The Cursekeeper

Hot Potato

As Arthur sat there, listening to Rose's point of view of how things happened, he felt awful.  More awful than he'd ever felt in his life.  And he had so many questions about what had happened to everyone.

"Can you tell me about what happened to...Magento?  Is that why the kid's got a stutter?"

Rose nodded as she took a drink from her cup.  "Yes," she said calmly.  Babd's special tea had a great way of keeping one calm without causing drowsiness..as long as bourbon was added.  Something that had taken the old bat years to master given the toxic environment that Lilly's mind had grown.  "They were twins."

"What happened, exactly?" Arthur asked quietly.

He felt he shouldn't pry.  Not for Rose's sake, but more for his own.  The tale of Lilly's imprisonment was more than his heart could bear.

Rose's had seemed...not any less tragic, but it still seemed gentle, in a way.  But one thing he gathered that all the prisons had in common?

There's was always some sort of harvest.

O'Callaghan was harvested for drugs, Lilly's mind was mined for gems, and Rose's, he assumed, was for food, considering it was a farm.

"Do you find it a coincidence that all three of ya had to give something up?" He asked.  "Like in your prison, for example...what kind of stuff were you guys growin'?"

Rose blinked.  "Mostly the kind of food that is used that make alcohol.  But I dunna think that the only things they were actually harvestin'."

"What else were they harvestin'?" Arthur asked.

"Me nightmares," Rose again spoke calmly, and with a collected poise that Arthur had never seen in any of Lilly's aspects.  She took another sip.  "Our theory is that Mallacht is using the negative qualities of our powers tah his advantage.  It's why nothin'...good grows here and why there are so many terrible monsters.  Especially at night.  Luckily, we're now protected from all that as long as we stay in this section of Lilly's mind."

"I see.  Makes sense," Arthur replied, looking at Babd.  "What's in the tea?  I definitely taste the bourbon but alcohol ain't never calmed Lilly down like this."

"Not so much a sedative, but a calming agent.  Originally, I was trying to perfect a type of medicine to calm Lilly's nightmares, but I was never quite able to perfect it.  Until I landed myself in here," Babd replied glumly.  "Most of the supplies I had with me had gotten damaged, poisoned or became completely useless when Rose gobbled me up along with practically half of Dublin.  That was one of the many things I, unfortunately, did not forsee."

Rose cleared her throat.  "Normally, I would have slapped ya across yer bloody face fer mentionin' that, but considerin' most of those victims are well on their way tah escapin' this feckin' hellhole, I no longer feel as bad.  I found me redemption a long time ago."

Babd giggled and Arthur had to beam at Rose with pride in his eyes.  She'd certainly come a long way.  "All things considered, mo stór, ya did pretty damn good.  I can't believe how...different y'all got."

Arthur heard a door slam shut and he looked behind himself to see Lilly walking to the kitchen, a glare on her face as she rinsed what he assumed was the blood of her children off her hands in the kitchen sink.  Arthur knew, however, that was just how her face was now.  Lilly paused when she saw Arthur looking at her.

"...Mr. Morgan," she said raspily.

"Lillian," Arthur said softly.

He didn't even know what to say.  He wasn't even mad at her.  He was definitely mad at the situation, but he couldn't bring himself to be mad at her.