive. Setting her jaw, the tall woman faced him again, her face calm and determined. "I would've come to you sooner, only this happened suddenly. Curse, I know there's not much you can do, but I'd appreciate any help. Do you know how I can contact Cain? The Ministry can't find out though." Her voice faded to a whisper.
"You know how they are Curse. If they know that I'm...that this is happening, they'll have me locked up."
Did he know, suspect, that it was getting bad? There was one last thing she could do. But could she put that burden on her friend?
"It's..." For a brief second her voice changed timbre, grew darker. Then it was gone. She leveled her mismatched eyes at him somberly. "It's going to get worse, you know that. If I...will you look out for me? I want to beat this but..." She was a realist. This kind of thing was not something that one could wave away with magic.
Echo looked at the hand. It seemed so alien, detached from her. Strange, that an act of kindness would condemn her.
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Post by Curse Kameren on Sept 26, 2011 0:11:39 GMT -5
"Yes, I've been taking it. I have enough for a little while. Can I increase the dose at all? At this point I don't really care about safe dosages."
"If anything, overdosing would help it progress." Curse's eyes fell down towards his desk as he searched for parchment and quill. He started scribbling his incoherent notes, working out in his mind what he needed for the potion. He would add an subtract as he saw fit, as the idea for the structure of the potion worked around in his mind. "The design is like my poison antidote: it has a little of the bad in it to help the potion recognize what it's fighting. Taking more will only hurt."
There was a strange shift in Echo, just for a moment. Curse's sharp emerald eyes glanced up at her, and he asked a question he already knew the answer to. "Are you alright?"
"I would've come to you sooner, only this happened suddenly. Curse, I know there's not much you can do, but I'd appreciate any help. Do you know how I can contact Cain? The Ministry can't find out though."
Curse cocked his head towards the fireplace, looking back down at his parchment as he scribbled. "There's always floo. I think he's living with Alex at the moment, and all aurors and ex-aurors are allowed private fireplaces. Alex's flat and my home in Godric's Hollow are safe for communication."
"It's going to get worse, you know that. If I...will you look out for me? I want to beat this but..."
The professor looked up at his friend, his smile warm. "Echo, we can beat this, we just have to stall for time. No doing, well, whatever it was you did to progress your condition. Demon-Hunting may have to wait for a while, take it easy." He sat back, smiling crookedly. "This is from one workaholic to another. Believe me, I've had to take this advice before and it worked." His eyes fell down towards Echo's tattered sweater. "And maybe invest in some sleeveless shirts for a bit."
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Post by Echo Ashaelyr on Sept 26, 2011 3:39:44 GMT -5
For some reason Curse's warm smile and his reassurance that they could beat the infection made Echo's temper snap. She slammed a fist into the table, unaware of the sizable dent her tainted fist created.
"Blast it Curse! I didn't get this from demon chasing! Nothing I do will slow it down, it's too late! I did this to myself, and I knew the price when I did it!" She'd said too much, but now she didn't care.
The scarred woman started pacing, her frustration spelled out in every footstep. "Time...I wish I had more time. That's all I want. I can't stop what's happening, but if I had a little more time maybe I could do something...something to-" She fixed him with her mismatched gaze; moss green and golden eyes filled with desperation.
"Do you ever wonder what you'll leave behind when you die?"
Her eyes flicked down to the floor as the final word rang out in the room. She'd been deliberately callous. Curse was more aware than most of what it was like to have that word hanging around his daily life. Haunting his steps, waiting to take payment. Part of her regretted saying it, what if Curse took offence?
"I look at my life and I can't see anything! There's just nothing." Echo said bitterly. "It's stupid, but I guess I wish I could have more time to find something, anything, to leave behind. To actually matter..." No family, not even an employer or coworkers. Her adult life had consisted of flying solo, and for a long time she hadn't cared. Until now. Curse and his family had shown her that.
"When you live so long in emptiness, you don't realize what you're missing until it's too late." Echo shook her head, brushing long auburn locks from her face.
Her feet stopped their slow march as she faced her friend, taking a deep breath before speaking. "I'm sorry. I can't stop working. Maybe if you have something I can do to keep my mind busy, but I can't just sit in my apartment and do nothing. I have to stay focused."
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Post by Curse Kameren on Sept 27, 2011 1:33:37 GMT -5
Curse didn't jump when Echo dented his desk; he hardly looked up from the procedure he was writing on his parchment. If Echo was going to be temperamental, he would treat her how she was acting: like one of his students. When she was finished, he paused to take out his wand and silently mend the dent, before looking back up at Echo. "You finished?" He resumed writing, his eyes down on the parchment as he continued, "I can't snap my fingers and magically make a months-long procedure into a week-long procedure. I know it's urgent, but that's how the potion is made and rushing it would only kill you faster. We have to stall for time until then. I know you don't think stepping down from demons hunting will help, but I'd like you to take it easy and see how it goes. I know we don't have identical cases, but I wouldn't be alive today if I hadn't stepped down from Head Auror. I'm not telling you to sit up in your apartment all day, I'm just asking you to be more careful, at least until I can help you."
"Time...I wish I had more time. That's all I want. I can't stop what's happening, but if I had a little more time maybe I could do something...something to- Do you ever wonder what you'll leave behind when you die?"
Curse's quill stopped moving. His green eyes didn't look up at her, just stayed down. He crossed his arms, leaning forward onto the desk, how brow furrowed. How could she be so ignorant, so say that to him like he didn't understand? His life was a ticking clock, ticking down to the day he would leave his loved ones. He had found a cure, but his own condition was too far progressed for it to help. If he was lucky, the poison would be what killed him. After the battle with Mosrael, he worried more about other possibilities. What would happen to his family without him there to stand by them? What would happen to Max?
"I look at my life and I can't see anything! There's just nothing." Echo said bitterly. "It's stupid, but I guess I wish I could have more time to find something, anything, to leave behind. To actually matter..."
Curse's eyes finally rose to meet her, but rather than his warm smile, his emerald eyes were cold. "That is unbelievably selfish of you." He said it simply, bluntly.
She was longing for his worst nightmare. His greatest regret was having to leave his loved ones when they would still need him. He knew exactly what he was leaving behind in death: a son who hardly knew his father. A widow whose husband had always disappointed. He couldn't give Arianna the family she wanted, not in good conscience knowing that he would be leaving them before they reached adulthood. He had experienced the loss of a parent, he didn't want to do that to his family. He didn't have a choice. He had no choice but to leave pain in his wake wherever he went.
"When you live so long in emptiness, you don't realize what you're missing until it's too late."
Curse's expression didn't change. He set his jaw, trying to bite his tongue. He wouldn't take offense to his friend's emotional outburst, as much as it hit home with him in all the worst ways. "You're right, Echo. When the poison eventually takes me I'll have lived a happy life. But I'll be leaving a mourning family with connections to my troubled past and no way of properly defending themselves." He picked up the quill and resumed writing, his voice taking an edge of resentment as the quill moved across the page. "The reason why people like us get into situations like these, Echo, is because we have nothing at stake. Then later, when we have something to hurt us, the deed has already been done." Curse's scowl pulled slightly at his diagonal scar as he spoke. "Trust me, there's nothing worse than having something to lose."
"I'm sorry. I can't stop working. Maybe if you have something I can do to keep my mind busy, but I can't just sit in my apartment and do nothing. I have to stay focused."
Curse put down the quill once again, straightening impatiently and meeting his friend's eyes. "Echo, let me put it this way: when we first met and your curse broke through the bonds and attacked me, what had you been doing? Just now, when it acted up, what were you doing before you came to me? Don't tell me that demon hunting has nothing to do with the curse, it's how you got the curse. If you don't lighten up until I can make a potion for you, you will die. There will be nothing I can do to help you."
With a shake of his head, Curse looked back down at the parchment, his brow furrowed in frustration. "Get a fucking hobby."
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Post by Echo Ashaelyr on Sept 28, 2011 1:10:04 GMT -5
She felt furious as though he'd stomped all over her. Dimly she realized she wasn't acting rationally and scrabbled for control. "Selfish?" She hissed, leaning in close. "If I were selfish would I have done this," she pointed to her blackened shoulder, "to find your s-"
The woman drew back sharply as black anger slipped from Echo's mind. Her temper ebbed as suddenly as it had flared, and she realised that she'd been deliberately callous, as if trying to goad Curse into snapping back. Maybe somewhere inside she yearned for confrontation, an outlet for that oily darkness inside of her. It scared her, although she wouldn't admit it to anyone, the potential she felt for hurting, breaking. It wasn't her and yet deep within, was there a tiny part of her that wanted it? The temptation to lose herself in that rage was growing from a seedling into something bigger; as much as she didn't want to admit it.
Herself once more, Echo sighed softly and sat down on the edge of the desk she'd just dented. "Look Curse, the more this progresses, the more in the dark I am about its...side effects." A faint wry smile tugged at her lips. "I'm glad I can count on you to not pity or molly-coddle me. I'm sorry about what I said. I think this thing makes my negative emotions get out of control. I'm not making sense." She frowned and shook her head, not looking at him. Did he realize that this was only going to get worse, and soon she may lose control in a worse way? She shivered involuntarily.
"You are blessed to have found a family, although I understand what you mean about having to leave them behind." This time her gaze wasn't accusing or distant, but just calm acceptance. "But even though you leaving will hurt them, I think...that because all that you've shared, the love you've shown them, that will outweigh the pain eventually, and you'll still be with them. I'm no expert on this stuff, so I could be wrong. But I think they'd say it's worth it, in the end. To have someone like you."
Echo shrugged, hoping she wasn't treading too much on a sensitive subject. But having opened the raw wound for Curse, she felt she should do something to patch it up. Normally she wasn't the type of person to turn around and mend things instantly. She'd tell them to get over it. But Curse meant a lot to her, so did his family, and what the infection was doing to her was hurting him, and she wouldn't stand for it.
The tall witch folded her arms and met his eyes. "I think I'd have to disagree with you about it being better to not having anything to lose. Because then it means that all you are amounts to nothing, and not in a self-centered way. Life is about experience, the good and bad. It's about learning to love, and yes, life sucks a lot of the time. But in the end, you don't leave behind everyone when you die. You'll live in their hearts, you'll be with them again. At least, from what I've observed, that's what I believe." She shrugged, her tone not suggesting she was so arrogant to believe she was absolutely right, but just trying to somehow convince her friend that even though when he was gone and his family would suffer from the pain of it, their lives would always be warmer, brighter, because of how he'd touched their lives. And through her experience of having no one, it merely strengthened her hope that those she did know would somehow find each other again, after this life.
"Hmmph," she snorted softly. "I'm sure you didn't want to jump into this mess. Although I have to say," Echo said, mismatched eyes holding his for a brief moment. "Before I met you and your family, I wondered if I was alone in what I fought. But you've shown me that there is a way to fight with grace and strength against what we're dealt with. Even if you are cranky about it sometimes."
Uncomfortable with her 'mushy' remarks, Echo stood up, all business again. She'd wanted to tell him for a while that she admired him, but wasn't sure how to do it without inadvertently insulting him. The man was like a cactus. A tall, bony cactus. Try to poke him wrong and instead you'd get impaled.
"So a hobby," she said drily. "Got anything in mind for someone who knows dark magic and is good with a sword?"
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Post by Curse Kameren on Sept 30, 2011 1:32:22 GMT -5
"Before I met you and your family, I wondered if I was alone in what I fought. But you've shown me that there is a way to fight with grace and strength against what we're dealt with. Even if you are cranky about it sometimes."
"Echo, please." Curse sat through her praise and heart-felt admiration patiently, but to be honest such things made him uncomfortable. He hadn't meant to say what he did to Echo, it just came out in the moment. Those were words he usually would only admit to Arianna, not one of his more wary friends like Echo. An awkward silence fell between them as she stopped, the only sound between them the crackling of the fire. Curse's eyes fell back down to the parchment, picking up the quill again. "Really, though. You can't carry on like this if you want to get better."
"So a hobby," she said drily. "Got anything in mind for someone who knows dark magic and is good with a sword?"
Curse looked up at her, his crooked smile pulling at his lips teasingly. "Knitting?"
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Post by Echo Ashaelyr on Oct 9, 2011 2:30:05 GMT -5
A laugh burst from her before she could stop it. "Knitting huh, sure if you want to wear a strange mess of string on your head instead of a wool cap." She winked at him, glad his well-placed comment had lightened the mood of the room. "You might look like a octopus is trying to eat your brains."
"I never was very good at domestic kind of skills. Except cooking. Remind me to make you my famous peach cobbler sometime."
She stood up and took a deep breath. "All right, I'll do my best to lay low and not push myself. But if you think of any way I can help, let me know, okay? And if you need another set of eyes watching Max, I'll be there."
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