Chương 14: Sometimes it's better not to know

The cat obliged my request. He jumped onto a chair in the corner of the room and started the story.

"It started around three months ago. At first, we thought that Marco had just gotten ill. He was getting older, and no one is immune to the passage of time, after all. He had his appendix removed recently, as if to remind us of that, so we thought that he was simply getting older. But then it started getting worse. Marco was spending most of his time training Nathan and other acolytes, so it didn't seem likely that something had happened during an exorcism.

But as he was looking more and more feeble, we took it seriously. Of course, our first guess was that he got sloppy on the last job and let a spirit attach itself to him."

"When was his last job?" I asked, interrupting the cat.

"Around half a year ago." I shook my head.

"That would be weird for a spirit to go undetected for so long."

"Yes, but we did not think anyone would try to curse Marco. It's not like we have many enemies here. Our lives in this world are rather boring, so an attack was not our first guess. From the perspective of time, that was naive." Nathan groaned, likely knowing where the story would go from here.

"Then the worst part started. The nightmares came. At first, we thought that they were the outcome of stress and illness, and he, of course, couldn't just ask for help. He was the type who always helped others, but never himself. So we only found out about the mental issues when someone heard him screaming in the night."

"He was screaming the name of an acolyte he had practically raised. The acolyte died around a year ago, and this is also when Marco seemed to start aging quickly," added the priest.

"Yes, so then we immediately figured out that it was a curse. We did not know why or how it was cast, but it must have been. So we went over the same procedure as you did, and lo and behold, there it was, a curse anchored in the abdomen. We got everyone on alert and got Lady Maria to come," the cat pointed his tail at the nun, "to break the curse. And so she did." I turned to the nun.

"What can you tell me about the curse the first time you broke it?"

"Well, it was weak. From what I can tell, it's a very complex one, but one attack, and it gave way."

"That checks," I murmured to myself.

"Yes, Sister Maria removed the curse, and we thought that was it. Now we need to find the asshole who cursed our priest, but Marco was in the clear. However, to our surprise, the symptoms were back after a day, but without time for the body to heal, they moved much quicker, arriving at the previous stage faster. So we called Maria once again. And like that, five attempts were made, five with the same effect. No matter how much blessed energy Sister poured into Marco's body, the curse would reappear in 24 hours."

"Okay, I get that part, but what about the possession?" I asked, trying to make sense of the whole story.

"The possession will come, don't worry." The cat shifted in place and waited a bit to choose his words.

"We figured out that we are dealing with something strange, beyond our pay grade, so we contacted the church's main branch in Brazil to have them investigate. After a day, we got the clearance and moved Marco to the main church." I raised my eyebrows in surprise.

"Only in a day?"

"Yes, Marco once worked in the main branch, in human resources. He is now retired, helping us with young acolytes, but back in the day, he trained most of the priests working there, so they were eager to help. Sadly, that willingness to help turned into a tragedy," the cat sighed.

"Once in the main church, they removed the curse and gave him a special purified room for prayer. And the next day, he seemed all better. Everyone thought that this was it. He came for breakfast with a bit more liveliness in his face. Ate with us but then disappeared. This is when the tragedy happened." The feline now looked at me, his face serious.

"He got possessed by a demon."

"What do you mean 'got possessed'?" I asked, surprised.

"You don't just get possessed by a demon unless you come into contact with one or something holding one. They can't just appear, especially not in a church, assuming you had a real altar there."

"Yes, there was an altar, a big and powerful one, but that's what happened."

"I was there," said the priest.

"He was fine at breakfast and then said that he was going to pack his things and went to his room. The next thing we know, there is an alarm. Turns out Father Marco had his old passage permissions, and most guards recognized him, so he went all the way into the vault in the main church without trouble. Only when he tried to take something he was not authorized to move did anyone notice something was wrong. Two priests tried to stop him, but he killed one and crippled the other. Red eyes, smell of sulfur–everything.

Classic demonic possession."

"He had permission to enter the main vault. So it was a targeted attack, especially for Marco, I assume," I thought out loud.

"Yes, we think the same," agreed the cat.

"The church started a city-wide search, and we finally found him, at the last moment, at that. He was found in a back alley near the docks. The stolen artifacts were missing, and so was the demon. The curse strengthened considerably, now trying to kill him. Later, once we got him in custody, when we tried to locate the artifacts, it turned out that he had dropped them along the way at a drop-off point and then went the other direction to cover up the trail. We found traces of the artifacts only three days later.

They were already gone, taken by someone."

"That's why you located me so quickly. The whole of Rio is on alert, isn't it?" I finally realized.

"Yep," the cat confirmed.

"What were the artifacts?" I asked, still thinking about the whole case.

"..." the cat mulled over my question, not too happy about me asking for such info.

"I don't need the details. I want to know what they were generally used for. Did the artifact hold or attract demons? There is a difference if it was a holy symbol of your church or a living part of an ancient devil." Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

"Nothing that explains the possession. They were life-type artifacts, mostly healing and a source of life attuned mana." A bit of silence descended over the room. We were all processing the story. It seemed someone really went out of their way to get their hands on those artifacts. It was elaborate, curses, and a possession timed so precisely. But there were holes in the story. First things first. The returning curse.

"Is it possible that the curse was simply cast over and over again?"

"No. As you suggested, we finally figured out that we needed to use pure silk sheets to see if there was any outside mana, but the sheets did not change color in any way. And we are sure we wrapped Marco quite thoroughly. Even if we made a mistake, his room in the main branch had wards kept overnight, so no external mana should have made its way inside. Same here, the symbols in our basement should keep any spells meant to cause harm out of the room. But the curse always comes back."

I stopped again to think, but nothing was making any sense. Was my understanding of magic simply flawed, or were we missing something?

"When you found him, did you manage to talk to him a bit? Any words?"

"No, he was already in that state when we found him." A curse that comes back on its own, a possession that starts out of nowhere, and this strange feeling of déjà vu. All were bothering me. We made our way to a room beside the one with Father Marco. It had a table and some chairs, but most of all, it was easier to think without the dying man groaning through his sleep. We were all seated at the table, with the nun passing around coffee. No one was talking. Everyone was just staring ahead, thinking about the case.

"Miss Maria, when removing the curse, did you try to sense the caster?"

"No," she shook her head.

"It is not possible to do this when casting blessings. I can't attune myself to a curse. Why?"

"I tried to get the caster pinpointed, but I couldn't find him or her. It's like the person does not exist."

"What?!" exclaimed the nun.

"Ummm, why is this such a big deal?" asked Nathan, considerably calmer now that it seemed I was taking it seriously. The nun looked at him with approval in her eyes and started explaining.

"Any other elements and concepts used in spells, such as fire, earth, water, and air, or higher concepts such as death and life, exist without any magical phenomenon. They are part of the order, part of the universe. Curses and blessings aren't. In an oversimplification, they are materializations of wishing someone bad or well. There being no caster is like someone is wishing you well, but there is actually no one. So the question is, who made the wish?"

"Oh, what does that mean in this case?" asked the boy, but both the nun and I shrugged our shoulders. We had no idea.

"Maybe it's not a curse then?" asked the priest.

"No. The anchor is typical for a curse, so are the inner workings. I could sense a couple of symbols used that I recognized in curses. Everything fits, aside from the lack of a caster," I answered. Silence again.

"Could the caster have hidden his signature?" asked the nun.

"No, it's not that I did not find anything. There were no failsafes, no obstacles, unless he added them so well I cannot even sense they are there. But that is not likely."

"Why? Is there no one better?" Asked Nathan, but this time, the question was genuine rather than snarky, so I answered genuinely as well.

"I'm not saying that no one is better, but in this world, with everyone stopping before the third circle, there shouldn't be anyone that much better. Even if there is a difference of two circles, I should simply be unable to locate or tune myself to the spell, or not find the symbols used, or just get backlash from some failsafe. It's like a difference in the thickness of doors you want to get through. You can kick down a wooden door. Someone more powerful might install a steel safe door.

But here it's like the doors just lead you back into the room from which you came." The boy looked disheartened.

"Right, so can something be done?"

"Don't know," I shrugged. Silence again.

"Maybe the caster is dead?" Tried the altar boy. Nun just smiled sadly at his attempt.

"Then there would be no resonance."

"Maybe the demon cast the curse."

"If it were in our plane of existence, I would sense it. If not, similar to what happens with a dead caster." This time I explained.

"Maybe you sensed wrong." More and more desperation could be felt.

"I wish." I chuckled.

"Ummm, then maybe, maybe." The kid was struggling to come up with an explanation. Even though he was frustrating me at first, I still felt for him on some level. For all of my missing feelings, a worry for a father figure was something I understood. Not exactly felt since a lot of worry stems from fear. But on an intellectual level, I got him.

Looking at the young man's face, I could remember my own turmoil of emotion when my father once told me that it was time for him to die and that the rest of the clan would have to go with him.

"Maybe the caster is invisible." He finally proposed an idea, his voice feeble, clearly not believing his own theory.

"I understand you're trying to help, but invisible ca-" Wait a minute.

"Say that again."

"What? That the caster is invisible? I know it's stupid. You don't have to make me repeat that."

"No, no, actually it's not that stupid." I stood up to the surprise of everyone else in the room.

"Not exactly invisible like a ghost, but not visible to us. My attempt at locating the caster never failed. I located him on the first try."

"What are you talking about?" asked the cat. I turned to the cat.

"You said that he had his appendix removed, right? When was that?"

"What does it have to do with anything?" He tilted his head in confusion.

"Just answer the question."

"Around a month before it all started, but it was a normal procedure in a good hospital with regular non-magical doctors. We just used magic to heal the wound afterward." I nodded. This was what I was expecting.

"During the operation, did you have anyone from your organisation present?"

"No, but the surgeon was a renowned specialist. He wouldn't have botched the operation."

"Oh, he did not botch the operation." I stood up and made my way to the room with Marco.

"What are you doing?" said the cat, with the rest following behind me. I smiled and stretched out my hand.

"Give me a sharp blade. I will find you the caster." I was given a knife by the nun, who blessed it quickly to remove any germs or dirt.

"Ladies and gentlemen, there is nothing in my sleeves." I showed my hands, parodying mortal magicians. Then I placed the blade over the scar from the appendectomy and opened the wound back up. The man didn't even notice anything, still murmuring to himself.

"What are you doing?!" the boy screamed. I put two fingers into the wound and pulled out a small bundle the size of my palm. It was wrapped in black silk-like cloth. The moment I pulled it out, a strong chemical smell filled the room. And to our shared disgust, it was moving around.

"What the fuck is that?!" Nathan exclaimed.

"What is this?" the others asked. I placed the package on a chair and unraveled it delicately. Inside was a…thing. It was similar to a doll made from clay in the color of human skin. It was shaped like a pudgy human with a large mana crystal going through the entire length of its body. It was moving around like a newborn moving its limbs on instinct.

"That's your caster," I said.