The Un-doer’s Curse

Aze sat motionless and crumpled in the centre of a lone bed. His teeth were grit, his elbows and knees clashed, and his palms lay stretched and pressed over his eyes, pushing so hard, colours sprang like sparkles in the darkness of his mind.

“He was cursed,” said the healer, “perhaps in his sleep… It must be the workings of an Un-doer.”

“But what can be done?” his mother’s pleas tore at his heartstrings.

“We’re doing whatever we can. Though the spell, or rather, the entanglement of spells is unfamiliar to us.”

Together, their voices spread harm worse than toxins through veins; this nurse spoke of unknown curses, but the true one was cast by her words.

His limbs fell limp, and any remaining senses were dimmed.

What purpose, he wondered, lay in coming days equipped to a bandage blocking his life from his mind? He found no answer. And as they poked and prodded his temples, and as healing arte heats blanketed his face, his hours filled a week, only so they could verify the futility of it all.

All that bred from their help was a masquerade’s mask clinging to the bridge of his nose, harnessing whatever vile powers rotted his sight.

Fingers brushed off his shoulders with the hollow echo of condolences. A door closed.

Then the Zing of a violin came to life, playing the melody to an old inside joke and queuing the arrival of an equally old friend.

Aze moved a fleeting smile in her general direction. “What brings you here?”

Star’s tune stopped. “’Was wondering why I hadn’t seen you around. Then heard you were cursed... Now that I’m here I still don’t understand.”

“What can I hope to do in an unseeable world?”

Star’s voice relocated, “Don’t off your future because some lady in a uniform gave you bad news.”

“You can only say such things standing on your side of the mask.” Aze struck a nerve; he felt Star’s magic surge before the brittle-

Thwack.

Star had flicked her instrument. The strings twanged. A pulse of her power zipped forward and split the mask clean off Aze’s face. He clung to it, “what are you doing?”

“Making you live your life. Judge for yourself what you’re capable of, unmasked.”

The temptation outweighed the fear; his eyelashes rustled, then gradually pulled apart. The weeklong blackness made a violent change, but before he could asses it, the healer had re-entered the room. Aze’s eyes drew to hers.

Under a heavy purple hue, with black bubbles dotting the view, he saw her. More than saw her, he peered into her, catching speckles of corruption concealed just around the corner.

Tilting his head slightly, he uncovered it. The healer fell to her knees looking defeated, and whispered word-for-word what Aze read inside; “I’m not fit to heal. I can’t do this.”

Aze backed away. In abrupt understanding, he realized he unwound her will the same way the Un-doer did his.

~~~

Song: Unravel by Jonathan young (originally sung by Toru Kitajima - AKA TK). In this version of the song, if you treat the song like a story, it’s about a person who is lost and alone seeking answers. The person is broken and suffering and hiding their true self in a world that doesn’t make sense to them. The character/singer/narrator-person describes how they’re broken and turning into a monster and how they’re scared their own corruption will hurt those that go near. They think by 'Unravelling' they won’t harm people. The original song has a slightly different story, but they both more-or-less cover the same themes. Also the lyrics are super mega powerful...just saying.