Friday night in Dragon Tower was quiet. It was now one full week since we moved in. The spot next to the window was officially my spot now. I think. I was the only one who seemed to like sitting there and the others mostly left me alone.

Tomorrow I would maybe take my first steps to being curse free.

And perhaps get some more answers about why it's there in the first place.

And also Fethris was dueling Anubis in my place.

Busy day for all of Dragon Tower then. Because there's no way the others aren't going to be in the front row of whatever happens in a Duel of Vis.

Fethris had even already gone to bed.

I swear he was taking this duel thing more seriously than his classes. If the times we hung out in the library were any indication of how much effort he was putting in.

No one else was in the room with me.

But suddenly there was a soft voice singing.

I looked around but I was still sitting alone in Dragon Tower.

"No. Not that one. The rhythm is all off." The voice of a girl, she sounded a bit older and close by.

Then she became visible.

Old uniform, black with red on the inside and wearing full gloves that were plain red. She had round glasses, perfectly circular with green eyes that looked very, very familiar behind them. Her dark hair was pulled up into a bun that looked a little on the messy side.

She was balancing some paper on her lap that had a redish tint to it. A quill pen in hand as she scribbled on it. She was sitting in the windowsill like I was, back to the other wall and looking down and focused on whatever she was doing.

She hummed to herself.

The notes sounded familiar. Too familiar. I knew this song.

Mom used to sing it to me when I was younger and had trouble sleeping.

"Too many syllables. I need something simpler," she said.

Who was this? How long ago was she a student here?

"Serafina Hearth." Another voice, sounded masculine.

"Busy," she responded.

"You got a delivery."

She groaned and looked up from her work to give a very annoyed look at whoever was talking. "Flowers? Again?"

"You have a suitor."

"We all know that he is far more interested in the Hearth name. I don't even like lavender." She reached a hand out and a bouquet of lavender flowers appeared in her hand as she pulled it back.

She placed it in the space between us.

Not that she could notice that I was here.

Then I saw her place her palm flat against the cushion we were sitting on, her fingers were spread wide apart, and then a small pillar of crimson flames erupted upwards.

The flowers didn't stand a chance.

A snap of her fingers and a puff of red smoke and she had a small pouch in her hand. Using the paper she brushed the ashes of the flowers into the pouch and with a wave of her hand it was gone.

"There. That's what I think of your courtship," she said proudly.

Then she was gone.

So it wasn't just my Towermates that were like that. It must be a Dragon thing.

But that spell she used…

Was that Fae Fire?

(*********)

Saturday morning and our little cluster had grown by one.

"Hello," I greeted Runebringer. I hope my confusion came across. Though honestly I was more interested in lemon berry green tea and the ham and cheese omelet I was finally allowed to have.

"Representative Stewart. I hope you don't mind if I sit with you and your Towermates."

"You are welcome to do whatever you want," I told them.

"How are you?" They asked.

"I'm fine? I have a bit of a busy day planned but it is what it is. How are you holding up after the whole sprite thing?"

"Fairing better than you did. I've never seen magic do what yours did."

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I nodded, "Kind of a running theme with my life. But I'm working to get it fixed. My Tower Head is mentoring me through it. It's why Fethris is dueling for me, Vivian Hearth is a busy woman."

"And he's a Nightcall and will definitely win," Runebringer said so matter-of-factly that I thought I must have misheard.

I turned to Fethris, "Someone has faith in you."

"He's father is the most famous duelist of his generation," Runebringer said.

"Ah. That explains a few things," I said. "Kind of wish you brought this up sooner," I told him.

"I though you knew. Isn't that why you picked me?"

"No. I picked you because you were there when it happened. I had no idea."

"Have you been living under a rock?" Runebringer asked me.

They weren't exactly wrong. "I mean…a little bit? Metaphorically speaking. A person's bloodline isn't really something I care about."

I didn't even know my own bloodline, why would I care about other people's?

"Not surprising. Who knows what dark secrets your family holds?" Celica joked.

"You don't know that. There may not be any dark secrets."

"Your mother hasn't even told you her unmarried name. That's a little suspicious," Celica continued.

I shrugged, "Family's complicated like that."

"Wait, I thought you were a sponsored Aplos?" Runebringer commented.

I sighed, "I wish I could say I'm surprised. No. Not sponsored, my mother's family just wasn't interested in letting a human man use their name. So I'm a Stewart. My mother went here and she even taught here for a little while."

Aplos was the term for folks who got stuck being magical despite having two human parents. Being sponsored meant getting adopted in the eyes of the magical legal system by a coven.

Not a term that would apply to me

"What class did she teach?" Runebringer asked, they sounded genuinely curious now.

"Practical Spellcraft."

Which was kind of sad that out of my classes I was doing the worst in Spellcraft. But that was about what I was expecting going into this venture.

"I wonder if you'll be better at it when the…" He stopped after glancing at Runebringer, "after you get some mentoring from our Tower Head."

Runebringer frowned, "Really?"

"We're Dragons. We're mysterious or whatever." Please don't remember the part of the incident where green sparks came out of me despite my magic being pink.

"Is this related to the dark green mana that was there?"

Fuck. "Don't worry about it."

Yep. Nothing suspicious or dangerous here.

"Since I doubt you'll tell me I suppose I'll stay out of it."

"Thank you."

Wait. What time is it?

"I need to get going. Don't want to keep Vivian Hearth waiting," I gave my friends plus Runebringer a wave.

Time to see what Professor Vivian Hearth had in store for me.

(*********)

We were outside. Which was probably for the best considering the risk of this thing exploding.

We were just trying to break a curse not bring down the school.

Vivian had led me to a clearing in the woods. Which would be perfect for murdering people if I hadn't told half the people in my life who I was spending the day with.

If I went missing, they would know.

"So what's the plan?" I asked when we stopped.

"The curse has been feeding on your mana your entire life. Not all of it. That would kill you. It also seems determined to not let any other foreign mana interfere with you."

I nodded. That was everything we knew about how the curse worked.

"You've said you've never felt any reaction from the curse before coming here, but also that it seems to react to your emotions."

"Anger and annoyance mostly," I confirmed.

She nodded slowly, like this was the expected answer. "Do you know why we start at age fifteen?" she asked me.

I…wasn't actually sure. "I don't."

"Around sixty percent of your peers will have Awakened at least once before the school year is over," Vivian Hearth stated calmly. "I'm sure you know what it's like, the rush of all that energy leaving your body and channeling it into a spell that shatters your limits."

"I don't, actually," I informed her. "I think I did when I was attacked by the Aranaea, but I don't remember feeling much of anything. Just fear."

"Can't say I'm surprised. The curse seems to be interfering in the process Awakening triggers. The mana your body produces should have begun a slow change in potency with that first time. But it hasn't, as far as what tests we can run tell us."

"Big shock, the curse made my magic do more weird stuff."

"This side effect seems to be the most benevolent. But I wonder if it's something intended to keep you from forcibly breaking the curse. I've theorized that Awakening and the burst of overflowing mana is the key to getting all that foreign magic out of you."

"What I don't fully get is why does it even have a loophole in the first place? There seems to be conditions I can cast under but why bother? Whoever did this to me, to my family, clearly didn't care all that much about what happened to whoever got stuck with it so why leave a way out of it?"

Vivian Hearth had a slight frown, "I've wondered that myself, given my experiences with the Mists."

"Your experiences?"

"How much do you know about what happened the day the Exterreri formed?"

"They were kidnapped by the Mists. The experience caused them to bond. That's about it."

"I had been a staff member here for around twelve years at the time," Vivian Hearth said. "One of them, a girl named Ruby, got these horrific injuries. She still has the scars. Do you want to guess why they did it?"

I shook my head.

"Ruby's an Aplos. She was sponsored by my coven. Her parents didn't take her developing magical powers very well and she got along pretty well with…with my daughter. She's a researcher now, a Banshee through and through."

"And they did that for the same reason I got the curse, I'm guessing?"

"We checked them for any hint of control spells, hexes, anything that even hinted at mana that wasn't theirs in their systems. We found nothing."

"And yet here I am."

"Curse and all. Speaking of, we should get back to the business at hand. For this first attempt I want to try something. Did you know that Awakenings can be triggered artificially in people they've occurred in naturally?"

"Is that the plan? Is that safe? It hasn't exactly responded well to people trying to cast spells on me."

"There's a reason I asked you to keep your schedule clear today. And why we're doing this outside."

Oh good. That's reassuring.

"Don't worry. If I thought this was unsafe I wouldn't even entertain the idea of trying this. But if we're going to do this we both are going to need more information about how nasty this curse is."

"Welp. Let's get this over with."

"Your going to have to remove your gloves," she said as she approached me slowly. "And hold out that arm."

I followed her instructions. The scars and the mark they revealed were out for all the world to see.

Vivian Hearth held out her hands in front of her with her palms facing up. Purple energy flowed up from them that was radiating visible heat.

It almost looked like flames.

The deep purple glow hovered up from her hands to my arm. It began to wrap around the mark and scars like bands of ribbons.

For several seconds, I felt nothing.

Then something within me ignited.

It was like the world came into focus for the first time. Or maybe taking my first breath. I felt truly warm for the first time.

But then, like a splash of cold water, everything was gone.

Dark green oozed out of the curse mark and Vivian Hearth recoiled back.

The pain was cold this time. Sharp like a thousand ice picks jammed into my arm.

My legs gave out.

"Serafina!"

I was shaking as I spoke, "Was that a success or a failure?" My voice was weak, even I could tell.

"Good news, we've confirmed my theories. This will work. But it will take time to build up your stamina enough for this."

I nodded as I took heaving breaths. "I'm going to get rid of this thing, whatever it takes."

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