“I have a lot to say! A lot, yes!” he cried. “I am sorry! Do not end me!”

“Just answer my questions and I won’t,” Emika sighed, and took a step back. Maybe a little bit of room would loosen his tongue.

He looked up to her, then gazed to his right and to his left, undoubtedly gauging his chances of escape. Eventually though, to Emika’s pleasant surprise, he did not in fact even attempt to dart. She didn’t trust her reflexes not to immediately grab after him if he had.

“Your questions,” he said, nodding to the point of hurling sand all over. “Very well. Yes. I will answer them all. A-huh. Just keep them coming!”

Emika noticed his desperate attempts to steer away from revealing who ordered him to tail her, so she decided to let that one go. “Okay,” she said slowly, “So, first of all… what the hell are you?”

He eyed Emika for a few moments, trying to collect his thoughts, until he eventually said: “W-what am I? What a question. I am human. I have a family!”

Emika raised her eyebrows, and in that same moment, that person seemed to realise that mentioning his family might have been a terrible idea. Nevertheless, he continued after a small pause: “In fact, maybe this is all a big misunderstanding, you know? Maybe it wasn’t you whose house I was supposed to break into at all. Now that I look at you more closely… nope, must have gotten the wrong gal. Definitely, yes. I just — you know, my client asked me to follow someone — anyone who had recently maybe had contact with a deadly curse.

Then I saw you, in the woods, burning a strange botanic structure with parts of flesh inside it — which, mind you, probably wasn’t real flesh at all, I must have mistaken it, — and then I thought to myself, hey, hey, this might be the person my client referred to — but I don’t want to jump to conclusions, naturally, maybe it’s not you after all, and in that case, well, then I’d be heartbroken to have invaded your privacy and would love to get out of your life immediately. And forever. Deal?”

“No deal,” said Emika. “So you're telling me that this is a deadly curse? I’m going to die?”

“What?” he stammered. “N-no way! No way. I wouldn’t want to be the bearer of such bad news! In fact, most likely, you’re still going to survive for months!”

“Thanks,” said Emika dryly. “That’s what I want to hear… Anyway… just… tell me how I get rid of this curse, and I’ll let you go.”

“Getting rid of it. Getting rid of it…” He started mumbling and acting as if he was racking his brain, grazing his fingers through his beard.

“Yes. Getting rid of it,” repeated Emika.

“Well, about that…”

It was clear that his fear of death kept him from saying anything further. He just stared at her, stammering. Emika was fine with it, though. More than fine. In fact, it was right now that she learnt how much she loved to inspire dread.

“Yes?” she reiterated.

His jaw got stuck in a trembling motion for a second, until he finally let out his next waterfall of words. “I… I would hardly call myself an expert on curses. I know nothing about them. At all.” He looked like he was lost in thought for just one second, then continued: “Oh, in fact, I do have some pointers for you, when I think about it like that. I am a private magical investigator, you see, and a different case of mine right now, given to me by our Cursebreaker, is to study the whereabouts and activities of the local Revenant. And I only took your case in the first place because your curse is all planty and such, with all the leaves and wood, so it’s similar to a Revenant; right in my alley of expertise, one might say, so yes, if you find out about that Revenant, then maybe that could help you.”

This was almost too much for Emika to keep up with so suddenly, but there was one immediate bit that stood out to her.

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A Cursebreaker… That’s right. Mina had mentioned something like that. Emika had no knowledge of where or how to find him, so she hadn’t bothered thinking much about that, but if that old guy seemed to know him, maybe that was another avenue to find clues. Or maybe even help?

“So, about this Cursebreaker you mentioned…”

“Oh… right…” the man replied slowly. “I guess the name might suggest that that’s exactly the person you should go to right now, huh… Well, he is a little busy at the moment, and in fact, if you and I knew each other a little better, like, if we were friends, I’d advise you against going to him.”

“Why?”

He gulped and his lower lip started shaking, just before it puffed into dust. Finally, he said: “Well… that’s because Cursebreakers side with humans. They help humans.”

Emika was puzzled. “Isn’t that good? I am human.”

He made a short pause and then asked, with a very low voice, almost in a whisper, “But… Can you prove that to him somehow…? Do you have, like… A document showing that?”

“What?” Emika exasperated. What kind of silly question was that? Obviously, she was human.

“I’m not doubting you!” he immediately added. “I’m just saying that he might. So far, you have killed — of course, tragically, accidentally, in a bad turn of fate, I want to add — but, tragically, killed several people. And you are slowly, quite obviously, turning into something that looks entirely non-human. Let me tell you, as someone who himself is not particularly close to a human exterior —” as he said that, he gestured all over himself, “— if you go to that Cursebreaker, your fate will be completely up to his whims… And while he might decide to see you as human, he also very well might not.” After a short pause, with a strange gravity to his voice that was almost void of fear, he added: “I suggest you live out your days in your home, not harming anyone else, and you might get a while of peace before leaving this world.”

Emika had a tough time processing the information she had just received. On one hand, it did seem like this old person in front of her was actually trying to give her honest advice. On the other hand, she had no good reason to believe him, and moreover, she just didn’t like the content of his words at all. Was her situation truly so messed up that even people well-versed in magic wouldn’t be able to help her?

Though, now that she thought about it, and how her last few days had gone, maybe that shouldn’t be that much of a surprise after all.

“… I see. Anyway…” At this point, her brain was grasping at straws. “Uhm, that Revenant you mentioned, and that case you are on to find it… Please tell me everything about that, then.”

If worse came to worst, Emika could just investigate the thing herself. If the Cursebreaker was not an option, then finding out about something that was apparently similar to her might give her a clue.

“Y-yes. If you kindly gave me your email address, I would send you all the info first thing after I get home…”

“Oh, really. Is that how it is? Very interesting.” She nodded slowly. “So, how do I know you’re not lying through your teeth?”

For a moment he seemed shocked at the suggestion, but then, after rummaging through his coat, produced an expensive smartphone, tapped on it a few times and showed Emika a screen with a table full of data.

With a fast and sudden grab, she snatched the phone from his hands to take a closer look. “Do you have some other info about magical stuff on here, too?”

“Y-yes?”

“Okay, thank you very much. I will go through this myself.” She put the phone into her pocket. She had scouted the pin to unlock it from him right as he had put it in just now.

He stood there in silence, stunned, before asking: “… Are you robbing me?”

“Yes,” said Emika.

“… Okay.” His mouth opened three more times, as if he was going to protest, but in the end, didn’t dare to.

“By the way, just out of curiosity. How old are you?”

He looked at her, confused at the question. “I… I am 37.”

Emika pulled her eyebrows together and started thinking. “Okay, but like, how old is that? In human years?”

A second passed of him looking very puzzled, then she continued: “… Ah, never mind. You did say you were human. Makes sense now, thanks. I just wanted to know whether I was actually robbing an old man, just for my conscience. Not that I would need to worry about my conscience after the things you’ve done… You can come visit to retrieve your phone in a week or two. Oh, and just so we're clear: If you follow me ever again, or rat me out to anyone at all, very bad things will happen to you. Understood?”

He gulped, and with that, his Adam’s apple crumbled to dust. After coughing for a moment, he said: “… Understood. Your precious secrets are safe with me.”

Emika smiled. “You’re not so bad, huh? I might have taxed you a tad too much. Please get home safely.”

He didn’t wait to hear that twice, immediately got up, bowed to her, and ran off.

Sitting alone in her office, Emika took a look at his phone, like it was a prized possession — the reward of her hard work.

I wonder what I’ll find on here.

She definitely couldn’t wait. It was time to check it out.