Confessions

I finally got around to picking up where I left off with that cliffhanger, I apologize to anyone who died of suspence poisoning.

You will be missed.

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"I..." I swallowed, "I'm fine." I got up to try and prove Kalinka that I wasn't lying, but I was still too weak and my movements were far too shaky to be convincing.

"You most certainly are not fine!" Kalinka scolded. "You're clutching at your chest through your armour. C'mon let's get that off of you, I'll see what I can do to help."

"N-no! Don't touch!" I tried to stop Kalinka, but I was too late, she reached out to take off my chest plate and burned her hand on it's hot surface.

"Ah!" She yelped, "it's hot to the touch! How can you possibly wear that?"

I tried to laugh it off, "it's not normally so hot. And it's not the armour that's causing it." But she was right the armour was burning my chest, I had to take it off, or risk permanent damage.

"Fine," I submitted as I carefully removed my chest plate, revealing horribly burned bandages that were falling of my chest, and underneath were the scars of the one moment of my life that I don't care to relive.

"What are those scars on your chest?" Kalinka asked me, naturally. "They're purple, like your eyes, and they look like symbols but I don't recognize them from any of my books."

"They won't be in any book," I responded, "I don't know myself what they really mean, I gave up long ago trying to decipher them. It's not as though it matters what they mean anyway, what matters is what they do."

"Which is?"

"They are the source of my power, my curse."

"Curse? You're cursed?"

"Yes."

"Well that's putting it bluntly, you're feeling better I assume."

"A little, fortunately those moments of pain pass quickly." I got up slowly, "You should get some rest."

"You're very bad at forcing a change of subject, you know that?" She put her hands on her hips in an effort to look imposing.

"I'm not getting rid of you that easily, am I?" I chuckled to myself. Why am I so quick to submit to Kalinka? "Fine, what do you want to know?"

"Everything."

"Seems that you can be just as blunt as I can, okay I'll tell you the whole story."

It took what remained of the night to tell my story, by the end of it Llyd and the others were packing up to leave.

"Looks like we're on the move again, we should make sure not to be left behind" I said, nudging Kalinka to keep her awake. She stayed attentive for my entire tale, yet now she dozes off. I thought. "Oh, and Kalinka."

"Yes?" She responded, half awake.

"Not a word of this to anyone. Promise?"

Kalinka nodded a barely conscious agreement. Taking it as enough, I replaced the bandages around my chest and changed into my street clothes. Then I carried Kalinka to the horses to get back to our travels.

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Okay, so I kinda gipped the lot of you on what exactly the curse is, but I'm saving those relevations for my upcoming origin story.

Oh shit!

That's supposed to be a secret. Please disregard.

Mysterious. Ooooooooooooooohhhhhhhhhhhhooooooooooooooohhhhhhhhhhhhoooooooo! *Waves hands around*

Marr Vell