Arin’s fingers were bleeding. She didn’t notice that she was picking at her skin until a droplet of blood streamed down her wrists and soiled her sleeve.

“Oh dear, Arin, what happened to your hands?” Dasinai asked as Arin held out her hands in front of her.

Arin had been thinking of all the years she had lived in that dismal place, under the impression it was the safest place for her to be, the only place for her to be. All wasted so that a stranger could become more powerful. She thought the enchantment was to protect her all those years, but it was actually to trap her. The thought of that caused her anxiety that she unleashed on her fingers.

“Give me your hands, dear,” Dasinai reached out with both arms extended. Arin was still tempted to pick her fingers until there was no more skin left to pick, but something about the mage in front of her made Arin want to do exactly as she said.

Dasinai held Arin’s hands and closed her eyes.

“My dear Arin, there are so many things I wish I could cure in your scarred soul, but my magic is not what it used to be.”

Within moments, two of Arin’s ten fingers were completely healed. No more tattered skin, no more bleeding, just a normal smooth finger.

Dasinai let out a deep breath and let go of Arin’s hands. “I’m sorry, dear. I can’t do anymore. I don’t have enough magic for it.”

Arin stared at her healed finger with wonder. Because of the years of anxiety in that building, it had been so long since she had a smooth skin around her fingers. She felt her newly-polished fingers and marvelled at the unfamiliar softness.

“Your fingers have been like that for so long, but Hyojung never offered to heal them for you, did she?” Dasinai asked.

Suddenly Arin had the urge to pick her fingers again, but Dasinai took her hands before she could.

“Hyojung is a powerful mage. She has a lot of magic, but she never uses it, because she’s saving it. You see, she had some unpleasant experiences with magic in her life, so she now seeks to put an end to it. To put an end to magic, she needs to have a lot of it. When she finishes collecting what she needs, she’ll be able to meditate into the world of spirits, then disconnect it from the material universe, basically severing the portal that connects us to the world of magic. This will obliterate magic for good, which will kill everyone with magic in their blood, including her. And me. And about a thousand others from around the world who still have magic in their blood...”

Arin had so many questions, questions that she couldn’t ask. Her inability to talk was becoming frustrating. She couldn’t even cry, because not a sound would rise up in . All she could do was stare at Dasinai with eyes filled with confusion and disbelief.

This Hyojung person didn’t sound like ~. Was ~ ever even real? ~ had taken care of her for years, been a friend, a sister, a guardian angel. It didn’t make any sense to her, and Arin wanted not to believe it. But whenever she looked into Dasinai’s eyes, she couldn’t disbelieve it.

So, ~ was basically collecting for a suicide mission that would kill a lot of people? How could someone so kind do something so… evil? It left her muddled and confused, and made her feel more sick and tired.

Jun suddenly walked in with a bag of burgers in one hand, and a pair of sunglasses in another. “I got the food!”

“Oh, goody!” Dasinai beamed. “Arin is starving…”

-

The food and the sunglasses made her feel so much better. The nauseating purple was filtered out, and her body finally felt alive again.

What was once anxiety turned into relief—she was glad she was out of that building, away from that woman. She was glad she was here, even if the walls were purple and the people were strangers. She was safe from her curse, and also free.

It made her think of Jeonghan, who was still unknowingly being held hostage in his own building. She wondered if he was okay.

“How are you feeling?” Dasinai asked when Arin was done. Jun was standing there at the side, restlessly pacing.

Arin gave her a thumbs up and a weak smile.

“I’m glad you’re feeling a little better,” Dasinai said, taking a seat beside her. “I have to ask you something. I apologize for springing this on you so quickly; I know you had a lot to take in, but we’re… desperate. And we need to move fast.”

Arin looked at Dasinai blankly, heart racing. She didn’t know what to expect, but it was clearly not going to be pleasant.

“We want you to work for us…” Dasinai said. “As an employee. You will get paid, of course, and we’ll give you free accommodation within MRS. But you might have to do something uncomfortable.”

“Just tell her,” Jun said impatiently.

“We want to use your curse,” Dasinai said to Arin. “We want to… well… activate it.”

Arin froze.

“No one will die, because you have no voice in here,” Dasinai promised. “But we want to push your curse to its furthest possible limits. We want to make you fall in love, Arin. And then collect the magic that it produces…”

Arin felt hollow. This was exactly what ~ had warned her would happen in MRS. Her first instinct was to refuse, so she shook her head.

“Someone is dying, Arin,” Jun cut in. “We need the magic to save his life.”

“Jun, that’s a lot of pressure on her,” Dasinai scolded. “If she’s not comfortable, then we shouldn’t do that to her.”

Jun didn’t respond, but he seemed tense, like he wasn’t happy with what the leader was saying. He just glared at Arin, in a way that far deviated from the friendly Jun that Arin had come to know.

“You see, Arin,” Dasinai began, “there’s this man named Sangbin, a part of our community here at MRS. He’s cursed to retch everything he consumes, so he was always hooked to these IVs. The IVs worked before, but now, his body is no longer accepting nutrition that way, so he’s dying. He needs to be uncursed as soon as possible so that he can eat and live, but we don’t have enough magic to perform this reversal.”

Jun lowered his head.

“Your curse, Arin, is very powerful,” Dasinai continued. “And very loaded. If we activate it, we’ll get so much magic out of it, and we’ll use that to save him.”

“Please, Arin,” Jun said. “Please. I know it will be uncomfortable, and I know you have a lot of anxiety about it, but we need this. Please, he’s like a father to me.”

Arin reached for the pen and notepad she had used earlier and wrote, “can you guarantee that no one will die in front of me?”

“We can guarantee that no one will die,” Dasinai said with confidence. “But we cannot guarantee that you won’t get hurt. We’ll be toying around with love, Arin. That’s a very dangerous thing to play with.”

Arin gulped. She felt the severity of those words in bones, and it sent shivers down her spine. She didn’t want to put her heart at stake.

But, at the same time, she finally had a choice in the matter. In the past four years, all the important decisions were made for her, but now, she was in control of her own destiny. She wanted to make the right choice this time.

She picked up the pen again, and wrote her answer: “I’ll do it.”

For too long, her curse had caused only death and despair. Now was her chance at redemption: her chance to use that wretched curse, not to end a life, but to save it.

A/N: and I continue my streak of weekly updates :D