16 Magic: a blessing or a curse?

Magic existed in this world but most humans could never learn a single spell in their entire life. And nobody could teach magic to someone else. In fact, instead of calling it magic, people called it a blessing, at least humans did. The only one in the village who knew such a blessing was Milai who had the gift of healing. All of this new stuff was just rubbing me the wrong way.

"How do you actually use magic?"

It was afternoon. We were heading to the pond to gather water.

"It's hard to explain. If you have the gift, then you can just feel it." Milai spoke like it was the most obvious thing. Perhaps it was to her, but not to me.

Sheila was fishing by herself today. She seemed a little distant. I wanted to go out with Sheila, but Milai asked me to come with her instead.

Í glared at Milai emptily. Normally I didn't get the chance to hang out with her, and so there were plenty of questions I wanted to be answered. But if she answered them like that, would they really be of any help?

However, somehow she understood me. She chuckled. "Well to put it in simple terms, you can feel magic power inside you. It's like a faint warmth that only you can feel. When you concentrate on it, you can project the warmth out. That's how I see it." Milai explained it in her own terms. For a second I felt captivated, albeit for different reasons. But unfortunately, I wasn't into older women.

I thought about how heat exchange works. "I see. So it's like radiation." For a moment I might have forgotten that people in this world didn't know how physics worked. In most part, I didn't either.

"Ra-di-a?"

It was a weird thing to say. After all, they thought I'd forgotten things. "Oh, don't mind me…" I tried to pass it out. Milai got the hint and didn't press me. "So, um. Are there curses that people can learn? Like if there are blessings then-"

"There are." Milai's voice turned hostile. "And I'd suggest you not looking into them. But since you don't know anything about it. I'd give you a fair warning. Curses are bad. No matter who uses it and no matter what kind of benefits it gives you, it's bad. And because it's bad that's why it's called a curse, to begin with. So stay away from them. If you're learning a curse as magic, then it's not worth it." It was almost like she had firsthand experience. She talked smoothly and warned me thoroughly. "Besides, there's always a price when it comes to curses."

I smiled. "Of course. I never planned on getting near that kind of stuff, to begin with." I was being honest. I didn't want to do anything with curses.

Milai's smile made a triumphant return. Maybe she was glad for my answer. "Good. Now help me fill this bucket." She dumped the bucket in the water and I pulled it up. It was heavy, almost as heavy as my sword. Maybe a little more.

For once I was glad that I moved my sword around often. Otherwise, I'd have been a laughingstock if I couldn't even lift up this bucket.

We laughed and continued on. I knew I shouldn't take this for granted and I'd have to leave eventually. But somehow I felt at ease, somehow I wanted this to last.

Tonight was really something. Loads of good food and they were awfully nice. But they never questioned me. Why did they trust me that much?

I stayed at their house the entire time. It was a small village. The injured villagers were slowly getting better. Milai was excellent at healing. But at the rate the undead surged, it was only a matter of time…. Everyone knew that.

I had even forgotten about the fact that I nearly died more than once just a few days ago. However, I couldn't forget about the goblins or the undead. They'd haunt me in my dreams. They were my worst nightmares. However, I did feel a lot better whenever I was in this house.

I asked more about this world to all of them, even the brusque grandpa. Of course, I took it slow and they all had their own answers. But the gist of it was something along the lines of they had no idea. The grandpa even went as far as to say, "Curse this damn world! Why'd it have to be so cruel!" I didn't blame him though. Dune had some interesting views too. He was speaking stuff like how the world is fated to doom and we all would die soon. Well, he wasn't totally wrong about doom, because even I thought that this world didn't have a future. But I for certain didn't want anything to do with death. I had other plans. SO I kept practicing and researching on my own. But there wasn't much information.

On my 8th day here, something unexpected happened. The whole village had come under a vicious curse. Apparently, it was stronger than what was already spreading around. And this one also had special properties, like some dying on spot. I'd never heard of a disease that killed people on contact. But it didn't kill everyone infected just like that. Some died, some suffered while others just had mild symptoms. This disease seemed awfully biased to me.

It was believed that the sacred forest was the source. The main targets of this curse were the old people. Leaving the few adults and children untouched. Flesh began to rot and people were rotting away slowly while they were still alive. A sight that I wish no one should see even in their darkest of dreams. It wasn't similar to any disease I knew of. The only thing I could remotely compare it to was the bubonic plague but even the plague would have paled in comparison. I couldn't find peace knowing that people all around me, were dying. But there was nothing I could about it. The thought only pained me even more.