"I want Curse Reversal," Aria said, her voice steady.
{System: Confirming selection… Curse Reversal installed. You may now absorb and store one curse. Upon release, it will return to the originator at 3x power. Use wisely.}
"Well, that's vague and ominous," she muttered, but she couldn't deny the strange warmth settling in her chest—like someone had lit a candle inside her bones. Her fingers tingled; her vision sharpened. For the first time since waking up in this world, she didn't feel like prey.
She felt… armed.
Elsewhere – The Divine Plane
Faith—the actual God of Fate, not the glitchy Young God currently sulking beside him—snapped upright as a red notification flared in the divine system.
{Curse Reversal installed: Subject – ARIA. Aura Synergy Detected. Warning: Fate Web Unstable.}
"Oh, great," Faith groaned. "She picked that one."
"She was supposed to," muttered a quiet voice.
Faith turned slowly toward the one sitting in the shadows. The third God. The one who had been silent through most of the mess.
"You planned this?" Faith asked coldly.
The god looked up—silver eyes like moonlight, expression unreadable. "She needed a weapon. What's better than a curse that reflects?"
"She's a mortal soul in a broken system." Young god said
Faith's jaw tensed. "And what if she reflects a curse meant for someone else? What if she throws it back at an innocent?"
"Then you'd better hope the one casting it is guilty," the third god said softly
Back in the Duchy
Aria's room was still and quiet. Her family had been bustling only hours before, but now it was night again, and her thoughts were sharp.
She whispered into the dark, "System, can I use this new curse thing now?"
{System: No active curse present. Your soul is clean.}
"Oh, that's debatable," she muttered. "But fine."
Her fingers hovered over her chest. It still hurt. Not physically—but something else. A pressure. A shadow that hadn't entirely left. The poison or magic or whatever had nearly killed her still lurked in memory.
She had finally fallen asleep when it happened.
A sudden gust of cold wind. The window creaked open—though it had been sealed.
And something slithered in.
A shadow.
The candle near her bed flickered and died.
The system glitched.
{System: Warning – Curse detected. Origin: Unknown. Target: ARIA. Installing—}
Aria's eyes flew open.
But she didn't scream.
Instead, she smiled.
"I was waiting for you."
The curse lunged, a swirling mass of black smoke and whispers, trying to sink into her chest.
But as soon as it touched her aura—there was a snap.
Gold light exploded across her body. The shadow screamed, trying to escape.
{System: Curse Reversal activated. Curse captured. Returning to origin. Multiplier: x3.}
"Go back to hell," Aria whispered.
With a flash of crimson and gold, the curse was ejected—violently—ripping through the air and vanishing into the night.
Somewhere, far away, someone screamed.
A man cloaked in noble robes collapsed in his study, clutching his chest as blood poured from his mouth. His shadow shivered and fled, abandoning him.
He would live—but the curse had been returned, magnified, and traced.
Marked.
{System: Curse Reversal complete. Curse origin traceable via golden thread.}
"So now we have a trail," she said.
She felt it. A faint golden pull in her mind. Like a string tugging her toward the one who tried to kill her.
Icarus felt it.
A sharp pull in his chest, like invisible threads yanking him through the night. Within seconds, he was outside Aria's room—then inside it, magic bypassing locks and guards like they were paper.
"Aria…" he whispered, breathless. "Are you alright?"
Aria jolted, nearly falling off her bed.
"By the stars—Icarus? What are you doing here in the middle of the night?" she asked, eyes wide. "You scared me."
"I felt something." His voice was low, trembling. "Your heartbeat—it wavered."
She blinked at him, then tilted her head. "You can feel my heartbeat?"
"I didn't mean to," he muttered.
She looked up at him properly then—he was tall, far too tall to be crowding her bedside like this, sweat dripping down his temples, eyes wide and frantic. He looked like he had run through the fires of hell to reach her.
"Wait—you're the one who's sweating," she said, frowning. She reached up and touched his forehead without thinking.
His breath caught.
Aria narrowed her eyes. "…Are you not breathing?"
He didn't answer.
"Are you actually not breathing right now?" she teased softly, watching his chest rise far too slowly. "Am I really that breath-taking?"
Icarus opened his mouth, then closed it again. Aria chuckled under her breath and pulled her hand back, murmuring, "Sorry, didn't mean to be cliché…"
There was a pause. She sobered.
"The shadow came," she said, her voice softer now. "But I managed to trap it—kind of. I connected it with the golden thread. I think I can find whoever sent it next time."
Icarus tilted his head.
It was the first time he'd seen her properly since that night. Since her body had gone limp. Since he had held her freezing hands and begged the gods to take his life instead.
And now… she was talking. Breathing. Alive.
"I'm glad," he said quietly.
Then, with a certainty that startled her, he said, "Let's go."
"Go?" she repeated.
"To follow the thread," he said. "To end this."
She blinked, caught off-guard by how serious he sounded.
"…Right now?"
He didn't answer, just stepped closer and extended his hand to her.
There were burns on his fingers. Fresh ones.
"Icarus," she said, "What have you been doing?"
He didn't look at her.
" Soo.. let's stop burning down everything. I think it's enough now" aria said.