I could feel the curse in Rhea’s shadow churning, ready to twist her next action to my will. Should I make her swear to never betray my trust, or even better, does she have a ritual to prevent her from talking about this?

  “Elias.” She took my hand in hers; I nearly recoiled from her touch. “I’m sorry… I didn’t want to upset you; I was just trying to help.”

  I didn’t know what to do, but I needed to know more. “Did you tell anybody else?” I asked her in a gravelly voice why my voice was like this.

  “No! Of course not! I-I wanted to see if I could do something for you… you did so much for everybody already; someone has to take care of you, no?”

  I don’t need anyone taking care of me; I just need to take back control. “I—”

  Before I could answer, she went on, faster and faster. “That’s why I came with you today; I wanted to talk about it, seeing if I could be of help. Please don’t get mad, Elias… I didn’t tell anyone, I swear! You helped me so much already! You took me with you even if I was useless and helped me with the first ritual. I got four achievements only for that, you know?! It would have been impossible without you! I thought I would never be able to follow you guys, but! But you told me that I could do it, that I could find a way to make it work! And it did! I didn’t have the courage to do it myself, but you inspired me! Let me help you; I want to be of help, please…”

  My heart was getting back to a somewhat normal state; I didn’t feel the beat in my ears anymore. I needed to get back my bearings. One thing was clear: you can’t fake this. It fits with everything I knew about her, and she should be a world-renowned actor to manage this performance, and for what purpose? To fuck with my head? No, she was really just trying to help, only because I gave her a few words of encouragement before and allowed her to come with the team… I can work with this, but there was no way in hell that I was leaving this to chance.

  “If you really want to help me, the best thing you can do is make sure no one ever learns about this. It is important, the most important thing to me. Can you do it?”

  Marionette of Regret.

  I activated the curse; I sent just a command: keep the secret at all cost.

  Rhea’s face remained worried and frantic. “Of course! I have the perfect thing. Why didn’t I think of it before? There is a ritual, a simple but powerful one.” She quickly removed her jacket, letting it fall on the ground. “Can I borrow your knife?” She asked, extending her hand towards me. I unsheathed it and lent it to her.

  As she was about to slice into her arm, I reached for her hand and made to take the knife away from her, but she moved away from me. “Rhea… stop. I don’t want you to go through with it; don’t hurt yourself. You know what? It’s fine; if it’s you, I know I can trust you… stop, please.”

  Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

  She looked at me smiling. “I know, but I don’t want it to be mistrust between us; it will be quick,” she gritted her teeth as she started cutting into her own hand. She was carving lines in her palm.

  “Stop!” I went again to stop her, taking her hand away and making to uncork the waterskin with the potion.

  “No! Please… let me do it… I’m nearly done.” She looked at me with tears in her eyes.

  “Why go to this length for me?” I asked her.

  She took a step back, continuing her carving. “Because you believed in me, and I don’t want to let you down, because… argh!” She cut a final line on her palm, then the lines she inscribed started glowing crimson; she looked at me.

  Then she slammed her bleeding palm onto her chest, over the sternum; the light intensified as she recited her vow. “I swear that any secret you entrust to me will remain mine, and mine alone. I will not reveal it to anyone, by word, writing, magic, or implication, unless you give me permission to do so.”

  She fell to her knees screaming as a smell of burnt flesh pervaded the area; the ritual she carved on her hand was getting burned into her skin.

  I rushed over and poured the potion onto her chest, then her hand, and I made her drink some more for good measure. She gripped me while shaking; she was trembling from the pain, and as she was crying in pain, her expression was one of contentment.

  “I did it… I really did it. I had no idea if I had the strength to do it, but I managed in the end, this –” She stopped to take another sip of potion while wincing. “This ritual will ensure that I can’t tell any of your secrets to anyone. You can trust me now, you can trust me completely…”

  Yes, this was exactly what I wanted. I’m sorry, Rhea; you are a fantastic girl. I didn’t want to make you do this, but I can’t let my weakness be exposed for any reason. “Rhea… why did you do it? I told you not to; I trust you even without an oath.” I said while showing a concerned expression, ‘I didn’t even need to fake it; she wasn’t looking that good.

  She smiled at me anyway and touched her chest; the burned mark was already fading thanks to the potion. As she lay in my arms, she said, “It was my choice, and I’m glad I went through with it, really.”

  This shouldn’t be the curse effect… right? If she regretted doing it, she wouldn’t say this. Maybe she would have kept my secret anyway, probably, but this is reassurance. Not only that, but now I can even tell her about it; maybe she can help me create situations in which I can work with my curse. I need to test this. But this is a boon, something that I wasn’t expecting at all, a blessing in disguise.

  I nodded at her. “How is the pain?”

  “Much better, it’s fading. This potion is fantastic; it didn’t even leave a scar.” She looked at herself; only a bloody smear was left, something she washed away with a bit of water.

  As we were sitting down, monsters approached. I killed them all without even moving; she was resting her head on my chest, leaning on me. Rhea was so warm… It had been a long time since I didn’t feel anything like this.

  “So?” she said while giggling. “Can I know now what it is that plagues you, or do I have to do something more?”

  I chortled, “You have done enough already…”

  I took a breath, then scanned my surroundings for some seconds. As best as I could tell, we were alone, but I kept my tone low and deployed two nearly invisible barriers, one on top of the other, then expanded the outer one by a centimetre. No air was present in between the two layers, so no sound could escape or come in. Suddenly the forest around us became silent; the only sounds were the ones of our breaths. It was an idea I had, but I’m glad it worked. “What did you do?” Rhea asked while turning her face up to look at me.

  “I made sure nobody could listen.”

  I took another breath; this was hard.

  “You are right; I am cursed. I’ve been cursed my whole life…”