“You won’t be able to help him.” Olivia spoke up, as she slowly moved around the downed, still squirming, form of the Lycantroll. I had been staring at my Athame, still bloody, with Lenore’s sight, trying to understand the devilishly complex magic. It was only thanks to my growing expertise with the curses of Darkness-Magic and the intricacies of Blood Magic that allowed me to get the vaguest idea what it was. The Curse afflicting the Lycantroll was almost a living being, a magical parasite that had attached itself to the humanoid host, drawing Astral Power into the body, regardless of the host's condition, while fueling the regeneration I had witnessed earlier.

“What do you mean?” I asked in reply, honestly confused. Why would I want to help that creature, the only help I would ever provide it would be a release from the pain. Though, I would also be the one to inflict as much pain as I could before granting that release, so calling it a help was dubious at best.

“The Curse, I’ve heard tales about it, never in Aretia though. Someone called divine Retribution down on this poor soul, their jealous fury strong enough to draw the attention of Megaera. And this is the result.” she explained, leaving me almost as confused as before. While it was interesting that the curse was divine in origin, explaining why it was as complex as it was, her answers had only brought up more questions, without ever touching on what I wanted to know in the first place.

Without explaining further, Olivia finished her slow circle around the body, having set up four candles around it, in some sort of rectangle or cross, depending how you looked at it, before stepping back and starting to chant again. It was a surprisingly short chant, ending with a loudly spoken prayer, invoking Eleutheria.

“Gentle Lady Eleutheria, please grant this soul the mercy he needs and allow him to rest in your garden.” Olivia spoke, her eyes closed. Moments later, the small candles flared up, setting the body between them on fire with the same golden flames I had seen Olivia use before, burning without heat, but burning nonetheless. To me, still watching through Lenore’s sight, it was fascinating to watch as the golden flames burned away the Curse that had infused the whole being, leaving the flesh mostly untouched yet changed.

While part of me wanted to protest, to stop her from destroying a fascinating research-subject, I stopped myself. If the curse truly was divine in origin, I wouldn’t be able to replicate it, even if I used all the time I had left in the beta for that study. It just wasn’t worth alienating Olivia over information that I wouldn’t be able to pursue, turning it into a mere curiosity.

The golden flames burned quickly, leaving behind a mangled husk of a troll, the wolven features burned away. At the same time, a message in the log told me that we had received experience and that we had completed the quest. What made my eyes widen was just how much experience we had gained, almost double what I would have expected for a foe of that level, even if I included the bonus for defeating a foe beyond our level. It was, in fact, enough to boost me to level 104, while the fight and my, albeit brief, study of the Curse netted me two points in Blood Magic and a single point in Darkness-Magic, bringing them to seventy and sixty, respectively.

“I thought you didn’t have any offensive magical abilities?” I asked, mostly in jest, when Olivia let out a sigh, looking at the body.

“And I don’t. That ritual was only to grant him the release of death, nothing more, nothing less.” she shook her head, before softly muttering, “The poor soul.”

“Can you tell me what you know about that Curse and what happened here?” I asked, taking a short look at Adra and Rai, making sure that they had been healed up and resting for a bit. Even with our rest at the inn during the afternoon, the short fight had taken a lot out of us all.

We all retreated from the body, while Lenore left her Hallow, hopping over as she channelled Death-Magic to turn the corpse to dust. While I had the ability myself, I had used a great deal of magic and wasn’t feeling too hot from using Mind Magic against such a powerful target. The anticipation of discovery had driven my aches, both physical and mental, back, but now they had returned with a vengeance.

“Where to start?” Olivia muttered to herself, after we had settled down under a nearby tree. “What is Justice, what is Mercy? And what is retribution, what vengeance?” she began, not expecting an answer?

“We talked about something similar, shortly after we met. Why He is bound as he is, how such a punishment can fit any crime? What you saw tonight is similar, an emotion born from loss and the anger that stems from such loss. The loss of a loved one, the loss of love, those emotions hold power. And when that power manifests, it is a horrible thing.” she paused, her hand reaching into her bag and pulling out a flask I hadn’t seen before.

“What you saw tonight was pure vengeance, no mercy, no redemption, that curse was born in an act of hate. Sweet words, uttered from a forked tongue, they can cause a great deal of pain but the pain might return to the speaker threefold.” she continued, after taking a drink from the flask. I somewhat recognised the smell coming from the bottle, making a mental note to make sure she didn’t drink too much. Or, at the very least, didn’t try to drink and conjure.

“Can you explain clearly? Without the flowery language?” I asked, more interested in the facts than the poetry. Olivia let out a snort and took another sip from her flask, before continuing.

“Divine Magic isn’t like the forces you use. In theory, anyone can call upon the gods and, if your call is strong enough, your need and your emotions pure enough to reach them, one might answer and grant your wish. In this case, a woman, well most likely, scorned, called out for vengeance and Megaera answered the call.”

“On Aletome, we call those afflicted Savages, though some call them Lycanthropes or Werewolves. The curse strips them of their sapience and everything that made them into who they were. It turns them into monsters, beasts without reason or understanding, driven only by hunger, by a lust to kill and destroy.” Olivia’s voice trailed off, before she continued.

“There is no cure, at least not outside of myth and legend, the only mercy anyone can offer them is a quick death, and hope that they will find peace in the next life.” she sounded sad as she told us that, disappointed even.

I could only nod in response, not quite able to relate, neither to her, feeling pity for a monster, even one made by a curse. Maybe especially one made by a divine curse. If one wanted to trust in the Gods, you had to trust that their curses would only strike those who deserved them. Which, in turn, meant that some higher power had deemed that the troll, who was slowly fading into dust, had deserved that fate.

To me, it mattered little. Whether the troll had deserved to be turned into a monster or not, he had terrorized the valley and they had tasked us to end him. I would have liked to study the curse some more, though likely without success given its divine nature, but even what little I had seen was quite interesting, giving me things to think about for a few days of marching.

“Do you want to tell the Guild that someone created the monster?” I asked, before remembering that werewolves were supposed to spread their curse around, at least in the stories I knew.

“And does the curse spread, by saliva or blood or something?” I added, looking over to Sigmir, who had been the one taking the most hits. Luckily, there was nothing I could detect that hinted at the curse I had seen, and I knew I would keep a close eye on her.

“Again, only legends speak of the Curse spreading, and only under special circumstances.” she explained, studying each of us in turn, with her being the only one who hadn’t been attacked, before she continued to speak.

“To reply to your other question, yes, I think we should tell them. Not that we can tell them much, the way the curse changed his head, we can’t even describe how he looked. Maybe they can get an idea, maybe not, unless you have an idea how to track the caster?”

“Not really.” I admitted, considering the question. If it had been their Astral Power, I might have been able to get a taste, so to speak, and sniff them out that way. But even without Olivia burning away the curse and whatever power might have been used to create it in the first place, it was highly questionable if I would be able to get past the divine nature of the magic.

“Anyway, we should head back soon. I’m sure people will be excited to hear that the monster is dealt with. Or, now that one monster is dealt with, didn’t you say something about Manticores in the mountains ahead?” I asked, pushing the matter of the curse to the back of my mind.