Cursed With You

The Wand of a Thousand Magic

Jacina led Raffin into a room with an iron door. It was neither large nor small and had no windows. Air holes lined the top of the walls, providing too little light to illuminate the entire room. Malyn and Jehann followed, each carrying a candle, and lit all the lanterns on the walls. When they were done, they stepped outside and closed the door. Illuminated by the lanterns, Raffin could now see what a mess the room was.

Large glass cabinets stood on two sides of the wall. They were filled with objects placed in irregular positions. There were four large tables with high legs scattered all over the room. Bundles of papers and dozens of books filled one table, stacked haphazardly. Various objects of various materials occupied the other three tables, just lying around. Wooden chests littered the floor, some closed, some open and filled with various items.

"Are these all magical items?" Raffin asked in amazement.

"Yes," Jacina said as she rummaged through a chest. "But most of them are harmless. Just items that contain simple magic. Like a pen that can write itself, a cup that never runs out of its contents, binoculars that can show you what will happen to you a day from now. Everything you can see contains such low-level magic. While the ones with medium and high-level magic, I have stored in these chests. So, start looking. The object we need is a wand with a blue crystal at the end."

Raffin opened the nearest chest. "Can you not search with your magic?"

"I can. But these magical items are very delicate. You don't want to know the effects of using magic in a room full of them."

The chest in front of Raffin had a pile of white fabric on it. "Where did you get so many magic items?" he asked as he removed the white fabrics one by one. "And what magic is in these fabrics?"

Jacina turned to him for a moment. "If I'm not mistaken, if we sew those fabrics into clothes, they can make us invulnerable. And it can change color to our liking. Where did I get all this? I confiscated it from the witch who taught me dark magic after I killed her."

Raffin was stunned. "You killed your own mentor?"

"I'm not willing to call her my mentor." Jacina moved to the other chest. "I only used her to help me master dark magic."

"Why do you want to master dark magic?" Raffin continued his search.

"To get revenge on Lucius."

"Your fiancé?"

Jacina snorted. "My father had no son, so he betrothed me to Lucius, hoping our kingdoms might become allies. But I refused him because I loved another man. Karl, a middle noble."

Jacina paused. She sat back on her heels, her eyes darting forward. "My father threatened to kill Karl if I didn't marry Lucius. So, he forced me to do his bidding. We became engaged, and the night before the wedding, I met with Karl one last time in secret. Lucius caught us. He seemed understanding and promised to call off the wedding. But the next day, he cursed me and killed Karl."

"Your inability to die is a curse from Prince Lucius?" Raffin guessed.

"I can die." Jacina snapped out of her reverie and continued to search the chest in front of her. "But not in a way you can imagine."

"In what way?"

"Why, so you can kill me after we remove the curse of eternal darkness?"

"I am not my ancestor," Raffin insisted. "I have no intention of killing you."

Raffin finished searching the first chest. He moved on to the next one. "So, what does that have to do with you killing the wizard who taught you dark magic?"