Terry hated not being able to figure out what people were saying.

Granted, she had herself to thank for it. Karanthian had been an elective she could've chosen at the Institute. Had she taken that chance, she wouldn't be feeling so lost now, keeping an eye on the Karanthians and the words they seemed to be saying to Audren.

Gemella's father had allowed them to enter and had quickly shut the door behind them. Then, he'd motioned for Audren to follow and the lord had helped him drag one of the wooden tables in the common room to the inn's entrance to block it off. Gemella had danced around them full of excitement, a waterfall of indecipherable words spilling out of her mouth as she did so. Terry figured she was sharing her day's adventures with her father; she thought she could identify the words 'magic', 'Cursed', 'skeleton'.

But that was mere guesswork.

Forcing herself to be as unbothered by not being able to understand as possible, the mage made use of being neglected for the moment and studied her surroundings. As was typical of urban inns, the building wasn't large, but she deemed it cozy enough. Inns could be unhygienic and uncomfortable, with loud-mouthed and suspicious guests and food that upset your stomach. This inn, however, had a vibe she'd call pleasant.

The end of society had rendered the room a tad chaotic: Terry could see multiple chairs had been taken apart, their wood used to board up windows, and the tables stood scattered haphazardly about the room. An abundance of candles brought light to the shadowy space, illuminating the cold stone floor and the wooden stairs leading up. She noticed an old man seated on the other side of the room, dark eyes observing the visitors as he absent-mindedly played with his moustache. Judging from the cards laid out on the table in front of him, the arrival of Gemella and her guests had interrupted his card game with the girl's father.

Terry had no mind to approach him and figure out if he spoke Avondorian or not. Instead, she found herself a table in the corner of the room and took a seat. Now that she was no longer raising the dead, running for her life or arguing about the decisions she'd made, it dawned on her how tired she was. Black spots danced before her eyes, an ache pounded in the back of her head. She was convinced that if she tried to get up now, she'd succumb to dizziness and fall to the floor.

She needed rest, that was all. A moment to sit and come to her senses, a moment to try and feel human again. She'd experienced death four times and she hadn't even had lunch yet.

Some time to relax and not do anything, if only for a little while.

She couldn't tell how many minutes had passed when Audren and Gemella's father joined her at her table. The girl herself had rushed towards the old man, engaged him in his card game. Terry supposed her father had told her to win for him. She studied the man, the serious expression on his face. It appeared he'd agreed to talk to the strangers who'd entered his inn. Good, Terry supposed, for a chat with him could be useful. The selfish part of her, however, would have preferred slowly drifting off into sleep.

"My interactions with my guests have taught me your language," the innkeeper said, Karanthian accent showing. "Or at least, enough to make myself understandable. My name is Denys Farano. I'd like to know who you are."

"Audren of House Menez, Lord of the Mountains." Audren spoke without hesitation, words almost monotonous. Must've been his standard introduction.

"Terreia Kalister," Terry introduced herself, mostly because she couldn't get away with not doing so. "Mage."

Denys Farano nodded solemnly, taking in this information. He turned his attention to Audren. "Before I let you in, you claimed you want to break the curse."

The lord confirmed this. "I did. The Cursed haven't reached our home in the mountains yet, but they're approaching fast. It's my duty to protect my people, and… the only way to guarantee their safety is taking the threat away permanently. Breaking the curse is the best way to do so."

"Nobody has succeeded in doing it yet." Denys crossed his arms on the table. "Do you have a plan? Anything at all that indicates you might be able to pull it off?"

"Well…" Audren seemed to hesitate briefly, as if he feared the innkeeper would throw them out into the streets again if he deemed their plan idiotic. "We suspect a talented mage called Rosangelo Credi is behind this. He lives and works in Santon, where the Cursed first appeared, and he has the talent for it. Or had, because we're not sure if he's still alive. We've heard rumours that Santonshire's countess might still be out there, though, and Credi worked for her. If we can find her, we might learn more about him and the curse, which could help us find a way to break it."

Denys Farano thought this over for a long time, fingers tapping a slow rhythm on his arm as he gazed into the distance. His silence stretched on and on, growing heavier with each passing second. On the other side of the common room, the old man chuckled at something Gemella had said or done. Terry decided she'd much rather have been playing card games right now. Or even better: she could've just stayed at home and in bed until the Cursed came. Would have been less tiring, less painful.

"Even if that rumour is true and you find the countess," Denys Farano slowly concluded, "she might not be able to tell you anything useful. And if she does and you learn more about the curse, you still need to find a way to actually break it. Don't you think all of it is easier said than done?"

"Depends on how you look at it," Terry interjected. Curses were magic, which she, out of everyone at their table, knew the most about. Tired or not, she wouldn't keep her mouth shut on that subject. "I never specialised in curses, but they did teach me the basics at the Institute. There's one golden rule to keep in mind when it comes to making or breaking a curse. The best curses tend to have painfully simple solutions. The drawback is that those solutions often have or can have undesirable consequences, so they usually don't occur to people. Credi must've known that, Mr. Farano. It gives us something to go on."

The innkeeper sighed, serious expression softening somewhat. "Forgive me for my scepticism," he confessed. "I came to Avondor two years ago with my daughter, to build a new life. We fled from Karanthion, because the civil war… Well… Let's say we've seen things no human being should have to see in their lifetime. If you'd have been there, I don't think you'd have retained your own belief in saviors or simple solutions."

Terry hadn't set foot in Karanthion since the war broke out, but she'd heard enough stories about it to have a general idea of the horrors. Massacres, starvation, disappearances and deaths, so many deaths. She'd even heard human experimentation took place, though it was hard to separate fact from fiction when it came to that. But even with semi-reliable knowledge of what went on in Karanthion, she couldn't begin to imagine what these refugees might have experienced. She'd have to raise Karanthian corpses to figure that out. Not on her to-do list.

"But I'm not here to criticise whatever you'll end up doing," Denys went on. "That's your own choice. My responsibility lies with making sure my daughter and surviving guests don't fall prey to the Cursed or starve to death. I'd just like to know why you wanted to talk to me, as you said you did. I've never heard of this Credi, don't care about the countess, and I've never been blessed with curse-breaking talent."

He lied, Terry noticed, lied through his teeth about not knowing what they could want from him. His tone was slightly less steady than before and his eyes briefly flicked in the direction of his daughter, playing cards on the other side of the room. One of his hands had curled into a fist, knuckles turning white; a conscious move or not? Terry didn't doubt Denys Farano would attack anyone who meant his child harm, vicious as if he were one of the Cursed.

She didn't know if Audren saw it too, but hoped he'd tread carefully when he spoke.

"Your daughter… She told us the Cursed don't hurt her, Mr. Farano," the lord explained. Terry saw not a trace of hostility on his face, nor did she hear it in his words. "I noticed it while we were on our way here. They don't pay attention to Gemella at all. We don't want anything with her, on my word as Lord of the Mountains. But if you know anything, anything at all, about the reason why she's immune, we'd appreciate it if you told us. If we want to break the curse, we could use that information."

Fortunately, Denys Farano did not attack, did not start yelling and didn't step out of line in any other way. Audren had stated his intentions clearly; perhaps the man would be reasonable. He contemplated a little longer, Terry and Audren waiting for his reply. Then, he made his decision.

"If you wanted to hurt Gem, you could simply have taken her before coming here. I'll trust you, and I'll tell you about my theory. I wonder… Have you noticed how the Cursed don't seem to be targeting every living creature in the city?"

Was that so? Terry couldn't say she'd been very aware of it. Her time in the Free City had been spent either dealing with the Cursed or running from them. There hadn't been time to take a break and examine the local rat population like it was nobody's business.

But she supposed there had been that dog.

"There was a stray dog in the alley when we waited for you to open the door," she answered. "I didn't think much of it, but… Are you implying that animals get ignored by the Cursed as well?"

Denys nodded in confirmation. "I don't go out if I can avoid it, but Gem does. She says she sees stray cats and dogs often, but never any undead ones. Gem… She isn't fully human. Her mother, my late wife, was a nymph."

Terry connected the dots, beginning to understand where the innkeeper was going with this. "You think the curse is affecting humanity specifically. That the Cursed leave your daughter alone because of her nymph heritage."

"That is exactly what I'm thinking."

That, she concluded, was a sensible theory, and a useful one as well. If what Denys Farano claimed was the truth, the information provided insight into Credi's motives. Terry couldn't imagine he'd forgotten to make sure the curse could affect anyone, not just humans; if he'd gone as far as writing a necromancy-repellant into his spell, he wouldn't have made such a rookie mistake. It had to have been a deliberate choice, which showed what Rosangelo Credi could've had a problem with.

Humanity.

"I'd say that's a good theory," Terry told Denys. She looked at Audren. "What do you think, Lord Audren?"

A frown lay on the nobleman's face. He stared down at his hands on the table, gaze glassy as if lost in thought. At first Terry thought he hadn't heard her speak, though that changed when he did look up at her. He shook himself out of his stupor and she saw an inkling of an epiphany in his eyes.

"Nymph," Audren muttered breathlessly. "Countess Limnaia… I've met her before. One time was at a banquet here in the Free City, hosted by the mayor. Zavian… He had his eyes on her. Said he'd heard the reason for her beauty was nymph heritage." He paused, allowing his words to sink in. "If the countess is part-nymph, that means the Cursed may not be after her. It lends credibility to the theory that she's still alive."

He was right. Good news. It became much more likely someone had actually spotted her and spread the word if she, like Gemella, could move unbothered by the Cursed. Though Terry had never been interested in aristocratic gossip, she also didn't find it hard to believe the countess had nymph blood. Santon wasn't far from Nymphenwald, where a relatively large part of Avondor's nymph population lived. While the nymphs tended to keept their distance from humans, out of indifference, dislike or fear, Terry knew there were exceptions to the rule. Denys Farano himself had married a nymph.

"Do you think it could pay off to look for her in Nymphenwald?" the mage thought out loud. "With her people turned into monsters and human civilisation in shambles, I can imagine she may have gone on to live among the nymphs if they're her kin. Even if she didn't stay there, it's possible she passed through, isn't it?"

Audren nodded, a small smile breaking out on his face. "Maybe Solmar did answer my prayer. I asked for help and found Gemella. Maybe her being in the right place at the right time was a sign. His way to point us in Nymphenwald's direction."

Or we're thinking about this logically and that's all, Terry thought to herself, preferring to put her faith in their capabilities instead of in the goodwill of the gods. But Audren seemed pleased, grateful for what he perceived to be divine favour, and she wouldn't burst his bubble now.

"It'll be dangerous to travel there," Denys said, looking from Audren to Terry and back again. "It's not too far, but there'll be no shortage of Cursed. Although…" his voice trailed off as he considered something. "…There may be something we can do to make your journey easier."

"Well, we won't say no to easier," Audren replied. "What do you have in mind?"

Denys Farano stood up. "It's simply an idea. Not a particularly pleasant one."

Terry felt his gaze rest on her, stared him in the eyes, refusing to look away.

"I'm afraid I'll need to ask for your help, necromancer."