TILL DEATH DO CURSE PART
"The children are Sprites, and I am their shepherd. We are out in the fields when you arrive", Nicklas told me.
"Sprites as in Soul Spirits?" Chash asked him.
"You may call them soul spirits in your world but here they are sprites. They need light to grow and survive, so I will send them every day to the fields to gather shine, but we must return when it's dark because Lucidity will send her minions to eat the children", Nicklas explained to me.
"Are you related to the Gods of Ayen?" I asked Nicklas.
"How did you guess? When the world of Prolis was taken over by the mages, some of the worshippers of the old gods escaped into the Ten-Kingdoms. We ended up here in Delirium, under the protection of Delirium", Nicklas told us.
"Who is that damned Lucidity?" Sara asked him.
"At night she's Lucidity but in the day he's Delirium", Nicklas told us to our shock and horror.
"What? Lucidity and Delirium are the same people?" I asked him.
"They are cross dressers. I will never guess", Melroy said to us.
"It is more than a change of clothes if Nicklas will describe Lucidity and Delirium that way", I told him.
"Delirium is in the form of a cat or the knight in shining armor depending on his mood but at night he transforms into Lucidity, a woman of immense malice and hatred", Nicklas explained to us.
"How is that possible?" Cassandra asked.
"It is the divine trial of Delirium. When Delirium was advancing his magic to breakthrough to the higher tiers of divinity, he succumbed to a curse that turned him into Lucidity at night with very bad manners", Nicklas explained to us.
"How can that be?" Melroy asked confusedly.
"For magic that borders on the godly, a breakthrough is accompanied by a curse from nature. It's nature's way of limiting the power that Mages could advance in magic to become gods", Yasha, Melroy's wife told us.
"That is nature's way of limiting the power of Gods and Goddesses", Sasha added.
"This is getting too complicated", Cassandra said to me.
"But why is Lucidity attacking the children sprites?" Rinna asked Nicklas.
"Because she wants to kill Delirium. Lucidity despite her name is actually crazy. And she believes she is cursed by Delirium, and she must kill Delirium to end her curse. She knew the Sprites are friendly to Delirium, so she is killing the sprites to force Delirium out to duel with her. Otherwise, she will continue to slaughter the innocent sprite children", Nicklas explained to us.
"But aren't they the same person? Why would Lucidity still want to kill Delirium? She would be killing herself, right?", Meera asked the old man.
"That's because Lucidity doesn't know she is Delirium. She is delirious", he explained to us.
"So, in other words, the one named as delirious is sane, and the one named as lucid is crazy", Sara told us her conclusion.
"Then why doesn't Delirium just go explain to Lucidity. Convince her about their situation", Cassandra asked the old man.
"Well, they are the same person although having the alter-ego at different times, they couldn't communicate with each other", Sara explained to her.
"Then Delirium should write a note or something to Lucidity to explain", Meera added.
"Delirium did that before, but Lucidity considered it a ploy of some kind. She doesn't read his letters anymore", Nicklas told us.
"So, what is Delirium doing to stop Lucidity?" Rinna asked.
"Well, he must recruit the Beast to save him", he explained to us.
"Beast? What kind of Beast?" Chash asked.
Then I remembered something that Nicklas said to me earlier.
"And that Beast Delirium recruited is me? Is that why you called me the Beast?" I asked Nicklas but he was unsure.
"Yes, I'm not confirmedly sure why. The one who kills the worm Perspicuity is the Beast. That was the prophecy recorded by Delirium", Nicklas told me.
"So, what do we do here? Beast Prophet," Sara asked me.
"We should go back to the outside this is too complicated and beyond us", Cassandra said to us.
"How can we get out? There is no way out from here", Chash replied to her.
"There must be a reason Delirium let us come into Delirium and it's probably not because we answered a riddle. He must have hoped that we could solve his grudge with Lucidity", Rinna said to us.
"If he wanted our help, that bloody cat could have just told us so", Melroy added.
"Delirium did mention something about a favor from us although he did not elaborate", I reminded them.
"Delirium cannot reveal the situation of his predicament to the Beast otherwise his curse will not be lifted", Nicklas explained to us.
"This curse is so difficult to lift", Cassandra added.
"That is why Delirium remained in this curse for so long", Nicklas added.
"If only we knew more about the curse. We can't help Delirium blindly", I said to them.
"I have a scroll somewhere that I didn't understand before", Meera said to us suddenly as she brought out a parchment.
In the parchment, the Dark Angel held a heart in his right hand, just as his left hand held out a sword that slayed a cat with yellow and blue stripes and a bell on his neck.
"That cat looks like Delirium", Ratatouille commented to us about the scroll.
"Damnit, does that mean I'll have to kill Delirium to get the Black Heart of the Dark Angel?" I asked Meera.
"It doesn't have to be literally killing the cat, the prophecies are not always exactly that, but you will get the cat killed in the end when the prophecy comes true", Meera explained to me.
There was a reason that Nicklas would call me the Beast. That was because the Beast would kill Delirium, and he would do that to break his curse.
"That basically doesn't make sense at all. Delirium can only break free from his curse if I killed him. What is the purpose of breaking his curse if it means to die?", I asked them.
"Who in the right mind will rather be killed just to break a curse. Till death to Curse part", Melroy added and asked us in a Shakespearean way.