"Excuse me ma'am, what's today's date?"

"It's the 2nd of Tulipia, sir."

"What!?" Eon was astonished. "Pansia is already gone?"

"Well, we were roaming in a forest for more than a week. Of course we'd lose all sense of time. None of us were keeping track afterall." Myera replied, staring outside through the window. The attendant chuckled a bit and went on her way.

Almost a month had passed since the dragon attack in Grimoria. A part of Eon wanted to revisit the city to check its recovery progress since the destruction. But he certainly didn't have enough time. Razor told Eon to set out for the second jewel without him, and Eon realized as well that a trip to Rubiona and back would take a while.

***

"On the route there I'll look for a Mana Jewel as well!" Razor said.

"How would you carry the signature without the sphere?" Eon asked.

"Well..." Razor fidgeted for a bit. "I'll figure something out!" He grinned.

***

"What are you thinking about?" Myera's question snapped Eon back to the present.

"N-nothing." Eon fumbled a little.

"Come on! You were grinning the whole time!" The elf girl poked Eon's cheek. "Is it a girl? Are you excited that you'll finally meet her again?"

Eon couldn't just tell her that he was just being amused by Razor's stupid optimism and straightforwardness. That was kind of embarrassing.

Eon's life-savers came in the form of an elf couple in their mid 20's. They entered the same train compartment as the two.

"Is the seat taken?" The elf man asked.

"No, please make yourself comfortable." Eon replied.

"We would get off at the next station. So please don't mind us." The woman smiled.

"It's completely fine. Don't worry about it at all." Myera replied.

"I'm Rando Passeir." The elf man introduced himself. "From the town of Silverbone."

"I'm his spouse, Andom Passeir."

"I'm Eon Bells, from Aeria."

"I'm Myera Goldleaf from Grandor."

"Goldleaf?" The elf couple shared a glance with a slightly worried look on their face.

"By Goldleaf do you mean.."

"The cursed blood, yes." Myera completed Andom's sentence, the smile on her face evaporated.

"Ah.. okay." Andom replied. A few moments of silence descended on the small cabinet. "So, are you a student?" She asked again.

It wouldn't take a genius to figure out that the woman was trying to change the subject to make the environment less awkward.

'Think about stuff like that before opening your mouth.' Eon thought. 'Or maybe the woman intentionally did that.'

The conversation went for a bit more before the elves notified their stop had arrived.

"We'd be taking our leave here." Rando got up from his seat.

"Take care you two! It's dangerous to travel around like that in such an young age, you know?" Andom followed him outside the cabinet.

The room was once again silent.

"So.." Eon spoke up first.

"Curious about what 'cursed blood' thing they were talking about?" Myera gave a knowing smile.

"N-not really.."

"It's kind of cute when you try to lie." Myera's smile widened. "Let me tell you a story."

"Long ago a famous elf knight, Sir Goldleaf served the Cyanfrost Royal Family. The king was a powerful archwizard and a great alchemist, but he was not suited to be a ruler. He used to indulge himself into expensive bio-alchemical research and often used his own citizens as lab rats. His research not only was illegal and immoral, but was expensive as well. In a short time the royal treasury was empty and he kept increasing taxes on his people.

Sir Goldleaf couldn't bear the sight of this burning kingdom, and did what no knight would ever dream of, betrayed his master.

Sir Goldleaf rode his trusty drake across the continent of Cognor in search of a royal family who could put a stop to Cyanfrost's tyranny. In that journey he met the Bloodwing family, and led them to Grandor. And thus he put an end to Cyanfrost's reign of terror.

Facing defeat, bitter Cyanfrost cursed the proud Knight for the betrayal. The curse robbed Sir Goldleaf of his magical powers, and his bloodline met the same fate."

"Since then the Goldleaf family led a magicless life." Myera ended the story. "Our family members show signs of great magical affinity at birth. But as they grow up, they slowly lose this power. That's why it's a taboo to learn any spells in our family. To lose your eyesight slowly is more painful than not ever having it, right?"

The story Myera spoke of was a well known historical event. Eon studied this in his classes, about how the elf knight Sir Goldleaf betrayed king Cyanfrost and established Bloodwing's reign, who ruled Grandor till this day. Eon was surprised to learn Myera's ancestry was linked to that royal knight.

Some historians saw this whole event as an example of the hidden racial politics, and often theorized that Sir Goldleaf backstabbed Cyanfrost, who was a human ruler, to establish Elf Supremacy in Primora, as Bloodwings were Elf rulers. But Eon knew it wasn't the right time to bring that up.

Eon stayed silent for a while. "Did I ever tell you I never believed in curses?" He finally spoke.

"You think I'm lying?"

"No." Eon answered. "But I refuse to believe in the existence of self sustaining binding spells that last for centuries or millennia even. There must be another way to explain this phenomenon."

"Sometimes it's hard to accept the truth. But sooner or later you have to learn to cope with the cruel reality." Myera's eyes were fixated outside as she peered through the window. "The faster you accept it is the better.."

The train progressed steadily through the dense forest as the sky slowly got darker.