章節 23: Chapter 23
Elvira ran to another section and hid behind a cupboard to avoid Jasper. Before departing from Onnanor, Agror had given her some unique medicine to keep her curse at bay. And now, suddenly, she was burning in pain in the territory of wizards. Agror must have provided her with something completely different to enhance its growth further. Sending her away to spy on the wizards was a hoax because it was a death trap set by him!
"Where are you?" she heard Jasper shout.
"Don't come here, Jasper. I screamed because I got a paper cut," she yelled back. Her knees felt so weak that she could barely stand up. She lowered her body onto the cold stone floor that felt temporarily good against her burning skin.
"At least tell me where you are, my lady. I am supposed to look after you," Jasper's voice echoed in the spacious library.
Elvira didn't want him to see her like that. She didn't know how they would react to her condition. What if they kicked her out of the castle upon discovering that she was already a dying woman? Or perhaps they might do something worse, like send her to a curse expert. She couldn't let someone examine her. Even though she had the gift of concealed magic, her body still worked differently than a human's.
She looked at the uncovered parts of her body and saw that the burns on her skin were now spreading out to areas where she had never seen them before. The marks on her skin were turning from a light pink to a faint hue of black. Her bones and muscles had also become exposed.
The pain was so intense. It was like standing amid a blazing fire. Everything before her eyes got blurry. Her breathing and her heartbeat became shallow. Her end had come. Elvira closed her eyes out of helplessness, allowing whatever was about to happen to her. She felt too weak to move, and even her brain had become sluggish.
Screams of a man caused Elvira to open her eyes again. The scene before her was a vague, shadowy figure and white fog. She was too weary to pay attention to what he might do. Agror's medicine had aggravated her curse for sure. It was about to end her life now. His betrayal would never be forgiven, and if she survived, she would make him pay for her suffering.
Her brain was getting blocked, and she wasn't even sure if she was alive anymore when suddenly, her breathing became normal, and she gasped for air. The fog in front of her eyes vanished, clearing her vision. Wivior's face was the first thing she saw. He was carrying her in his arms. Luckily, he didn't see her open her eyes, so she quickly closed them again.
Millions of questions ran through her mind. When did Wivior get there? For how long was she gone? And was Wivior the one who had saved her from dying? But how could he? Her curse was too strong to treat. Yet there she was, alive in the arms of her enemy after a near-death experience. It was completely illogical to view him as her enemy at that point. He had saved her life twice, only in a few days.
Elvira opened her eyes slowly when the warmth of a bed touched her back. Her brain function and senses were normal. But she acted confused to elude their questions. Who knows what peculiar thing they found trying to heal her?
"How are you feeling?" asked Wivior, holding her hand. He was sitting close to her on the bed.
"I feel okay now, a bit tired. How did I get here? What happened in the library?" Of course, Elvira remembered everything, but acting to be in the dark was better. If she were to play a human noblewoman, she needed to know a lot less than what her actual witch self knew.
Wivior pointed his finger toward a glass of water on a small table. The glass flew directly towards him like a magnet to metal. He gave her the glass of water in silence. His expressions were unreadable. "I don't know if you are aware of this, but you have been hexed."
Elvira opened her mouth. She tried her best to make it seem like it was new information. "You mean by a witch? But how? I was here with you all the time."
"You don't have to be close to a witch to get hexed. All they need is your hair, nails, blood, bones, or anything related to one's body. Humans are easier to hex. Someone must have gotten something like that from your home, perhaps fallen hairs left behind in a comb or even nails," Wivior answered.
At least he didn't suspect her nature. However, Elvira was dying to know how he had fixed her. Wizards had no connection to the underworld, so what did they do for healing and curing curses? Death was so close to her, and yet he had saved her somehow.
"Why didn't I die then? Did you do something to save me?" Elvira asked.
"I gave you something to hinder the effects of the curse. However, it failed to cure you and could only stabilize your condition. Don't worry because the moment I saw you like that in the library, I immediately ordered Jasper to fetch a doctor to take a look at you...."
Elvira immediately sat up on the bed. "What doctor? I am not sick," she cut him off.
"We have a doctor for healing and curing curses," Wivior began. "You might not know this, but even wizards can get hexed. Don't worry, he'll be able to help you. Jasper will bring him here in no time. Just lie down and relax till they get here."
Elvira lay on the bed, yet the thought of being examined still filled her with horror.
"Don't worry," Wivior began with a reassuring smile. "He is not some voodoo witch doctor who would make you eat the heart of a horse, and neither would he chop a part of your body for healing. If he does, you can count on me to protect you."
Elvira forced a smile because his humor was supposed to comfort her. However, his idea of a witch doctor was terrible. Such gory and brutal practices were only used in witchcraft, which was performed only for sinister acts.
Her fear vanished when curiosity took over her mind. How did wizards cure curses?
"How does a wizard doctor cure a curse?" she asked.
"I am ashamed to say, but I do not know of it. Only an expert can tell you exactly how it's done. There are a few things that I know. A wise man once told me that the right ingredients, knowledge, and magic can cure any curse."
Elvira smiled; her eyes shined with hope. For the first time, she had listened to something that gave her hope about her condition. What if the wizards had the solution to her problem?
"Do I need to give some payment to the doctor for his services? I can do anything. Please tell him that when he gets here," said Elvira.
Wivior shook his head. "You have it all wrong. You don't have to pay the doctor with gold as you do in the human world. Anything he needs, he gets it from the king."
Elvira was at a loss for words. Was it King Efeus? "Who is this king that cares so much about his people?"
Wivior clicked his tongue. "I am prohibited from saying. Not all wizard kings are so kind to their people. Some can even be cruel. Humans are much more corrupted, but you must know some people of power that care about the sick, needy, and poor?"
Only if she could tell him that where she came from, people only cared about getting anything for themselves via the underworld. The kindest person in her coven was her uncle, Eldritch Payne. He had never harmed anyone without a reason, yet he only cared about his kin and friends.
"My interactions with others were limited. I don't know much, but there might be some...."
Elvira coughed a little and felt this need to shut her eyes. She was exhausted and dizzy.
Wivior leaned forward to put a blanket on her. She studied his features in silence when his face came close to her. "Take some rest. I'll bring the doctor here as soon as he arrives." Elvira nodded and closed her eyes. She opened them again when she heard the door shut behind him.
The way he treated her was unlike any warlock she had known. She had always wanted her past relationships to be more than just about passionate sex. Every man she had ever dated was afraid of her mother, but Wivior didn't seem to fear any witch or warlock.
How stupid was she to compare a wizard to her ex-partners? She felt angry at herself for being so foolish. It didn't matter how safe he made her feel and how kind he had been to her because he was her sworn enemy. As a witch, Elvira couldn't allow herself to feel and think such things. Her mother was right about her being too soft. She needed to do better than that to get out of there alive and take revenge on Agror.
Without realizing it, Elvira dozed off and woke up to the sound of chattering. She slowly opened her eyes and saw one more man, along with Wivior, Cornelius, and Jasper.
"This is Doctor Goldberg. He is here to help," Wivior told her.
The old doctor had a stern look on his face. His arrival had brought her both feelings of hope and anxiety. Maybe she could find a cure for her problem, or perhaps he would discover her true nature.
Having come this far in hopes of getting a cure from Riion, why shouldn't Elvira take advantage of this offer to finally free her body from years of pain and save her life?
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