"Kindly keep your opinions to yourself. You're getting paid to cure him."
The man called out from behind them. Mia straightened. Her mouth curled into a smile that Callum knew too well. It was the same smile she wears whenever she dismisses what he has to say or call him an idiot with so many creative words. That's another thing he hated about his guardian.
The hypocrisy and smart-ass comments.
"No offense and it's very clear that poor Mr.Geralds is suffering so much but it is relevant. All enchantments are different. We don't like to assume. Sometimes … that makes it worse."
It was true. If you want to be really evil, you can bet on a wizard undoing the wrong spell and sit and watch as the helpful wizard makes your victims head explode. It's one of the reasons these types of private healing sessions are unlisted for apprentices and why in general the government encourages people to admit into a hospital for treatments, if you feel like someone had cursed you.
The man hesitated, his eyes drifted to the giant drooling head on the table as if he was asking him for permission. Of course, in his current state, the drooling head could only grunt causing another stream of drool to drip off the table.
Gross.
Mr.Gerald's assistant cleared his throat and adjusted his shirt collar. His next words came out in a whisper.
"It's true that Mr.Gerald did have to end a certain …. acquaintance with a woman over his last trip. The lady did have opinions regarding their relationship that Mr.Geralds didn't agree with."
Callum rolled his eyes. So many words to say the man cheated on his wife on his business trip and then thought it was perfectly alright to break it off with the mistress and return home to his wife as if nothing happened. Of course that plan would work better if he picked a woman who wasn't a witch.
"Ohhhh. See I thought he was cursed by a business rival. I was about to ask Callum to stab him in the arm with the pen that he used to sign his last deal, to break the spell." Mia replied, she was still smiling stupidly at the tall lanky man. Callum turned to face her guardian in confusion. That was not a legit way to break a curse. It's a good way to lose an arm, not break a spell.
All they have to do for a case like that, is to disarm the pen he signed the deal with. Their audience stumbled back and leaned against the arm of the sofa for support. His mousy face is even paler. Callum chuckled, and wondered if there was a small part in Mia that didn't approve of rich men cheating on their wives. If there was it must be a very small part, since the right amount of money could shut it up.
Callum took a step towards the assistant. "Where is his wedding ring?"
Wedding rings are a favorite of jilted mistresses to enchant. They never plan to permanently damage their exes. No, they were after different kinds of pain. A significant other coming home horrifically disfigured and the hospital sends them home with a broken wedding ring (after purification where magical energy stored in that object is released, most of the time making the object itself break off into million little pieces), means only one thing to a spouse. Just like a magical STD. You'll only get it, if you are a sleazy bastard who cheats.
"Oh and here's where I say, we'll not be responsible for any damage to property done in our effort to free our client." Mia had pointed her index finger up in the air, it was as if she was reciting something from an invisible piece of paper.
"Why would you say that? Are you going to destroy his ring?"
Mia chuckled, "No. No. This isn't that and we'll try hard not to, but there's no guarantee." Mia held up her hands in an effort to look non threatening, and looked at Callum as if to make him agree with her. Callum let out a nervous laugh in reply. Experienced and talented wizards could attack the source of the magic deep inside the object without doing any damage to the object itself. But he wasn't very experienced or particularly talented. He was fifteenth in his class of twenty five students. He was always fifteenth in his class of twenty five students. In fact breaking people's wedding rings was his favorite part of the job. These bastards broke their wedding vows, so they didn't deserve rings.
The man shook his head and crossed his arms and stood up straighter. "That will be out of the question. Besides, how will he explain it to Mrs…." he casted a nervous glance towards the door which was still firmly shut.
Mia walked towards Mr.Geralds. He still had his head placed on the desk, like a bored schoolboy in science class. "How will you explain this to Mrs.Geralds?" Mia gestured at the man. "She can either see a healthy husband or an intact wedding ring, and if you're quick you can always replace a wedding ring before she notices. I can introduce you to a good jeweler if you want?"
The assistant paced across the floor as he considered his options, glancing at Mr.Geralds each time he took a term. But at this moment he was the only one capable of making a decision. But judging by the wrinkles in his forehead and the slight tremor in his hands as he wiped the sweat off his face, Callum knew Mr.Geralds must be a difficult boss. He stopped midway and turned towards them, his face losing a bit of the nervousness. He held his hands towards them.
"Wait here! I'll go get it. But it works better."
Mia walked towards the bookshelf. She squatted down to look through the books on the bottom shelf and picked a book among the lot.
"Nobles at war!"
Callum walked towards his guardian who was browsing through the pages of the book. He turned to look at the other man in the room.
"Are we sure it's the ring?" Callum whispered nervously.
Mia snapped the book shut and placed it on the coffee table.
"Maybe. But also Maybe not" she shrugged and walked off towards the window. "It's a good place to start. Wanna try sensing if there is anything else magical in this room?."
Callum hesitated. He wasn't the best at finding hidden magical items. Not that his magical sensing capabilities are completely useless. He can sense a magic crystal among other shiny rocks thought to have magical properties. But cursed items were different. The caste rnever really wants you to find it too quickly.
It was worth a shot. Callum closed his eyes. He felt warm as his own magical energy began leaving his body and spreading to all corners of the room. If there was an opposing force, he would feel the resistance. That was what he was taught in enchantment 101.
But he felt nothing. Which meant they were not dealing with an amature. Whoever it was must have had some form of magical schooling to hide a curse so well. Learning magic was an expensive and dangerous process.
What makes it dangerous? Well you could die. Humans had the least experience in using magic out of all the magical creatures within the six dimensions. And most humans were born with very little to no magical powers within them. It takes years of studying under a more experienced wizard to master any amount of useful magic. It's more worthwhile to use your brain to do other jobs. It's the only reason why there are more accountants than wizards (and only a handful of accounting wizards) on earth.
Experimenting with magic wasn't outlawed because, almost always those experimentees end up gravely injuring themselves even if they don't manage to kill themselves.
Every year exactly hundred of the most gifted children aged eight (often identified by toddlers blowing up their homes) are given scholarships to study at RAM. Like Callum. But unlike Callum not all of the hundreds make it to the apprenticeship stage. Some of them end up being trained as guardians just like Mia.
Callum tried releasing a bit more magic, trying hard not to go overboard. If he releases too much energy too fast, the room will blow up as the magic tries to expand even further. Then they will end up in the news and Geralds (if he survives), won't have to explain his situation, just to his wife.
Suddenly he felt something. It wasn't strong. He wasn't thrown off his feet or anything. It felt more like a very strong breeze on a hot day. Something very different from what you were feeling before. And it definitely came from the same direction as the drooling lump of meat.
The door crept open and the man walked in making sure to shut the door firmly. They saw that he was clutching something in his palm. The hand shook as he handed the ring to Callum. It was a plain gold band with an engraving on the inside. Possibly their wedding date and something corny like together forever! Callum didn't bother to read. The assistant nervously looked on as the young boy turned the ring around. Callum clasped the ring in his palm and willed his magic to flow towards the ring.
He felt no resistance from the ring. He increased the flow of magic again. His hand started to ache from clutching the ring too hard. He refused to give up. The ring began heating up, he wanted badly to throw it away but he stubbornly clasped it harder. A light began to emit from his hand. The assistant stepped away in fear and ran towards the door before remembering he couldn't open it yet. There was a loud bang and then smoke came through his fingers.
He opened his hands and the sound of metal hitting the floor tiles echoed. Callum noticed a red mark in the shape of the ring.He saw the once gold ring was broken into two pieces, scattered across the floor. Maybe he could glue the pieces together. Callum smiled at the thought.
He turned to face his audience. Mia was rubbing her eyes, the assistant was cowering by the door, his eyes were firmly shut. He turned to look at his patient. Half expecting to get an earful for breaking his wedding ring. However....
His head still layed on top of the table, he still grunted. He was not cured.
Callum sighed in defeat and picked up what's left of the wedding ring. Mia walked over and took the blackened pieces of metal from his hand. Inspecting it herself.
"So, that didn't work."
The assistant's eyes snapped open, drifting from Mia to Callum and finally to his boss. He scrambled to get up and rushed towards Mia and snatched the ring from her. He let out a muffled cry of pain as he inspected the pieces in each of his hands and a much louder cry was let out as he saw the state of his master. He ran towards Mr.Geralds and inspected him closely, half expecting the man to be dead. The grunt he gave out seemed to have reassured him a little bit. He didn't even seem to notice that his crisp clean shirt clung to his body thanks to the drool.
"You…. you" the man stuttered, his index finger pointed at Mia as he took a few steps from the desk towards where she was standing. Grabbing by her shoulder, he shook her rather violently. Callum for once let her take the credit for his actions (or his mistake).
"You said the ring would break the curse."
Mia broke from the man's grasp and stepped back. "I said the ring might break the curse. When you have these kinds of entanglement it's always something that's personal that gets cursed. Besides it's like the wheel, we had to go through a square wheel before we discovered the best shaped wheel."
Callum wasn't sure if it's either another terrible metaphor from Mia, or her way of de-escalating the situation. If it was the latter, it was doing a poor job. The man did not see the humor in the guardian's comment. The hand that clutched the remains of the ring were turning whiter by the second.
Mia took a look at the man trembling in anger and sighed. "I'm going to guess, he didn't wear the ring on his trip?"
The man furiously shook his head.
"You could have told us that to begin with. We wasted so much time on that. We could have saved the ring."
The man cried out again and threw the ring pieces on the floor and stomped on them. Like an angry villain of a children's cartoon, Callum used to watch before he was enrolled in the academy.
"Stop that!" Mia cried out. "You're distracting us. Now, think. What is something that Mr.Geralds brought on his trip that's very personal to him? It has to be something so significant that Mrs.Geralds will notice if it's gone or damaged."
The man pailed. His lips trembled. But he didn't say what was on his mind.
"Well? What is it?" Mia probed. Callum's eyes drifted into the drooling man, remembering what he felt from him before.
"It's on him. I think. I felt something on him before, but I'm not sure." He walked toward the man but the assistant grabbed his hand and stopped him in his tracks.
"Absolutely not! Not that." there wasn't just anger in his voice.
"What is it?" Mia asked, looking from one man to another.
"He always has the family watch. It was a wedding gift from Mrs.Gerald's father." the man shook his head again. "But you can't have that. It's an heirloom. We can't replace it and Mrs.Gerald will know if we do."
Callum couldn't blame the man for not trusting them after watching him destroy a little ring. A family heirloom that the man always carries is the perfect object to curse, for this exact reason. Nobody would suspect it, nobody would even let anyone touch it. Callum knew this wasn;t just your average mistress that happened to be a witch they were dealing with. Whoever she was, intended to teach this man a very painful lesson.
Mia nodded and looked at Callum as if to judge whether he could handle the watch without breaking it. If the discarded pieces of rings beneath them wasn't the answer to her question... She grabbed the man's hand still latched on to Callum's arm and freed him. She petted the hand and nodded in understanding.
"I think in that case it'll be best to take him to a hospital. You'll still have to bring the watch with you but if you ask the right doctor, I'm sure they'll be able to lift the curse discreetly without doing too much damage to the watch."
Without waiting for an answer, she grabbed Callum by the arm and walked towards the door. Her hand was on the door handle when a voice cried out from behind them…
"Can you be sure, it'll break the curse?" The voice was getting increasingly desperate. They were inside the room for more than an hour now, so the woman outside must be getting more than a little suspicious. It was a matter of how much of it she can endure before she barges into the room. Nobody in that room wanted to be there when it happened.
"I can never be sure about these things. But it's the best chance we have right now."
The man gulped and took a deep breath. He slowly walked over to his master and crouched down before him, his arm disappeared beneath the desk and retrieved something from the coat pocket. All of it done so gently as Geralds was a sleeping lion that he did not want to wake up. A gold chain dangled over his palm. He walked over to the door and hesitated before handing the object over to Callum. Callum's fingers rubbed over the engraving of the pocket watch. It was round and dented although he could see, it was restored recently judging from the shine. On the front there was the engraving of Erdu- the two headed winged water horse. A creature that occasionally escapes from the third dimension. Legends say, an escaped Erdu is always found near water deep in the forests and his favorite pastime is disguising itself as a white horse which tricks lonely children into riding them. It then promptly rides into the forest and dives down into rivers and lakes, drowning it's riders. Erdu had a sick sense of humor. Rich people have a habit of adapting such dangerous and evil creatures as their families' symbols.
Mia nudged him, he turned to face her and found her nodding at the watch impatiently. Callum clasped the watch in his hand and concentrated on his flow of magic. It was much easier this time since he had the practice. He increased his magic flow like the first time he used to sense the watch on Geralds. This time there was a resistance. A force seemed to be pushing him. Trying to destabilize him. Callum fought against the urge to let go of the watch. His hands burned as the watch vibrated violently in his hand. He clasped his hand tighter and forced his magic to invade the space occupied by the curse, forcing it out. This time the light from his hand illuminated the entire room. Even passersby would have noticed the sudden surge of light from house number fifteen that night. He felt something cold escaping from his fingers and heard a crack, after which he stopped feeling the resistance from the watch. He could barely open his eyes before the door was jerked open. And the woman in the silk dressing gown rushed into the room. Her neatly curled hair was a mess, as if she's been running her hand through her hair and pulling at it in frustration. Callum dropped the watch and nudged it aside with his foot.
"Nothing… Mrs…." Stuttered the assistant.
"Yes, Madam. We were about to leave." Mia pitched in. She smiled at the woman before turning to face Callum who nodded in agreement.
"I don't believe you. Something happened here. What is it? Why are you here?" The woman pushed aside the assistant who tried to get in between Mrs.Geralds and Mia, still stuttering to explain.
"They are here to give me some documents for tomorrow's meeting, Jocelyn and discuss some plans. I told them to leave now because I'm tired now." A man's voice called out. Callum turned to face the unfamiliar voice. His head was shrunk to a normal human's size, puss no longer oozed out from blisters on his face, Callum saw the man hurry to wife off the remaining drool from his face. Who stood up from the desk wasn;t the lump of meat barely able to stand straight but a round faced man with dark bushy eyebrows and a matching dark haired head. He stumbled a little when he attempted to walk, which prompted the assistant to rush to his side.
Geralds grabbed the hand of his assistant for support and walked towards the door, before he made his exit he turned to face Mia and the boy.
"I'll tell my assistant to send the documents to you, as promised." Mia smiled and nodded. Jocelyn stood for a while silently judging them and trying to find anything wrong with them or with the room.
**Ding. Mia took out her tablet and so that she had received a message, she turned to face Callum and gestured that it's time for them to go. Callum walked out first and noticed that Mia didn't follow him. Curious, he peeked into the room and saw his guardian bend down to retrieve something. His eyes widened in surprise as he realized what's about to happen. Callum watched as Mia handed the watch back to the woman. Callum couldn't see her face but knew Mrs.Geralds would be surprised and angry at seeing the broken watch.
"Only the grass broke Mrs.Geralds. I'm sure a good watch maker could still fix it for you."
The woman's shoulders began to shake as the hand holding the watch tightened. Mia patted the woman in the shoulder and walked out.
"You told her." Callum said as they were walking back to the main gate of the compound. There were no golf carts waiting to take them back. Mia looked straight ahead.
"No…. I handed her father's watch back to her. It must mean something to her."
"But she'll know"
Mia nodded in response. "I think so. She is a smart woman. She probably knows what her husband's like."
"Forget about it. Give me your tablet."
Mia turned to look at the boy who had his hand out expecting something from her. "You promised, remember!"
Mia sighed and took out her tablet and placed it in his awaiting hands.
Callum was overwhelmed as his eyes browsed through all the job postings. His eyes landed on a job posting that had high points but was posted three years ago. Which only means it was hard for even the best to complete. He opened it and handed the tablet back to Mia.
"You can't be serious." Mi cried out as she read through the posting. "You think you can break a curse that affects a whole village, that no one has been able to break for fifteen years! That's longer than you've been alive."
Callum nodded and turned his face away to signal he was done with this conversation.
Mia grumbled as she filled out the application, Callum heard her calling him a brat and other not so nice things.
"You mister are going to book me the first class seat in a fast train that goes through no transporters! And we're picking up Donna before we go."
Callum rolled his eyes and muttered a yes and mocked a salute for good measure. Anything to keep her from complaining from now to the end of the job, not that Callum thought Mia was capable of not complaining.
Tablet was put away and Mia stomped ahead to the main gate in anger, not caring whether Callum caught up with her or not. Callum didn't mind the tantrum. He finally got what he wanted.
His adventures will begin tomorrow!