For about two weeks the group of wolfkin children lived in the old lady's mansion while learning some of the simpler basics like how to wear clothes or use tableware. Every other day they were brought to the river near his master's house for studies and experiment. Marik couldn't actually see their souls like the two Mystic Masters could but he could see things from a more visual perspective and vaguely understand the things they talked about in their observations. Marik came up with some of his own theories and ideas through it all that he thought might be able to not only help in his arcane arts but with a few other ideas he now had as well.

This was supposed to be the last day that they would use to study the children before letting them loose in the world. The two Mystic Masters had wanted to end it the day before yesterday but Marik had said there was one last experiment that they should conduct. His master had seemed intrigued that Marik would come up with something else and decided to give it a try. The portal opened near the river where they were waiting and Marik turned to his master.

"Master. Before they come out, could you go get that jar of cheap anti-curse as well as a little bit of your stash of holy water? We'll probably only need a drop from the holy water since it's just to see the difference."

"What? Why didn't I think about that? Good job, boy. I'll return shortly."

As his master jogged back off to the house real quick the group of children began to arrive led by Matilda, the bearkin maid, and followed by the old foxkin woman. Matilda gave a small but graceful curtsy and went back through the portal before it closed. Marik looked at the old woman as a few ideas began to take form.

"Hey, do you think Sai could learn from Matilda? Not how to be a maid, of course. I meant in like her movements and stuff. She seems so graceful and I bet she knows how to dance. I think Sai would enjoy it, especially if you said I recommended it. If you do want someone to learn to be a maid, though, there might be a candidate right here. It's not like they have anywhere to go or any skills to offer anyone, after all."

"I'll think about it," was all the old lady said in reply.

"Well okay then. So, Sara? By now you all hopefully realize how different everything is from the cursed villages, at least a little. Those marks you wear are actually curse marks, which I'm also sure you figured out even if you don't want to believe it. Today we're going to remove them."

"Wait, what? No! These are our ancestral markings! It's proof of our proud history!"

"No, it's proof of previous slavery. Those marks were made by ancient slavers and our ancestors were runaway slaves. Our REAL ancestors aren't even from this land and live far away. If you don't want to remove them then you can always go back home to the cursed villages. Out here in the rest of the world, though, those marks will only make you weaker and eventually get you killed or worse. They are slowly destroying your soul. What you know as exile is actually curing the curse and making you healthy. The rest of you guys have a chance to live long healthy lives while becoming strong as long as you're willing to forget what you know from the villages already. Sara, this is the only real chance you get to join that."

Everyone was silent after that. When his master came back there were some gasps at the sight of the fluid they all recognized and feared.

"Time to make your choice, sister. Be cleaned of your curse and continue to grow or keep the curse over mistaken pride. Everyone around you has already had this done to them, you know?"

"Fine," she breathed out sadly after looking around briefly.

Taking the cue, his master walked up to her and looked at her closely. He took a small glass stick out of the smaller vial he held and started to move it towards Sara's face.

"Open your mouth, girl. I'm going to give you a single drop of this first. Don't swallow it."

Sara did as she was told with a slightly puzzled look and his master let a single drop fall from the glass stick into her mouth. The old foxkin started scooting closer as she observed something only Mystic Masters could see. Marik also watched closely and waited. Everyone stood still and waited as they watched Sara, who seemed very uncomfortable with all the attention, closely. Starting from the top, the curse lines started to fade slightly and become slightly see-through. As the marks faded out they started to change color as well, going from their usual dark red to a kind of shiny shifting set of rainbows. It was actually kind of pretty.

Finally satisfied that nothing more would happen, his master then took some of the cheaper version and dipped his finger into it before starting to trace it along the marks on Sara's shoulders. It almost looked like a pencil eraser going across her skin and erasing the lines. After doing that to both shoulders, he stopped and watched her again. The marks didn't reappear even after a few minutes.

"Hmm. Interesting. The holy water seems to have weakened it enough that just lightly using this to supplement it can now erase the curse. It won't be a permanent thing like the rest, though. The curse could likely be reapplied when using this method, whereas the method the others have gone through makes them permanently resistant to curses. This is quite a breakthrough! You've done well to think of this, boy! This cheap stuff may actually have a new use. Even if regular holy water were easier to procure it would not be able to get tattooed on in a permanent manner like this could. Quite the discovery."

Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.

Both Marik and the old woman nodded along with his words, each interested in their own way. Marik reached out and touched one of the rainbow line on his sister's arm out of curiosity. He saw the colors shift rapidly just before and around the area where his finger touched and became intrigued. He called for his master's attention and began tracing a line down her arm, then back up again. Then he placed his whole hand on her arm as if he were trying to lightly grab her before stroking her arm once again. The rainbow colors practically danced inside the lines as his hand passed over them. Deciding to take it a step further and see if where the cleansing ink had been tattooed into him would do anything when directly touched to the faded curse, he moved to stand shoulder to shoulder with her and started rubbing his arm around on hers.

After he stepped away everyone looked at her arm intensely and saw the marks so faded that hey were barely visible. After a few moments the marks started returning back to the rainbow lines they had been before that. The interesting part about it, though, was how they returned by looking like some kind of rainbow liquid was flowing from the rest of the attached lines back into them. That meant that the curse was acting like a river or stream and his rubbing had only moved the curse out of the stream. Or something. Maybe.

"Very interesting," came the old woman's whisper.

Marik stepped back a bit and looked at the rest of the children.

"Hey. One of you guys come over here and do the same thing. Let's make sure this isn't something coming from my...uh...uniqueness."

Finally, the only other girl of the group stepped forward and repeated all of Marik's actions as closely as she could. The results were almost identical. Satisfied by the experiments done and with no further ideas Marik stepped off a ways and went to where he was sure they would all, including his sister, be able to watch while the curse mark removal was continued.

"That's all I can think of to try right now. I'll let you play around with removing the rest, Master. For all you guys, it's time to listen. You guys know nothing of the world. You've been taught lies and trained mostly wrong your whole lives until now. No, don't talk yet. There's too much outside of the little pocket of the world you've been hidden in for too long. Out here in the rest of the world none of you would be considered even eligible to be called good hunters or fighters much less great. Craftsmen and artists are actually considered the better things to be. Trying to rise up by defeating or killing the ones at the top will make not just hundreds but thousands of people try to hunt you down and kill you. There are a lot of options for your futures but to even understand what those options could be you need some kind of education. You're all about ten years late in learning how the world works and you only have maybe five years now to relearn and decide your futures. The deal that allowed you to have what you needed is ending today. There's nobody in this world who will freely give you anything and everything you need and want and none of you have anything to give that will let them think you're worth it. Except your own futures."

At this point Marik decided he needed to provide a demonstration to help them understand what he wanted to say next. He pointed at a small stick slightly in front of all of them to draw their attention to that area and used his arcanistry to explode the stick while they were watching.

"There are more forces out there that none of you have any idea about. For those who want to be great fighters or hunters still, there might be a way. For those who want to have this kind of power to do things you didn't know were possible, there might be a way. For those who just want to live quietly and peacefully doing something simple and repetitive until they die, there might be a way. Those ways will require a sacrifice, though. You would have to give up some of your futures. You would basically be allowing someone else to get to decide what you do with the training you get. If you decide to become a great fighter then in the future someone would be able to make you fight who they want even if it's someone you don't want to fight. Your only two remaining options aren't much better. You can be let loose to try and make your own decisions and survive. Those who do that will likely die or wish they had. Or you can be dropped off into a place with other children, where you will likely become even more isolated than you've ever been and barely have any chance at living a happy life in the future. You need to decide by the end of the day, whatever you decide."

----------------------------------------

"They aren't quite as useless as you made them sound," said the old foxkin with a scowl on her face.

"I know. They know almost nothing and have been taught too many things that will only bring them harm out in the world, though. If they have those few things that they know are right then they'll cling to them and refuse everything else. That could end up being even worse. After they start learning how the world actually is, maybe they'll realize that now everything they ever knew before now was wrong. They need a chance to break out of their old, prideful, stubborn ways and learn first."

"This is a huge headache you've thrown to me, boy. You know that, right?"

"Hey, look at it this way. I've handed you a future force of loyal servants to be taught in the ways you need or want."

"Not many people could still be considered a good person after selling off their own sister like that..."

"I never claimed to be a good person. That said, I would probably be a worse person if I just let my sister try and navigate the world and survive in her naivete. Convincing her and her friends to take the chance for a better life even if it did come with a slightly awkward payment that really isn't as bad as it sounds is still me being and okay person, I think."

"I sometimes worry for your future self, boy."

"I do, too. Now. Since they're gone and you still have a few moments: could that kind of curse be fixed with soul sorcery? Also, what is that? It wasn't magic as far as I could tell and it wasn't sorcery either."

"Shouldn't your master be the one to ask these things, boy?"

"Yes. And I shall. You're better with soul sorcery, though. So?"

"Fine. No. I doubt my soul sorcery could do something quite that extensive. Curses are closer to alchemy, you see. They have some relation to mystical arts but operate differently and don't require using one's own soul. Now, if that's all then I need to go get ready to deal with the massive chore you and your master decided to hand off to me."

The old foxkin woman turned and went through the still open portal that the other children had used to return a while ago. Marik smiled as the portal closed. He was actually kind of starting to like her. He definitely already felt he could trust her. He turned around to head home while looking at the early evening sky overhead. He wanted to try having a discussion with his master about curses but his master was probably going to be busy scribbling all over his parchment for a few days. As Marik approached the house he considered the old woman's words and thought to look around to try and find any books his master might have about either alchemy or curses.