I woke up in a hazy morning daze. I had never been one for an alarm so waking up in the quiet was refreshing.

Wait. Quiet?

Since when was Pixie Tower…

My eyes blinked before focusing in on a red dragon on the curtains.

I wasn't in Pixie Tower anymore.

I was in Dragon Tower.

Last night came back to me in a flood.

I shot up out of bed and nearly fell on my face in a rush to get dressed for the day. Holy Hecate.

I stood there in the room and took in the reds and darker colors and struggled to maintain my breathing. It's okay Serafina. It's just the others out there. The sun was far too low for Vivian Hearth to be out there to take me to the Curse Breaker.

It was still fairly early, probably eight something.

Alright, time to go find out what the others are like first thing in the morning.

Dragon Tower was so small compared to Pixie Tower. I hadn't fully noticed it yesterday in all the excitement. But it seemed so obvious in the light of morning.

The massive stained glass window, which depicted a crimson dragon roaring from a top of a mountain, bathed the main seating area in red light.

Celica was the only one I could spot.

Her hair was in its usual overly intricate braids that must take forever. She's been up a while then. She was laying in an armchair with her legs dangling over one of the arms and a book in her lap.

"Good morning," I greeted.

"Good morning," She said back apathetically.

Not a morning person either then? Neat. I can handle that at least.

I went over to the bookshelf between the window and the fireplace. Someone had moved Living Accursed to a shelf I could actually reach.

I grabbed it and went past the seating area and into the hallway where the painting was. The door there led to another room that was a step lower, like the seating area. This room had a massive table in the center, more than enough to fit the five of us, maybe even a dozen more.

It would work nicely.

I set Living Accursed down at one of the chairs farthest from the door. There was another window in here, this one took up nearly the entire wall, but it was made of simple square planes.

The wall behind me was rows and rows of more books. The titles of them were less interesting than the choices in the main room. They all gave me 'standard books for first year classes' vibes. Which was fine.

The other wall was a large cabinet, filled with various supplies for school work.

I grabbed a pencil, or the equivalent of one. It looked nothing like the standardized number two's I had grown up with and I was fairly sure they had charcoal as the core but it got the job done. The outside was a smooth dark brown wood and the larger size made my hand cramp less than I was used to. Which was good since everything I had to do was handwritten.

No computers and since I can't cast I can't just wave my hand and make the pencil do it for me.

Yet somehow this was leagues better than my time in the human school system.

I also grabbed a sheet of paper from another drawer and settled into my chair of choosing.

I hated not knowing what to expect from what could very well be one of the most important moments of my life. If today went well…

But that was a big 'if' wasn't it? What if it didn't? What if there was nothing this Curse Breaker could do?

What if I was stuck like this forever?

I clenched my left hand. The tension making the scars clearer, and the triangular shape of the curse stand out even more.

I glared at it.

It was unresponsive.

On the paper next to me I was making notes of the odd things I noticed that were related to the curse so far.

Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

Not being able to cast. Resistance to some magic. Headaches. Reacts to stress/anger? Connection to blood? Affecting mana veins?

And I was also writing down the questions that I most wanted answers to.

When was it cast? How does it work? Can it be removed? Will it hurt someone? Who cast it?

"Serafina?"

Fethris.

I startled out of my thoughts and looked up to see Fethris pass me a goblet of floral smelling blue liquid.

"You didn't bother coming down for breakfast," He explained as he sat across from me.

"Too nervous. I've been trying to organize my thoughts so that I know what to say when the Curse Breaker talks to me today." I didn't touch the goblet.

"You'll do great."

"Will I? And even if I do, it might not mean anything."

He shrugged, "I've heard of Curse Breaker Savas Filo, if that helps. One of the best in the field. I don't know what strings Vivian Hearth pulled to get him to show up for a random student."

"And what if he can't help me?" I asked. "What if no one can? I know nothing about this curse."

Fethris frowned, "You've broken through the curse once, therefore there must be some trick or loophole around it. There usually is with long term spells."

"The closest thing I have to a theory is that it has something to do with bleeding." I set my pencil down in defeat. "And who knows, maybe I've just been imagining symptoms."

Fethris sighed and nudged the goblet closer, "I think you're going to want something in your system before Vivian Hearth whisks you away to be poked and prodded by a strange man who has been studying curses for thirty years."

I sighed in return. "What is this anyway?"

"Butterfly pea flowers, mint, and orange blossom honey. It helps lower stress and calm nerves. I made a batch and thought you might need some."

I sniffed it, not that I expected Fethris to poison me. On purpose. It smelled like flowers, and while I didn't notice the mint I did smell some sweetness.

I took a small sip.

It was better than the tea Vivian Hearth made that one time. And most of the concoctions Mom's made. "I've had much worse."

"I'm still trying to get the mix right."

"It tastes like over-brewed green tea. Mostly. The orange helps. Thank you Fethris."

"Be warned, the others are going to want a detailed report about what happened when you get back."

I rolled my eyes, "We can have a Tower meeting about it. Make sure we all have our story straight."

"Also, I don't think any of them have talked about what happened last night to anyone else."

"Good. I don't think we're on the same page about that anyway." I took another sip of Fethris' concoction. It was kind of growing on me. I couldn't tell if it was working but staring at a page of random thoughts definitely wasn't.

"And just so you know, I'm not the least bit sorry about you getting the Tower Rep position."

I had almost forgotten about that.

"Bold of you to assume I'll forgive any of you for that regardless of how sorry you are."

He laughed, the bastard, "You'll be fine.

"I don't believe for a second you all voted for me because you had faith. None of you wanted to do it," I accused.

He didn't even pretend to look ashamed.

"I hate you all."

He smirked at me. "But my devious plan to distract you for a little while has worked wonderfully."

I snorted, "If ever find myself in need of a devious plan I will let you know."

"You'd better. I would be very disappointed if you left me out of something fun."

"Next time I get into trouble you'll be the first person I go to for help."

"Perfect."

(*********)

Sometime later I moved from the secondary room back into the main seating area. I forsook the sofa and armchairs and settled onto the cushioned nook where the stained glass window was.

Looking down I could see most of the back end of the school. A large swath of plains for where Basics on Monsters was taught and past that was the octagonal field for Chaser. And where there wasn't grass there were holly trees.

This was so much more relaxing without the constant rotation of Pixie Tower.

"I'll say this," Jarec was chatting with Celica, "it's so much easier to hear myself think without a thunderstorm outside literally all of the time."

Celica scoffed, "What's the point of having a Tower when you're stuck under ground sleeping next to a bunch of fish? I'm preferring the fifth floor over the basement."

At least I wasn't alone in not missing my previous residence.

A small flash of orange light and a floating human-shaped skull was in front of me, it glowed with an orange light that reminded me of flames.

"Vivian Hearth is on her way," the skull helpfully informed me.

"Tell Russel I said thanks?" I wasn't going to pretend that I knew how his summoned talking skull spell worked or which spell it even was.

It vanished.

"Is that ever going to be less creepy?" Celica asked.

"I think they're cool," Jarec interjected.

"We are not having skulls everywhere Quicksilver," Celica insisted.

"How about when we're all here we can talk about some house rules, like no telepathy when I'm right here and a limit to the amount of skulls at once," I interjected.

"See?! This is why we picked you for the Representative council. We'd be terrible at it," Celica was grinning far too wide for me to believe her.

"Lies," I announced.

Jarec opened his mouth for some snarky remark I was sure.

But then we heard laughter. Laughter that definitely wasn't one of us.

Right. Haunted.

I didn't move from my perch even while the other two began to sit up straighter. "Is someone there?" I asked tentatively.

"You are the worst Hearth!" A guy's voice called out.

"That's what you get for not sharing the Brewing homework Runecarver!" A girl manifested in the middle of the room. Either she didn't care or didn't notice the rest of us. She cackled.

She was in uniform, but it looked different. The coat was black on the outside with red lining. She had that same blue glow as Red from last night.

She was turned around and facing the hallway and walking backwards with her hands behind her back. Right to where Celica was sitting.

She moved right through the first half of the couch before vanishing.

Silence for a long moment while I held my breath.

Why was that one different?

There was a loud pounding on the round stone door of the Tower itself.

That snapped me out of my shock.

I jumped up and went to open the door.

It was Vivian Hearth.

"You didn't just use the password?" I asked.

"It wasn't working, for whatever reason. You look pale did something happen?"

I shook my head, "Everything's fine. Is it time to go see the Curse Breaker now?"

She nodded, "It is."

The folded up page of notes I had hidden in my jeans' pocket felt heavier.

It was time.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.