Reincarnated as a Healer : Why are my powers so filthy?
Chapter 46: A new curse

Chapter 46: A new curse

Leon felt it immediately—a spark in his core, his fire magic flickering erratically, as if the curse was pulling at him.

Terya took a half-step back, her green eyes narrowing.

"That’s a curse," she said, her voice low, her usual tease gone.

"Not a fresh one," Saria muttered, her hand on her sword hilt, her dark eyes studying the woman.

"But a live one."

The woman looked up, her blue eyes sharp, piercing, locking onto Leon’s with a desperate intensity.

"You," she rasped, her voice cracked with exhaustion, her breath ragged. "Are you the one they call... the summoned healer?"

Leon hesitated, his throat tight, the weight of her gaze heavy.

"Yes," he said, his voice steady despite the buzz of his fading magic.

She exhaled, a shaky breath, her body trembling as she gripped the gate tighter.

"Good," she said.

And then she collapsed.

_________

The chapel’s interior was dim, lit only by a few wall sconces and the moonlight spilling through the stained glass above, casting fractured colors across the stone floor.

The celebration outside had dimmed to murmurs and song, the lute’s strains faint, but here, the air was cold and still, heavy with the weight of a new threat.

The woman lay across a cot, her body limp but radiating heat, her muscular frame tense under dried blood and the faint glow of curse marks.

Even unconscious, she looked dangerous—like a blade forged in fire, cracked but not yet broken, her silver hair matted, her cracked leathers barely holding together.

Leon knelt beside her, wiping sweat from her brow with a damp cloth, his hands steady despite the faint buzz of his magic, still low from the night’s revelry.

Her eyes flickered open, then again—blue, icy, sharp, cutting through the haze of pain.

"Where...?" she rasped, her voice rough, her hand twitching toward the massive axe propped against the cot.

Leon leaned in, his voice gentle but firm.

"You’re safe. You collapsed at the gates."

She winced, groaning, her calloused hand gripping the cot’s edge as she pushed herself up on one elbow, her muscles straining.

"My name’s Zara," she said, her voice hoarse but clear.

She coughed, spitting a bit of blood into a cloth Saria handed her, then spoke again, each word slow.

"Mercenary. Contract out of Southreach. I took a job in the cursed lands... Vyrneth."

Her words came haltingly, but she refused to stop, her blue eyes burning with resolve.

"I fought the Crimson Veil... thought it was just demonspawn. But... it wasn’t. Not normal. Not natural. Something there was alive. Watching. A relic... I touched it. Something latched on. The mark."

She gestured to her thigh, where red glyphs—spirals and jagged lines—pulsed faintly, crawling up her hip like living coals beneath her skin.

"Haven’t slept in four days. Pain’s like being flayed from the inside. Couldn’t eat. Couldn’t stop walking." Her voice cracked, the strength beneath it buckling, just a little.

"Heard there was a summoned healer in Eldwood... who broke curses."

She looked directly at Leon, her gaze piercing. "That you?"

He nodded, his throat tight, the weight of her desperation settling on him.

"Yeah," he said, his voice steady despite the flicker of his magic.

"You came to the right place," Terya said quietly, her hand brushing Leon’s arm, her green eyes soft but wary, her usual tease muted by the curse’s presence.

Zara’s voice dropped, her jaw clenching.

"Then help me." She gritted her teeth, her blue eyes rimmed with red. "If you can’t—I’m dead. And I’m not ready to die."

Saria stepped forward, holding a crystal vial shimmering with soft blue light.

"Holy water," she said, her voice calm, authoritative, her black hair tied back, her linen wrap replaced with patched armor. "Drawn from the chapel’s basin. Sanctified this morning."

Zara eyed the vial like it might burn, her muscular frame tensing. "Will it kill me?"

"Only if you’re lying," Saria said, her dark eyes unyielding but steady.

Zara snorted, a faint smirk breaking through her pain, and took the vial, her hand trembling as she drank.

The effect was instant—her skin lost its feverish flush, the curse marks’ glow dimming, the spirals retreating slightly.

She exhaled, a deep, shuddering breath, her body relaxing.

"Better," she whispered. "Still hurts. But better."

Leon watched the glyphs shift, still active, still pulsing faintly.

He placed a hand on her thigh, over the curse mark, feeling a surge of heat—dark, throbbing, wrong.

His fire magic flickered erratically, responding to the curse’s energy.

"The relic bound something to you," he murmured, his voice low, focused as information flowed into him which he shouldn’t have known. "This isn’t just a mark—it’s a channel."

"It wants me dead," Zara said, her blue eyes fixed on the ceiling. "But slow. It... talks. Sometimes. In my dreams."

"What kind of relic?" Saria asked, her hand resting on her sword hilt, her tone sharp.

"A mirror. Framed in bone. Deep in Vyrneth. Blood-red sky. Trees like glass. The deeper I went, the more wrong it felt. But the pay—was too good." Zara’s voice faltered, her hand clenching the cot.

"It’s still there. Waiting. I don’t know if I brought something back with me or... if I left something behind."

Terya stayed close, her teasing gone, replaced by a softer concern.

She leaned near Leon’s shoulder, her touch light, her voice playful but quiet. "You’ve got a type, don’t you? Tall, deadly, and probably cursed."

Leon shot her a dry look, his grin faint but steady. "Not my fault they keep finding me."

Tila knelt at the cot’s end, her fingers picking nervously at her tunic’s hem, her brown eyes wide with worry.

"She’s burning up again," she murmured, her voice soft, her shy demeanor returning after the night’s boldness.

"It’s trying to resurface," Leon said, his hand still on Zara’s thigh, the curse’s heat pulsing against his palm. "The water’s holding it back, not breaking it."

Zara looked at him, her breath heavy, her blue eyes rimmed with red, desperate but unyielding. "Can you do it?" she asked, her voice raw.

"Break this thing?"