Curselock

Chapter 41: Cabin in the Woods

The Huntress sat with her elbows on a table and slowly thumped herself in the forehead. How did it come to this, she wondered, eyeing her most recent capture.

More specifically, she wondered just how dumb three boys could be. Did not one of them have any sense? Why was the smart one so blind? Why was the big one so juvenile? Why was the quiet one so… so…

“Ugh,” she spit.

What did I expect? she asked herself. Three children, babies as far as this world was concerned, going off and playing hero.

The thought made her sick. Heroes weren’t simply born, they were forged after countless battles and hundreds of world shattering tribulations. Which… Now that she thought about it, was exactly what the boys were going through right now.

Maybe she was the dumb one for involving herself?

A groan from across the room kicked the Huntress from her musing. She stood, took a quick peek out of the blinds, and meandered over. She was not looking forward to the next couple of days, but this had to be done. Otherwise her project would end abruptly and she’d have to write a few letters.

“Bah,” she muttered.

Her capture reacted to the sound, abruptly sitting upright.

A splitting pain rushed through Glenny’s head. He quickly shut his eyes, finding solace in the darkness. “I think I’m concussed,” he blurted.

“I did hit you in the head pretty hard…” the Huntress said. “Maybe it’s because of that.”

“You think?”

“Yes.”

“Oh…”

The Huntress suddenly had the urge to hit the quiet one again. Why are they all so stupid! she screamed in her head.

“So, uh, who are you?” he asked.

She blinked at him. “Look at me.”

Glenny slowly creaked his eyes open, finding a woman standing with the posture of a soldier. Her raven hair was tightly wrapped into a bun, a color mimicked through her wear. Light armor, all black, the kind used for discrete night operations or crazy spouses stalking their ex. Glenny sided with the former.

His head felt like jelly again, so he gently closed his eyes and leaned back. He wasn’t stupid, he recognized her right away, but she didn’t know that. Years of training and lectures came back to him in that moment, all taught by his parents.

“Was I supposed to recognize you?” he asked.

With his eyes closed, Glenny couldn’t see the exacerbation on the Huntress’ face. He could, however, hear the leather of her gloves creak and whine as she clenched her fists. Suddenly something hard hit him in the chest and fell against the firm bed where he sat.

“Drink it,” he heard.

And he did, not before inspecting the liquid with sight, taste, and smell. “Three senses are nearly impossible to fool, always go for three. More if you can,” he repeated in his head, his mother’s words. Warmth bubbled in Glenny’s stomach and suddenly the rawness of his head waned.

“Expensive healing potion,” he said.

“You owe me seventy gold.”

“No I don’t. You hit me, remember? Or do you have a concussion as well?” This time Glenny did see the frustration on his captor’s face.

“I hate children,” the Huntress muttered. “This is why I never married.”

“Never married? Because you didn’t want children? What? That doesn’t make any sense.”

She rolled her eyes, sitting down at a dusty table. It was then Glenny took a full inventory of the room.

Old, rotting, dozens of cobwebs, probably hundreds of spiders. He shivered. Boarded windows, massive lock on the door…

“Looking for an exit, eh?” the Huntress asked. “Sorry, but I didn’t leave any.”

Glenny responded fast. “That’s dumb.”

“W-what?”

“I mean, wouldn’t having at least one escape route be wise? Multiple is better, actually. What happens if someone breaks in and tries to kill you?”

The Huntress closed her eyes and took a breath. “First of all, if someone broke in, I’d simply kill them. No questions, no second chances. Secondly, I do have escape routes, you are just too inexperienced to see them – not to mention, too weak to utilize them.”

Glenny crossed his arms. “I don’t believe you. My mother used to lie to me to get me to listen to her all the time when I was a kid. She eventually had to start explaining why instead of telling me ‘no.’”

She sighed. “If I tell you, would you shut up for one minute?”

Glenny shrugged.

“Oh goody,” the Huntress mocked. “You can be quiet. And I pegged you as the quiet one. That wall, I’d just break it down if someone broke in and killing them right away wasn’t an option.”

Glenny followed her finger, finding a wall. From a cursory glance, the wall looked exactly as a wall – no weak spots or large cracks. He sighed, knowing the coveted Huntress would be powerful enough to simply break through a wall at will.

For an entire minute, the Huntress fell into her own thoughts.

“Annnd, sixty. Okay, one minute is up, why am I here?”

She rubbed her eyes. “Look, kid. I’m not going to hurt you but I’m also not going to let you go. So, can we stop this whole innocence act? It's unbecoming of you, I know what you are really like, and this is not it.”

Glenny’s face quivered. “Fine, why have you brought me here? Also, how long have you been watching us.”

“To save your life and since you three came out of that dungeon.”

“Understandable.”

“Incredibly so.”

“Why though?”

The Huntress scratched her head. “Frankly because Leland interested me. Then I realized you three were really just kids. But by then you three identified the Sightless Cult, and since I was the closest Inquisitor, I had to stay.”

Glenny raised an eyebrow. “And what have you found? Know where their hideout is or what their plans are?”

She snorted. “Their ‘plans’ are always the same. The resurrection of the Sightless King. And no, I haven’t investigated them at all.”

“What?! Why not? We could have already eradicated them from Shoutwell by now!” Glenny’s yell made him cringe in pain.

“Seems like that health potion didn’t fix everything,” the Huntress laughed. “And yes, you are correct. But there is something far more interesting in this town than the Sightless. A cultist is a silver a dozen. One of their leaders, a gold. A Bishop or High Priest, those are closer to ten gold a dozen. But it’s not every day I find something truly unique. Your mother would be proud.”

Glenny cracked open an eye and glared. “You know nothing of my mother.”

She shrugged. “Wrong, but that’s not important. And before you go get a big head, I wasn’t referring to just you. All three of you are special in your own right.”

Seeing Glenny’s unimpressed face, she continued. “Let's start with Leland. Son of two of the greatest mages this century has to offer, not to mention his obscure or unique Legacy. The kid’s already powerful enough to, nearly, single handedly take out a mutated Mana Lion. Do you have any fathomable idea how long a dungeon boss monster takes to mutate?”

Glenny shrugged. “A few years?”

“Try decades,” the Huntress laughed. “And when someone finally does kill it, it’s a snot-nosed baby only a week after his Dream Ceremony? That’s unheard of.”

“We helped…”

“Then we have Jude. A kid so loyal to his friends, at the first sign of one of them getting hurt he falls into a true berserker rage? It usually takes years for Berserker Legacies to have issues with rage. How long ago was Jude’s Dream Ceremony? I counted a half dozen months.”

Glenny pushed back his red hair. “W-what can I say? Jude’s a good friend.”

She scoffed. “Try an amazing friend.”

Glenny didn’t answer.

“Then we have you, a Legacy of the Chameleon, son of a world renowned Legacy of the Chameleon. A rare, and often made fun of, Legacy, but it can work. I know, I’ve seen it.”

“My mother,” Glenny stated.

“Indeed,” the Huntress nodded. “And do you know how your mother rose to the level of power she was? I can tell you it wasn’t because she mastered the dagger or that weird tongue ability.”

“Because she was adaptable.”

“Yes in words, wrong in execution. Tell me, why do you think you needed saving? You not asking right after you woke up tells me you already know.”

Glenny shivered and momentarily fell into himself. He could still hear it, the whispering. The Sightless King hung just outside his vision, watching, waiting, and thriving.

“Because…” he spoke. “It’s still in me.”

“Exactly,” the Huntress leveled herself with Glenny, staring into his eyes. Faintly, wisps of red appeared in his irises. “Now why didn’t the sigil disappear after Leland vanquished it? Well, it did. But not before your Legacy adapted to it. The Sightless King is now apart of you, whether you like it or not.”

“I don’t understand. My mother never—”

“Had the chance to explain your shared Legacy. I suspect your father holds her instruction, but you and Jude are more similar than simply being annoying children. You both discovered something that you shouldn’t have. Not this young, at least.”

“S-so I need to talk to my father? Have him tell me how to adapt?” Glenny asked.

“Sure, if you don’t mind dying in the meantime. Or, at least, go mad.”

“Then… you?”

The Huntress rolled her eyes. “I wouldn’t have saved you if not.” She tossed him a dark cloak. “Now, put that on and let’s get moving.”

Glenny eyed the parasitic cloak that the Mana Lion-toad dropped upon its death. “How did you—”

“You’d be stupid not to bind it to yourself. That is the kind of item people kill for. Selling it would be a shame.”

Doing as instructed, Glenny donned the starry speckled piece of fabric. It laced just under his chin, the collar scratching against his neck. He grimaced but then felt the cloak’s power wash over him. He felt… odd? Like his senses had all suddenly waned and reformed.

“Good,” the Huntress said. “It’s not cursed.”

“Cursed parasite items are a thing?!”

She shrugged. “Most are. People usually just put up with the curse because the boon is too good to pass up. Or, because they can’t remove it. Those curses really suck. Now come on, we’re late.”

A moment later they were out the boarded door and Glenny had to hide his shock. They were in the mountains, the snowy peaks seemingly at arm’s reach. Then the cold hit him.

“Adapt or die,” the Huntress said. “Only during the night are you allowed to enter the cabin and the heating runes.”

Glenny suddenly felt small. “Um, Miss Huntress? How am I suppose—”

“Firstly, call me Isobel. Secondly,” she gestured to the wilderness. “Adapt to the cold. Adapt to the lack of food. Adapt to the monsters that prowl the area. Good luck.”

Suddenly, she exploded into a hail of sparks, disappearing from the very place she stood.

Glenny shivered.