What now?

There were other skills he could use, but which was the right one?

Did that even matter? As long as it wouldn’t hurt Jacob, why not try all of them?

Basic Analyze

Jacob (Latimer?)

Species: Human

Bloodline: Auspex, ?

Status: Frozen, Cause Unknown

As was normal when using Analyze on a person, he pretty much got what he already knew. The question about Jacob’s surname was probably because he hadn’t actually asked; he was assuming that it was the same as Rissa’s and her father’s. All that told him was that it was an assumption.

The only new thing it told him was that Jacob probably had more than one bloodline. Given what Serenity knew about his parents, it wasn’t that big a surprise. Russ was definitely the source of the Auspex bloodline and a family of Seers seemed likely to have something. If anything, it was interesting that Rissa didn’t have one; perhaps it was why she was a Time Dragon? He doubted the bloodline was draconic; it seemed more likely that was because of his spell.

Back to the matter at hand, Serenity wasn’t certain where to begin on dealing with a curse. At the least he needed to figure out how to unfreeze Jacob. Denise was right; there was definitely something magical about this. Was it possible it wasn’t technically a curse? That sort of thing could matter to someone who could only break curses.

Whether it was a curse or not, it was magical in origin. It had to be.

It probably wouldn’t tell him anything, but if it was related to Time, maybe his Time’s Eye ability would help?

Serenity concentrated on Jacob. Everything around Jacob went slightly fuzzy as Serenity started seeing future possibilities, but Jacob stayed exactly as he was.

Absolutely the same.

Serenity had never seen anything like that before. “Rissa?” he was pretty sure she’d followed him into the room. “Do you see anything odd about Jacob? Is he frozen in Time?”

Rissa stepped past Serenity and stared at her brother. After a moment, she frowned and reached out to touch Jacob, but stopped less than an inch from his skin. “No. At least, I don’t think so. It’s more like … Time doesn’t touch him? That’s not right. It’s the same thing I see when I look at you.”

“Not Time then, but something related … Fate, maybe?” Serenity glanced over at Rissa and saw the same fuzziness and might-be that everything else showed to his Time’s Eye. “But then why can I see my own actions and nothing from him? Because they’re mine?”

That made sense, but it implied that Jacob was Fateless. Maybe he was Unbound like Serenity? Perhaps because Rissa was a Seer?

That wouldn’t explain why he had trouble hearing about magic. There had to be more to it.

Serenity swapped to mana sight and understood why the curse-breaker hadn’t found anything to break on Jacob. He looked utterly normal, other than being frozen. Ordinary mana moved around and through him; he seemed distinctly nonmagical, like someone who’d chosen to focus on their physical capabilities instead of magic.

It was exactly how Serenity would expect anyone who hadn’t been through the Tutorial and picked up some magical ability to look. Well, anyone other than people like Phoebe or Rissa or Liam; they’d all worked with magic and were likely to show it to an intensive inspection like the one Serenity was giving Jacob.

Magic simply didn’t seem to move strangely around him, at least not while he was frozen.

Serenity didn’t know if it was possible to curse with Essence, but he really didn’t know much about Essence. He added Essence Sight and almost immediately looked away.

Jacob was shrouded in a net of Essence that was too bright to examine.

Serenity reached out to it, but the net wasn’t present physically. He nodded; that was another way Essence acted like mana. He coated his hands with a thin layer of Essence; normally, he’d direct mana directly, but the reminders of a physical form could be useful when working with or on someone else’s spell. It was also easier for the less skilled, and Serenity was not skilled with Essence.

As he touched the Essence net, Serenity suddenly saw something he knew was a memory - a memory the net had somehow trapped, probably when it was created.

A man’s voice rolled across the sky. “I cannot take back my gift, but neither you nor your heirs will enjoy what it means to have it with my anger instead of my help!”

That didn’t sound like a curse, but it could be. It was certainly an unusual curse; despite their prevalence in stories, curses that affected entire families were extremely unusual. They were difficult to do and far less effective than just pointing the same power at the person who’d ticked you off.

Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

The voice talked about a “gift”. Was the “gift” what caused the problem? How would the anger of the person who granted a gift affect it? Unless the person granting it was still powering it. Then it might matter.

“Hells. It’s a godsgift.” Serenity muttered. “Why do I keep getting involved with the gods?”

He didn’t trust gods, and nothing so far had changed his mind. Tek was .. interesting, Tyche was - no, he couldn’t even think that. She … had a sense of humor. Coyote was a trickster; probably not intentionally harmful, but not exactly the top of the list on trustworthiness. Death … Serenity wasn’t certain how he felt about Death. Of all of them, Death seemed the most trustworthy, but perhaps that was simply because Serenity knew Death so well.

How would a godsgift that couldn’t be removed and would work across generations even work? Especially one that had different effects based on gender?

There were spells that would work based on gender, but this wasn’t a spell, it was Essence. Essence was … no. Essence could affect the stuff of life itself. It could change the physical form of someone; he’d proven that himself. Mostly by accident, but that still counted.

A curse wouldn’t be Essence magic unless it was making a permanent change - and a permanent change while he watched. He didn’t have time to figure it out. It didn’t help that his knowledge of curses was mostly academic; this wasn’t his strength.

Whether or not he knew much about curses, though, he knew a lot about spells. There were a number of ways to dispel spells, and they ought to work on curses as well. He wasn’t going to be able to use any of the clever ways here, since he didn’t understand it well enough and he didn’t want to take the time TO understand it.

The simplest way to break a spell was the same as the way to break anything else: brute force. Serenity didn’t know if he could manage it, but it was worth a try.

Serenity reached out with his Essence-coated hand and tugged on the Essence that wrapped around Jacob. It felt solid and didn’t want to move, so he pushed a bit more of his essence into it. He could pull on it harder, but muscle wasn’t going to win this battle.

It suddenly shifted under his hand.

The Essence moved without any further input from Serenity. It shifted slightly away from Jacob, turning into a cylinder around him instead of a straitjacket, then it started spinning. This was probably as good a time as any to stop it.

The one good thing about the change was that it was probably going to unfreeze Jacob soon. The question was what else it would do; Serenity didn’t want to take that risk.

Serenity pushed some of his Essence out of both of his hands and tried to turn it into a blade. It didn’t work well, but it was still worth trying, so he pushed the stubby dull blade into the whirling Essence.

It didn’t damage it at all; in fact, it didn’t seem to notice. His hands were pushed away as though they’d hit something that really was spinning at that speed. He needed a better blade.

It was time to see if he could still draw his soulblade. That would be the perfect implement for this. Serenity concentrated; he wanted just the hilt to begin with. He’d need to draw the blade out slowly, so that he wouldn’t accidentally hurt Jacob.

Serenity fell to the floor.

He’d shifted instead of simply pulling out the blade. He wasn’t surprised, but it certainly was inconvenient right now. As he grumbled to himself, he realized Rissa was holding him. When did that happen?

He reached out and shared his Essence Sight with her. It was easy since she was holding him; there was no space to bridge.

Rissa gasped. He wasn’t certain how he knew that, since he couldn’t hear anything, but he could. :Is that … that stuff on Jacob … the curse?:

Rissa could talk to him?

Of course she could; she was a telepath. He hoped she’d be able to hear his reply. :I think so. I know you don’t have anything like it; I’d have seen it. It - I think it might be a godsgift, something given to your family by a god. Only the god was angry.:

:A “gift” that was meant to harm rather than help would explain a great deal about my foresight. Do you know why it’s so different for him?: Emotions were carried on Rissa’s words. She did not seem at all happy about her foresight, even though Serenity knew she’d used it without apparent concern for years.

On the other hand, Serenity knew that Rissa was like him in a lot of ways, and one of them was her willingness to use the tools she had to do what needed to be done. She didn’t have to like it if it had to be done.

Serenity pushed a bit of mana and essence into forming a short blade. It moved easily and he gave it the shape of a small knifeblade; it probably looked silly coming out of his hilt, but more than that might be dangerous. :Now try to do something about the curse:

:Yes, I see.: Rissa slowly moved the blade in closer to the spinning cylinder, set it against it, then slowly gave a little pressure. Serenity could feel it as he cut through the Essence whirling around Jacob; it felt angry, almost desperate, but Serenity wasn’t going to give in. He pushed even more Essence into the blade and he felt himself bite even deeper into the spell.

It was a strangely intimate feeling as the inner workings of the spell enshrouding Jacob were laid bare. It was related to Time much as his SpaceTime affinity was related to Time, but it was instead Fate. There was something else.

Serenity reached to find out what it could be and once again heard the angry man’s voice.

Fate shall be yours. Death-Sight for your daughters, Blindness-Affliction for your sons for you have stolen from me what I can never reclaim. Only one who is without Fate can lift this from one and only one who has also broken his own Fate can lift it entirely; you shall not find such a one in your lifetime or your daughters’ lifetimes. You shall fall from grace and be of the mud!

Now that was a curse, and clearly one laid on a lineage, not simply a person. It also explained some of the differences. Serenity would need to ask Rissa about Death-Sight, but “Blindness-Affliction” certainly looked like what they were dealing with for Jacob.

Serenity felt Rissa push harder and he bit deeper into the spell. He half-expected another speech, but what happened was both better and worse: instead of fully breaking, the spell cracked. As it shifted, Serenity’s blade was caught and he was flung wildly away.

He frantically pulled the mana and Essence back inside himself before he damaged something or worse hurt someone.

He could see through Rissa’s eyes, but she was looking at the ceiling.

Serenity shifted back to his own shape. He didn’t have time to waste.