"The curse of the what?" Barney felt a bit blank. Aren't Wrens birds?
"Yes! The curse of the Wrens! I'm not sure when it is, but when I was young, my Father told me about it. In our village, some members went into a series of hysteria. The tribe leader thought they were possessed, so he burned them," Lumi recounted, " but when he did that, vultures started flocking the village."
"That sounds like typical tribes: burn things," Barney concluded.
"Don't be so sure. Tribes don't come to the conclusion of burning people unless their shaman tells them that they should burn people. If they showed signs of being possessed, the last resort would be burning them alive," Matthos retorted," Didn't they do some kind of blessing, Lumi?"
Lumi's forehead wrinkled as she racked her memory, "Now that I think about it, yes, they did. I don't think it worked, though. It only enhanced their delirium."
Barney felt stupid with them standing, so he said, "I think we should sit down for this one. It'll be a long discussion. Also, Lumi—do you like coffee?"
"Oh yes! I love coffee! Do you still brew it with sand?"
The two shared a look that basically said, 'Oh Dear.'
***
Lumi wasn't that fazed with the instant coffee Barney prepared. It was a simple cup of coffee with sugar and creamer. She took one sip, made a face, and pushed it away politely. He appreciated her consideration of his feelings. He didn't say anything about class. It was instant coffee. It was made for convenience and not known for its classic taste.
Luckily, Matthos was there to rescue the situation with his caramel macchiato. One whiff and Lumi was hooked. She took a cautious sip, and when the taste registered, she greedily held the cup and smiled at him. It was a sign of approval, which Barney accepted grudgingly.
"She took it because it was sweet, not for the bittersweet taste," he whispered to Matthos, but she heard it. She glared at him, and the room felt cold as her gaze sharpened like the blade of a newly honed blade.
"Your 'coffee' is similar to sewer water, contaminated by rat piss and heaven knows what," and that was enough to warn them both not to cross her in the future. She had a way with words.
"Understood," Barney gulped his coffee in silence while Matthos just watched, entertained at the rare times when his friend was defeated.
"Anyways," Matthos started, "what kind of blessing did they do, Lumi? Was it a Christian one or another religion?"
"Christian?" Lumi asked
"If it was a tribe, they probably weren't colonized until the late 1500s to 1700s, dude," Barney clarified, "They're still a tribe, so it was probably untouched. The blessing was probably another deity…"
The two brainstormed separately while Lumi drank caramel macchiato. She watched them take weird-shaped things and white paper with lines, writing down in weird letters. It wasn't like how she wrote generally.
'Do I have to learn how to write like that?' It'll be a headache, she thought to herself.
"... We need to think of it this way," Barney said out loud, "The keyword 'Wren' means sadness in some languages. Filipino, for one."
"Let's see, maybe the blessings worked and cleansed them, but the spirits were incessant," Matthos commented.
"That or there was something in the ritual that created a magnetic system that contracted different types of spirits that caused different types of hysteria," Barney responded.
"Lumi, did something happen after the curse of the Wrens?" Matthos's grey eyes were looking at the paper, but his attention was all hers. When he took her in, all he knew and felt was similar to that of his grandfather's. Like the journals he read, it looks like it's his turn.
'So this is what it feels like,' he smiled inwardly, 'it doesn't feel foreign.'
"Yes, a lot of things happened. Spirits were active, and they talked to me a lot. I think they will show themselves again. When the tribe burned the people, the vultures came, and the singing only loudened," she narrated, "more people cried, begging someone to make it stop. They said that they couldn't understand what they were saying. I still don't understand what it means to this day."
"What do you mean you don't understand what it means to this day?" Barney repeated, dreading the answer. Matthos did not expect that the answer would open a can of worms.
"The curse was never lifted, Barney. It never stopped"