We were proceeding at a good pace. Rhea never complained about the monsters or the terrain or the speed, nothing. She just tried different kinds of rituals when she decided to face a monster; usually, though, I would kill them myself, especially the spiders. But she managed to kill some while preparing her invisible rituals far away and then baiting them into it. It didn’t always work; in a couple of cases the monsters moved to the sides, circumventing her preparations and rendering them pretty much useless. But her rituals were incredibly versatile; she could trap, burn, explode, freeze, melt, and create a tonne of other effects, but usually she had to layer many rituals together to manage to take down an enemy. Her class was made for preparation, not for direct conflict, but she was managing anyway, more or less.

  “You know, you should get at least one attack skill for the times that your preparations don’t work.” I told her just to break the tension that had formed between us after that first spider she killed.

  Rhea sighed loudly, “I know… but I feel like that if I go down that route, I’m not a ritualist anymore, just another mage who will use rituals. I don’t know if you get me.”

  I thought for a moment before answering. I think I understand what she meant; if I didn’t buy the skills for attacking my enemies, I would only have my manipulation and sense skills, then the curses, then hexes. My fighting style would be really different compared to now; I would have to play support instead of fighting directly, or would I? Was she onto something in the idea of not “dirtying” your class with external skills? Not that I regret buying them, but it was a thought worth considering.

  “I understand what you mean, but at the same time skills outside of your class can be extremely useful; they can round out your ‘build’, make you more versatile and a myriad of other things. Is it really better to limit yourself like this? Especially given that we are constantly fighting.”

  She regarded me for a moment. “Your point of view is valid, but wouldn’t you find an alternative if you didn’t have any offensive skills? And it will be something that will synergise the best with your skills, making you better at using them and improving your understanding of your class capabilities. And who knows if we can learn an unlimited number of skills? We were talking with Quinn yesterday, and he was nearly certain that there would be a cap, a limit. If I can learn a specific amount of skills, I don’t want to dilute my focus.” She said, while nodding to herself, “I don’t plan on fighting forever after all.”

  That I hadn’t thought about. What if there were a limit? I chose good skills for the points they cost, and they helped me all the time to defeat my enemies. But what if I had just… let’s say… five more to learn? What should I focus on? Apart from being strong enough to fight, what other things could I learn to do? Learning rituals seemed really good; the versatility alone was worth it, even if I was sure that Rhea had achievements and other skills that supported them, so I would never be as good as her, but the appeal existed. How many other interesting possibilities were in the shop that I never even considered because of the price?

  This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

  “You are doing it again…”

  I refocused my attention on her. “What do you mean?”

  “You start to analyse any angle and try to find a solution and get lost in your thoughts.” I looked at her; she was walking besides me while looking straight ahead.

  “I’m keeping track of my surroundings, don’t worry; I won’t get caught unprepared.”

  She shook her head. “I’m not worried about that; it’s just that you didn’t answer back,” she finished with a smile.

  Why is she paying this much attention to me? “You are right; I was rude to not answer you. Anyway, I don’t think that I could do half of what I did until now without the skills I bought; I had zero offensive or defensive skills, so I’m fine with my choice, but if there really is a limit and we don’t know for certain, well… I’m sure I’ll have to think about the future more carefully, but that can come later. For now we have other priorities.” Like getting my hands on that damned crown.

  “You mean surviving… or your curse?”

  I froze; a cold sensation flowed like ice through me. I could feel my aura becoming unstable, wanting to lash out; the magic was already on my fingertip, ready to be cast. The curse in her shadow was primed and ready to be deployed, she wasn’t strong in a direct confrontation, could it be that she prepared the terrain beforehand? Was I in the area of a ritual I couldn’t feel? No… it didn’t make sense. I chose the path coming here; should I lie? Negate everything? Useless, my reaction gave me away already; my mind was firing at all cylinders, trying to come up with something. What should I do? I could see Rhea turning around in slow motion; my superior stats gave me more time to think.

  If she knew, did she tell others? What if she were testing me? If something happened to her, the others would know it was me. Was I willing to kill to keep my secret safe?

  She finished turning towards me, and despite everything, I didn’t have an answer, but I had questions.

  “What… do you mean by that?” My voice was hoarse; my throat was suddenly parched. Not even the first time I went in front of a judge did I feel this much tension, not when I faced my father, not even when I saw the first gorg eating a dead kid.

  Rhea stared at me with a kind of worried look, full of pity. “I don’t know what troubles you so much, but I swear that I won’t say anything to anyone… It’s just what seems to be the most probable thing.”

  The most probable thing? Could I trust her? Didn’t she say anything, not even a word to anyone else?

  She looked me in the eyes. “I got my suspects since the first day; nobody ever came across cursed items or potions, you know? Only you… I thought that maybe you were similar to me; maybe you had a secret passion for occult things, curses in your case, but it wasn’t it. You went for a mage class, and then you started to use the curses from the items you bought somehow. I thought that was that, nothing too special about it; maybe it was just a quirk, or a chance, that you went for cursed stuff.”

  She took a breath, still looking at me in the eyes; her bright green eyes were making my heart beat like a drum.

  “Then the root-tree thing called you ‘cursed one’, something strange, don’t you think? But you cursed its puppets before, so maybe it was about that… then again, when Mary got possessed by that mask, she said it again. “Cursed One”.

  I knew I wasn’t as secretive as I should have, but getting exposed because two monsters called me like that… “You are cursed for some reason; I don’t know what it is, but… I know what it means to be alone with something eating at you from the inside. I went most of my life wearing the same expression I see on your face every day. So, if you need help, if you want to talk about it… anything, I’m here.”

  What? What should I do? Can I trust her?

  Maybe… I can make her… trustable.

  Marionette of Regret.