"We don't know what you're talking about," Clover said, her voice spilling so fast she nearly overlapped each word.
I held up a finger, cutting off any further lies. "It's my belief that many problems between people occur because they don't sit down and talk about important things when they need to," I said. "And right now, I think I need to hear who cursed whom, and where they live. This will prevent misunderstandings. And misunderstandings can lead to resentment, or trigger frustrating situations where one party is talking about one thing while the other is talking about something else and neither walks away happy. It's the kind of thing bards sing about. And I'm not stupid enough to like it."
"But I don't want to sleep in an alley again," wailed Clover.
"Did you want to?"
"No."
"Then why would you?"
"Because if we tell you about the curse, you'll not want us to stay with you!" Her shoulders slumped and I began to understand what they were going through. "Everybody thinks our curse will hurt them. Or their families. Or they'll catch it from us if we breathe on them."
"That's not how curses work."
"We know that much," Violet growled. Oh, so feisty! "But everyone else isn't as easy to convince."
"Forget about everyone else," I said, waving my hand dismissively. "Let's agree that I know more about magic than you do and move along. Which of you was cursed?"
"All of us."
"What?" I blinked in shock. "Three curses?"
They nodded as I gripped the table a bit aggressively. Who would do such a thing to three such elegant and beautiful women?
There was a monster out there. A heartless and evil monster.
And I was determined, right there and then, to find them and send them squealing into the void!
Still.
Three curses.
One curse is hard enough to cast. It can take a lot of time to recover from casting even a single curse. If someone were stupid enough to cast three, the chances of them surviving if they cast them too close together was slim. Very slim indeed.
Had they cheated my wrath by dying?
My mind raced as it considered re-learning necromancy just to raise them up and THEN send them squealing into the void. I know the Old Twit didn't like to eat undead, but I'm sure he'd make one exception for me.
I felt a slight tremble on the edge of my awareness as the Old Twit responded to that thought with a tentative lifting of one of his many eldritch thumbs.
Nodding again, I gave the girls a fierce look. "Who did such a despicable thing to you?"
Violet looked at the others before answering. "We don't know."
"Don't know?" I felt very confused. Who would cast three curses at such great expense on people who didn't even know WHO cursed them? That defeated the whole point of cursing.
What kind of person curses someone anonymously?
"Our parents died when we were little," she continued. "We were left at an orphanage. When we were old enough to leave, we were woken in the middle of the night by a horrible light."
"It was green," Poppy provided helpfully. "And it didn't feel nice."
"It was like rats gnawing at my skin," Clover said with a shudder. "That's why I don't like rats."
Violet nodded. "When the light faded, we started to notice things."
"Terrible things," Clover said, shuddering.
"So, we went and saw a healer, who told us we'd been cursed."
"That's why we joined the Mage Guild," Poppy said, scooping out the last of her pie and shoving it into her mouth. Although she kept talking while chewing, she managed to avoid looking crass and instead carried it off with the right amount of cuteness that it felt I was watching a kitten. I squeezed the table harder to stop myself snatching at her cheeks again. "We thought we could find a cure in the archives."
"Our teacher told us there were books about removing curses in the Forbidden Section, but we aren't allowed to access them until we're at least sixth years."
I nearly choked on my pie. "There are no such books in there," I choked out, grabbing my drink and finishing it with a gulp. I wasn't sure if I should have another, but Lilsa was already prancing through the rowdy clusters of mooks towards me. "Unless he's counting Minti's Guide to Basic Curses and Other Naval Slang. I don't think that's going to do you much good. Unless you're planning on becoming a sailor?"
She shook her head. "I get seasick."
"We all do," Poppy put in brightly.
"Well," I said as Lilsa worked her magic by making my empty glass full again. "I do have plenty of books on curses. But I don't want to get your hopes up. Removing a curse is a tricky thing. A very tricky thing. In fact, removing one when you don't know the name of the person who cursed you is almost impossible. Are you sure you didn't have any enemies?"
"Us?" Poppy looked horrified by the thought. "Why would we have enemies?"
"We were just children at the time," Violet said. "The most difficult person we had to deal with was Esmerelda Lincolnshire. She was another orphan who kept stealing Clover's brush."
"And my ribbons," Clover said. "She kept taking my hair ribbons. It was so gross."
"We got her into trouble because of it," Violet said. "But I don't think she cared enough to curse us for it."
"Alright," I said, swallowing a hearty chunk of pie. "Tell me about it."
"About Esmerelda?"
"About the curse you have. What are its effects?"
Violet blushed bright pink and I caught a sly smirk from Clover.
"Is it important?" Violet asked, looking away.
"It very much could be," I told her. "Like, does it give you warts? Does it turn you into a beast during the full moon? Or fill your bedsheets with fleas?"
"No, nothing like that," Violet said, looking even more flustered.
"I fall asleep," Poppy said. "I mean, all the time. I'm surprised I haven't fallen asleep at least once already. When I get stressed or too excited, I can just zonk out. It's really annoying. I had to take the tests for the Mage Guild three times because I kept falling asleep every time I got a hard question."
"And I'm clumsy," Clover said. "I can't help it. I drop everything. Trip over it, too."
"That doesn't sound so bad," I said.
"She dropped a bottle of Nightbulb fluid in alchemy class," Poppy said. "It ate through the floor and dripped onto another student's head."
"He was fine," Clover hissed. "After they healed him."
"That sort of thing happens a lot around us," Poppy said.
Then, as one, the two sisters turned to Violet, whose ears were a shade of pink I'd never seen before. They practically glowed.
"Mine's not important," she insisted. "Really, it's not."
"If he's going to help us, I think he should know everything," Clover said, trying to hold back giggles while sounding reasonable.
Violet looked like she wanted to reach over and slap her sister.
I didn't know what I'd do if she did.
Instead, she took a deep breath and sighed. "It doesn't matter what my curse is," she said, trying very hard not to scowl and succeeding. Her willpower was off the charts! "If Mister Taran can't cure it, then it's really not very urgent, is it?"
"We told him ours," Clover said.
"We should be honest," Poppy said.
'Exactly." Clover's grin widened. "After all, he's being very nice and offered us a place to stay."
"And he'll talk to the Guild for us," Poppy pointed out.
"We should be open and honest, Violet," Clover said, leaning back in her chair with a smug glint in her eye. "Isn't that what you told us to always be?"
Violet did scowl, but it didn't make her any less attractive. Instead, I felt a sudden urge to reach out and give her a comforting hug. But I thought that might be a bit too much for her to take.
She muttered something under her breath.
"Sorry?" Clover piped up. "I don't think we heard you. Mister Taran, did you hear her?"
"If she doesn't wish to tell me, then I do understand," I said. "Some things can be very personal when it comes to curses."
"Panties," Violet snarled, places her fists on the table with a determined thump. Her cheeks turned deep purple in shame. "My panties constantly disappear."
I blinked at that. "That's awful," I said. And it was. It was pretty bad. But, given she wore dresses, no one would know.
Would they?
Seeing my confusion, she sighed. And, ignoring her sisters' giggles, she murmured; "Then they reappear in someone else's pocket."
***
If you're interested in this story, please drop a comment so I know you're interested. I currently have 9 chapters done and will write more if there's enough interest.