Lucius: Ah, good, yes yes, you've woken up, very good very good.
Aoibheann: Ah!! I mean, I was just napping but... How... How long was I out...?
Lucius: Before or after the implant?
Aoibheann: ... I'll assume that means a while. So, uh, where's everybody else? I only see Eclair.
Lucius: You ARE everybody else, my dear. You two are the only ones who have occupied this space for the past few weeks.
Aoibheann: ... Come again? Did you forget about my sisters? Are they not here?
Lucius: I'm afraid not...
Aoibheann: ... Haha, I can't believe you forgot them on the Sand Continent! Hah! Niamh and Siobhan are probably--
Lucius: --dead. They're probably dead.
Aoibheann: !! That's... That's not a funny joke, Luci! Did Master Skullcrusher put you up to this?
Lucius: Whot whot! Miss Sentine has nothing to do with this news, you witnessed your sisters' deaths as they happened! Caoimhe, Aibhilin, Siobhan, Dearbhail, Niamh, they’ve all died! You are the only one left, Aoife!
Lex@Guncotton: Guncotton, was it? Fighting these witches is an admirable thing, and I could see how one would want to join the cause against them. But what exactly made you want to become a hunter? Where I'm from, hunters don't usually have family to leave behind, since the job is so dangerous. Doesn't that worry you?
Guncotton: Hm. I suppose the short story would be that I met Lucius, the Noctowl downstairs, and we ended up owing eachother favors…
It was about… Fifteen years ago? Gosh. Me and Hetty had just gotten married, I was working the farm, and we were trying for a child. It was a really small village, we didn’t even have currency… We just traded items and goods for services. I was often asked for manual labor, or I had to pay with the vegetables I had grown. We had a really nice life, except for the child part. After a while of trying, we weren’t having much success, and we learned that Hetty here was… Uh…
Henrietta: It was a little barren in there!
Guncotton: Right, that’s a good word. Barren… We had gone to the village mystic, and she said she could help us. Basically, we didn’t really have anyone educated enough to be a proper doctor, so we had mystics. They were like apothecaries, I suppose.
The mystic gave Hetty these… These… Truffles? Bonbons…? They looked like chocolate, but… The smell was very off. It was bitter smelling, almost acrid.
Henrietta: Ugh! I still remember the taste! It was like sour wine mixed with hot garbage!
Guncotton: Really now? When have you eaten hot garbage?
Henrietta: Whenever Sentine cooks.
Guncotton: …Anyway, jokes aside, the mystic had said if Hetty ate one a day she would have the strength to bear a child. Kinda like how nowadays they have those prenatal vitamins, you take them one a day before, during, and after the pregnancy to ensure your child is at the peak of their potential health. And–
Henrietta:– Lucius showed up. He said there was a Witch in town.
Guncotton: … Yes. Lucius came to our small village. I remember it being very odd because outsiders were very rare. He was sent to locate a Witch and went around asking locals if anyone had tried any, uh, voodoo magic recently. So when I told him about the mystic’s chocolates, he showed me a profile…
It matched everything about her. Even the sketch they had resembled her so perfectly. It was… Really frightening. Our mystic had been in our village since I was a child helping everyone. To learn that she was actually hurting everyone was… It was a shock. I still remember the disbelief and heartbreak I felt.
I went to a local pub to meet with her that night. I… I wanted to learn for myself if things were real. She had told me the extent of her powers… And how every cure and blessing she had ever given was actually… A bit of a monkey’s paw situation. What they wanted came true, but… At a cost.
Hetty would have been able to give birth, but it would have either killed her or the baby. I asked her if there was a way to reverse it, but… I… I lost my temper, things… Escalated…
Henrietta: Lucius took the mystic into custody after that night. He intended to purify her, and said he had a way to fix my curse, albeit over a long course of time… I was more than willing, if it meant I could have a healthy baby and live to see it grow up. Reggie actually let them take me away, and probably… Mmh, two days?
Guncotton: I-I thought it was at least a week!
Henrietta: Hee hee! You’re right! It was probably around five days or so later before he came running, begging to be enrolled. He just hated not knowing what was happening to me everyday!
And, thankfully, Panne is mostly healthy! Besides the curse, I mean, but… We recently found out she can’t hear, so we’re going to have to learn how to use sign language one of these days! I’m a little sad I won’t be able to sing lullabies to her, but I can still hopefully do that with Eclair!
Lucius: Dragon Slayer Aoibheann. She woke up and seems to be adapting to her new life very well. With a few weeks of Arte therapy, I project she will be back to her former self in a matter of a few months.
Voren: That’s a relief... That means only Eclair is left. I hope she doesn’t get lost fighting her way back to our realm.
