Grand Healer of Helikan, Lorana Lanya, can’t help but sigh as she rests her forehead on her palm.

“So you’re telling me the principal let that student continue with dangerous experiments?” 

“He’s not going to admit it,” The Master of Elixirs, Tsulin, says. “But it is safe to say he willfully neglected the danger. He did lecture the student, as attested by witnesses, but that might have been just to cover his own ass.”

“But why would he let someone continue forbidden research? I can understand not expelling the student, but not setting up a watch? Not confiscating anything that can be used to make cursed elixirs?”

“Probably because the kid’s thesis is sound, and he secretly wanted it to be proven,” Tsulin shrugs. “And he’s right, the kid didn’t become a cursed being, although he is now exhibiting extreme symptoms of withdrawal.” 

“We know too little,” Lanya says. “We have no way of knowing if giving him more of that elixir or not is the correct choice, or if both choices end up the same”

“Or it could just be a mostly benign side effect, and he’ll just have to live the rest of his life addicted to his elixir.”

“We need to ask Alysara, she clearly knows more about curses than we do, and this is a matter of national security” Lanya gets up and walks to the window, opening it to get fresh air.

“You’re worried Jetlin will turn into a cursed being?” Tsulin asks.

“Yes. This is completely new territory. We know nothing other than the one incident where a cursed being was created and nearly destroyed the city. We are still a couple of weeks away from meeting the—” Lanya pauses, noticing a dot in the sky that is slowly growing bigger. “... Or not, it seems she is ahead of schedule. Tsulin, prepare for the arrival of the Runalymo immediately.”

He bows and walks out of the room.

That is impeccable timing, Alysara.

Lanya quickly gathers her other advisors to arrange a greeting party. They arrange carriages and ride them to the port just in time for the Runalymo airship to land and dock. The first out are the Elders, which Lanya greets politely, then Alysara walks out with a strange Forron-like creature trailing behind her. Both Alysara and the creature have five tails, which is a surprise but is not at all unexpected assuming rare race evolutions. 

Multiple tails, flaming hair, a glowing halo, changes in hair color, and other metamorphic changes do happen and are generally a once-in-a-lifetime thing for any individual, with around eighty percent of people getting such an evolution. Some people, however, get multiple, and it seems Alysara is one such person.

"You are quite early. I hope everything is going well for you," Lanya says.

"It is going quite well for us," one of the Elders responds.

"We made extra ships so we can dedicate a ship to each country," Alysara says. "Although, we do need to make one more since we only have four right now."

Lanya [Analyzes] the ship, and it shows that it is only enchanted tier, but magically empowered. A chill runs down her spine. If the Runalymo can make three just as powerful as an exalted tier item in one month, then they might be unstoppable if they ever decide to go to war. They can have over thirty exalted tier equivalent warships in one year! Plus, the casual way Alysara said that, as if making three more was as easy as snapping her fingers.

She had gotten more powerful in the month she was away, but that makes sense; she got two legendary achievements. Klaman had told Lanya about legendary points and how they can be used, so it's only natural Alysara should be legendary tier now; plus, she has a title too, which makes her even more powerful.

However, when Lanya [Analyzes] the young woman, she gets no results. That is strange. It really seems like the real her, but it’s probably just an illusory clone. She'll need to use her [Life Sense] on the area to find the real Alysara, but she won't risk angering the Elders if they have retaliatory items against sensing skills.

"Come, let us welcome you to the embassy," Lanya says, motioning the Runalymo to enter the carriages. "Also, I want to speak to you, Alysara, about curses."

"I accept. I also have questions to ask you, and I need my Anima healed again," she replies.

So soon? Lanya raises her eyebrow before glancing at the creature. It has blue fur with gold fur on the tips of its ears, tails, and feet. It has ears like that of the Forron but only two of them and has eyes; perhaps it’s a cousin species to them?

Is it hurt in some way? Lanya can’t imagine any other reason she’d have questions about it.

Alysara nods.

So, there is something about the creature she wants to know?

"First, didn't you cure your cursed skill already?" Lanya asks, getting the simplest question out of the way.

"One of them, yes," Alysara replies.

One of them? If she only had two then she’d probably say she has another, so she has at least three, well, two now, after curing one of them.

Lanya motions for Alysara to enter her carriage, and she follows after her. A guard moves to enter, but Lanya stops him.

"This will be a private conversation."

"As you wish, Grand Healer," the guard bows and joins the driver at the front.

"Is this the real you?" Lanya asks once the carriage door is closed and the sound protection enchantments activate. "I can get the healing out of the way now."

The illusion vanishes, and Alysara appears next to it. Lanya takes a brief moment to [Analyze] Alysara, taking note that she did evolve her race. However, Alysara still isn’t legendary tier. She is heroic, not exalted. It’s possible she’s waiting for her race to be raised in tier one more time, that way, she only needs to use one legendary point since she can only become legendary once she’s already exalted.

She then peers into her Anima and frowns as she sees something else. It's as if her Anima has traces of manifest beauty in it. She can't look away; her Anima is like an enrapturing display of life and beauty. More than that, it seems her capacity has increased somehow and is slowly, ever so slowly, expanding. It also seems like her Anima might be healing on its own, although it's hard to tell. At the very least, it's incredibly slow. A chime rings in her mind as she gains a new breakthrough, but it leaves her even more perplexed.

"Your Bond is somehow infused with your Anima," Lanya says.

"I know," Alysara says. "That's on purpose."

“Why? How? I don’t know if I can heal Bond-infused Anima, I can try, but it may require a breakthrough that I don’t have.”

Lanya extends her powers, trying to refill Alysara’s Anima back to full capacity, but it seems to reject pure Anima.

“I don’t know what you did, but you don’t have normal Anima anymore; in fact, it’s incompatible with normal Anima now.”

“It… is?” Alysara sounds a little worried.

“Yes, it could be healing on its own now, but it’s too slow to say definitively. I’ll need to know what happened to your Anima to know if it’s even possible for me to heal it again.”

Alysara spends a moment of thought before replying. 

“I started fusing my Anima and Bond.”

“Why?”

“It makes my Bond more powerful. The Bond is a bond, so the next level is this,” Alysara shrugs. “That’s also why I wanted to talk to you.” She motions to the creature. “It is my familiar, and with it being made of my Bond, I was wondering if it shares my Anima. I want to know if it’s truly alive. It is autonomous and has a pseudo soul, vitality, and a body. The only thing it might be missing is Anima.”

Lanya examines the creature. At first she doesn’t see any Anima, but as she continues to look, she begins to see the faintest trace of it. Anima this faint is not enough to be associated with a living creature of any sort. 

“There’s only residual Anima from the spell that conjured it; it doesn’t have anima of its own. Now I have a question for you,” Lanya says.

“Go ahead”

“What would happen if someone drank a cursed elixir?”

“It’s hard to say; I haven’t heard of anyone doing that. I would imagine they become a cursed being.” Alysara answers.

“Well, I have a problem on my hands. Someone did exactly that. This is the second time this has happened in my nation. The first time, the individual did become a cursed being, but this time is different. It’s hard to explain the situation, but the gist of it is that I need to know if there are any dangers, such as if his transformation into a cursed being is just delayed somehow, and what our options are.”

“I’ll need to see them. Do you have any retaliation items on this person?” Alysara asks.

“Not on them, no, but…. They are under house arrest on the academy grounds, which is protected. When do you want to see the kid? I can arrange a meeting.”

“Now works, if that's fine with you.”

“Very well, I’ll tell the driver.” Lanya is about to open the driver's window when Alysara holds up a hand.

“No need. I can teleport us there.”

“It would be very bad if I am discovered to be missing from the carriage when we stop at the Embassy,” Lanya says.

“Hmm.” Alysara places a hand on her chin before smirking. “Give me a moment” Alysara seems to meditate for a minute before a copy of Lanya appears next to her, and she feels a link to it form. Next, Alysara touches her hand, and suddenly it’s as if she has two minds!

“Now we can both be here and at the academy,” Alysara says with a smile.

It takes Lanya a moment to adjust to the sudden turn of events, but she remembers reading that one of her items had the ability to temporarily give extra minds to someone.

“Do you do this all the time?” Lanya asks, still a little bewildered at the sensation of having two parallel minds, each with the ability to think independently of one another.

“Yes, I have more back home.”

Lanya almost gets a headache just imagining being in any more places at once.

“This clone looks so real! If I couldn’t see souls, I wouldn’t be able to tell.”

“Yeah, I’m still working that part out.” Suddenly Lanya finds herself, or rather, her clone and temporary second mind, in the academy as if the world just decided she’d be more beautiful there, yet still in the carriage with the real Alysara at the same time!

“So that’s how it feels to teleport,” Lanya remarks, remembering how Klaman teleports all over the place.

“I’d teleport directly to the room, but I didn’t want to alarm anyone,” Alysara’s clone says to hers.

“I need to talk to the principal anyway; he needs to know the consequences of dabbling in curses, if there are any.”

They go to the principal’s office, the hallways being mostly empty with classes still going on. Lanya knocks but doesn’t wait for permission to enter.

“G-Grand Healer?!” a completely bald man says in a panicked tone before quickly bowing. “I-I didn’t know you’d be arriving; if I had known, I’d—”

“That’s enough, Korathan,” Lanya cuts him off. “I know this is sudden, but I brought someone knowledgeable in curses with me; take us to the boy so she can examine him.”

“Right away!” Korathan jumps out of his chair in a hurry.

Once they arrive at the room, pained groaning can be heard.

“I asked you about any retaliatory items on him in particular before, but are there any in the room?” Alysara asks.

“No, not in this particular room.”

They enter and Alysara stands in the middle of the room for several long minutes, examining the boy with her sensing ability. An awkward silence falls over the room only broken by the pained noise coming from the bed.

“I see… Elixirs can influence race evolutions, right?” Alysara asks.

“Yes,” Korathan says.

“His evolutions are cursed, all of them. If he tries to evolve his race, he’ll turn into a cursed being. I don’t know if he’ll ever have an uncorrupted option again, but that’s not all. It’s clear he is suffering, a lot more than you think he is; this is causing even more Miasma to build up in his body. If it continues to build up, it’s possible that it will have unforeseen effects and, at worst, turn him into a cursed being.”

“So we should try to alleviate his symptoms?” Lanya asks.

“Maybe. Have you tried to reduce the pain?”

“Yes,” Korathan says. “But it seemed to have no effect, we’ve made another cursed elixir, but we need permission to give it to him.”

“It’s really dangerous no matter what you do. With the amount of miasma in his body, it’s possible that another dose could turn him into a cursed being, or not, I really don’t know.” 

“Is it worth the risk?” Lanya asks.

Alysara doesn’t answer for a minute.

“No. Once cursed, the miasma won’t leave, so taking more elixirs will build up more miasma and turn him into a cursed being regardless.”

“So what do we do?” Korathan asks.

“Can’t you cure his curse? You’ve already cured one of yours,” Lanya asks.

However, Alysara shakes her head. “Even if I could, I wouldn’t, nor would you be able to afford the price.”

Just what is required to cure a curse? If Alysara had the power and still wouldn’t be willing to heal this boy, then it can’t be something she can just do, unless she’s heartless. So it must require something extraordinarily difficult to obtain or something just as rare, perhaps both.

“How do you cure curses then? I’m willing to pay for that knowledge anyway, we can work out the price later.” Lanya says.

“Alright.” Alysara says after a moment of thought. “You know Klaman, right? Do you know about Legendary points?”

“Yes,” Lanya nods.

“Miasma is equal and opposite to Experience, or rather Aether. Legendary points are, in theory at least, a large pack of Aether. This means you can neutralize the miasma from a curse with a legendary point.”

Now it makes sense. Alysara gave more knowledge than she needed to, but having the nuance to go with it helps a lot. Legendary points just aren’t for sale, and it’s probably not possible to transfer them to others anyway. This means that the only way to cure curses is to first achieve a Legendary feat. This explains why Alysara is still not legendary tier despite having multiple legendary achievements; she needs them to cure her own curses.

“So what do we do? Just end his suffering?” Lanya asks.

“No, with the Miasma in his body, he might still turn into a cursed being if killed.”

“So, all roads lead to him becoming a cursed being,” Korathan says. He suddenly bows to Lanya. “I beg your forgiveness, if I had known this would happen, I would have taken more care to make sure this never happened.”

“It was going to happen sooner or later. It is better that this happens now while we have an opportunity to learn from someone knowledgeable in the subject. We knew it was bad last time this was tried, but we didn't know enough about why it was bad, and this is why we were unable to deter this young man from doing this. Now, we have an authority on the subject who has told us just how bad it is to dabble in curses and that there is no safe method. It is now our duty to remember and record this in history to let this be a warning for all and for the rest of time, so no one else makes the same mistake in the future.”