Her appearance coincided precisely with the recent surge of power within Erik's borders. Some speculated Erik had fought her. Others claimed he had summoned her. But those theories were swiftly dismissed by the learned few who understood the nature of Arch Curses.
Such entities were beyond mortal reach. They did not fight humans; they simply observed, whispered, and waited.
Their existence was common knowledge now, though it had not always been so. The study of curses had become a grim necessity, a matter of survival. In this age, cursed beings were no longer rare tragedies but daily realities. Each sunrise brought new cases: a farmer whose envy festered into a curse, a mother whose grief birthed a wailing spirit, a soldier whose hatred consumed a village.
