I approach my little brother and place my hand on his forehead. Seeing him like this, with his scant eight years, breaks my heart. I begin casting the healing.

  A white light illuminates my fingers, concentrates in my palm, and penetrates his body.

  Five health points. I see the life coming back to his face. He doesn’t open his eyelids but does seem to fall into a peaceful sleep.

  I turn toward my mother and repeat the process. Only she does regain consciousness and, with a hand suddenly less weakened, grabs mine.

  “Bianca?” she asks me, horrified. “What are you doing here? You have to marry the prince and have many children. You can’t get sick.”

  “Mother, calm down, you’re better. Don’t worry about me. I’m not going to get sick.”

  “It’s true... I feel much better. What happened?”

  “The folk healer’s remedies must have worked well for you. But I’m going to open the windows, let clean air in.”

  “What are you doing?” She’s so alarmed she half sits up.

  My healing spell worked very well. Her recovery will go even better if now they can drink uncontaminated water. A shame I didn’t know about the well. I would have brought clean water with me.

  Oops... well, it’s going to be a problem when I get thirsty. But since one of the count’s men is going to go with the deer to the Karina’s parents’ duchy seat (which I figure must be the closest area—if there were a river before that he would go there), I’ll be able to drink something, even if just a sip. And if not, try the filtered and boiled water.

  “This is good, trust me,” I assure her while pulling back the tapestries, drawing back the heavy curtains, and opening the windows wide.

  “Elias,” I hear her say as she turns toward her youngest son. “You’re okay,” she whispers.

  I see uncontainable happiness on her face and in the tears of gratitude streaming down it as she watches him with healthier color in his cheeks, breathing normally.

  “Everything is going to be fine, mother, don’t worry. The royal healer is on his way.”

  “And you, how did you get here so fast?”

  “The palace teleporter. I left as soon as I found out.”

  And a skeleton deer, but that would be unnecessary information right now.

  “How are things with your fiancé and his family?”

  “Very well, they’re all very kind, especially the queen.”

  And before she can subject me to an interrogation, I tell her she needs to rest and ask the maid to take care of her.

  “Don’t even think about closing the windows again,” I warn her.

  Next, I go to my room to freshen up a bit. Berta didn’t come. I refused. I wasn’t about to have her galloping on a skeleton deer behind me. The suitcase she prepared for me I tied to the mount with some straps and I imagine they’ve left it in my room. The deer, the truth is I don’t know what they’ve done with it. Because if they’d taken it to the stables, the horses would have gotten very nervous.

  Anyway, I wasn’t in any state to give them instructions.

  Now that this body no longer fears for its own, I can take care of finding out where they took it, even if it’s just to give the order to take the soldier to another city. And, of course, the investigation.

  Since I’m a bit lost in the hallways, maybe it wouldn’t be bad if Berta were here after all. I haven’t seen my mother’s maid, Layla, either. The one who brought me tea on my first day in this world. I hope she’s okay.

  It takes me a bit but I end up finding my room. Luckily this place is so abnormally empty I don’t run into any servant who might find it strange to see me lost. I freshen up a bit and, before leaving, I contact Ronan.

  Ronan, I’m at my parents’ mansion. People think there’s a curse on the water wells. I’ve seen one of them. It looks like someone sabotaged it by throwing a corpse in a few days ago. How can I know if I’m wrong and it’s a curse?

  Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

  Good morning, my lady. Have you tried to see if there really are rotting corpses inside?

  No, I was going to do it shortly.

  As for the curse, since you can see all magic, it’s simple. When a curse is cast, the dark mana remains while the curse is active.

  In the water? For example in a broth?

  It will be easier to detect at the source, in the well.

  Thank you very much, Ronan. I don’t recall there being dark mana in the town well, but I’m going to look again.

  I’m about to ask him if he’s already gone to the village when I realize: I’m not allowed to lend him the stones.

  Well, I haven’t told him where I keep them either, but that doesn’t matter. Catrina, who’s under the rector’s authority, would be furious if I lent them to him. They’re for me to train. It’s enough that I got Ronan to accompany me. If I lent them to him they could consider it, not a breach of the contract I made with them, but something punishable. And I wouldn’t want them to take them away from me.

  Of course, when I got my father’s message I stopped thinking clearly and I don’t know why I assumed Ronan would take care of the village for me.

  Um... Ronan.

  Yes, my lady?

  I just realized you can’t go to the village quickly without me. Better wait for me to come back.

  Can you not lend me the stones? The runic magic of your new vassals has not yet unraveled the secrets of portals.

  I’m afraid not. It’ll be more time-efficient for you to wait for me than to try to travel on your own.

  There are a few seconds of silence on the other side before he answers. I’m sitting on a cushioned bench I have near the fireplace, unlit since it’s not cold enough yet to light it. The discomfort is palpable even though he’s not present.

  Is this when he realizes I’m not, at all, perfect?

  My lady, do not worry, I am weighing options. Some will work. You just focus on helping your family.

  Thanks, Ronan. See you.

  Contact me whenever you want, until then, my lady.

  I get up feeling somewhat foolish for thinking he could take care of the village without me and I leave the room. As soon as I see a servant, I ask him to take me to my deer. He pales a bit hearing it, but nods and guides me. We don’t go to the stables, but to a more distant area, at the limits of the mansion’s grounds. It smells bad. I think the well can’t be far. One of my father’s soldiers is already waiting, and it seems he’s been waiting for me. I give instructions to Ronan’s creature. He cannot do it. It’s beyond the reach of his master-undead creature bond. Next, I ask the same servant to guide me to the well.

  We walk several dozen meters along the edge of a crop field and arrive. I notice it’s also boarded up.

  “I’ll need a couple of men to look and see if there’s any corpse inside and take it out.”

  “Miss, I’m afraid you can’t order that. The count...”

  “Go see my father,” I interrupt him. “If necessary I’ll go myself, but I prefer to stay here, checking if there’s any curse.”

  He looks at me a bit strangely and then nods.

  “Very well, miss. One of the count’s knights, who has low affinity for darkness, already checked it and says he detected none. Don’t worry.”

  Right.

  First, how do I tell him that if I’m only supposed to have earth magic? Because to see dark mana you need affinity for darkness or the opposite element.

  Second, why do they keep saying the well is cursed if they already checked it wasn’t?

  Don’t they trust the knight because he only has low affinity or is it just easier to fall into superstition and blame the earth spirits?

  Oh, maybe since this servant isn’t a mage and doesn’t know about magic, he thinks someone with earth magic could be capable of detecting that.

  “Uh... thanks. Anyway, I’ll wait here for my father to approve the well thing and, if there’s any corpse, it’s best to remove it as soon as possible.”

  Once he’s gone, I turn my attention to the well. There’s no trace of mana, no matter the color. My light affinity is only medium, but I should still be able to detect subtler traces than someone with low darkness affinity. Still, there’s nothing. And I’m not going to ask Ronan or Mary to come here for this—their affinities are high—since I’m convinced it wasn’t a curse.

  More than an hour later, when finally a couple of men come, uncover the well and pull out a couple of human corpses from inside, everything becomes clear.

  Non-magical sabotage.

  And, by the way, I gag from the stench when they drop the corpses on the ground. I say they’re human by shape, which doesn’t look like any animal, but they’re bloated, with clothes stuck to them, and one of them emits gases and a dark, nauseating liquid when it hits the ground.

  I can’t take it anymore there. I have to step away. If I don’t vomit I think it’s due to my high constitution. One of the two men who pulled them out does.

  I recover a bit and look again. Greenish skin, areas with dark putrefaction stains, distorted face with blackish-purple lips and tongues sticking out, whitish, sunken or destroyed eyes...

  I definitely step away. There’s nothing to see there.

  One of the two men, the one who didn’t vomit, approaches me.

  “By their state, they’ve been in the well about four or five days. Possibly they’re a couple of stable boys who had disappeared. I’m going to inform the count.”

  “You, you understand this stuff?” I ask him.

  For a moment, it’s almost as if he were a forensic examiner and I the detective in a police movie.

  “Somewhat, that’s why they sent me to come. If you’ll excuse me, miss...”

  “Of course.”

  I step aside. His companion has moved a few meters from the well and seems to be recovering. I imagine he’ll stay here until they receive instructions from my father. The ideal would be to do the same at the town well. I’m going to go just to check there’s no dark magic but I’m not going to stay until they pull out the corpses and give them a decent burial. I prefer that, like my father, they tell me what they find out later.

  With just one whiff of that nauseating smell and one look at those bloated bodies, their long nails and peeling skin, I’ve had enough, thanks. At this rate they’re going to kick the assassins out of my nightmares to star in them themselves.

  Ugh...

  Thank goodness Ronan’s zombies aren’t like that. That would really give me the creeps.