Sylvia's eyes blinked opened. Her eyes adjusted to the faint light of the room before noticing the ceiling tiles were certainly not the same ones from her dorm.
She went to sit up, but the weight on her chest held her down. She investigated with her hand and ran her fingers through familiar black hair before realizing that Evania's head was the weight on her chest.
"Eva." She called to her. "Wake up."
Evania stirred before sitting back in her chair to brush the tiredness out of her eyes. Sylvia went to sit up, but as soon as her body began lifting her world began spinning, and she landed back on the pillows with a groan.
"Are you okay?" Evania whispered. "Does your head still hurt?"
"I'm going to be sick." Sylvia answered. She could already feel the bile clawing it's way up her throat as she scrambled up into a sitting position.
Evania raised the bucket from the side of the bed just in time for Sylvia to grab it and unload whatever she had eaten prior. Evania cringed, not really knowing what else she could do. She glanced over her shoulder to see if the doctor had heard but she didn't want to call out to them.
Thankfully the doctor did hear and he stepped through the curtain and up to the bed. "Hey, not feeling so good huh?" He noted.
"My world is spinning." Sylvia answered. "What the hell happened to me?"
"It seems you had a migraine." He offered.
"No shit." Sylvia growled, before dry heaving a bit. "Why the fuck am I sick now?"
"Nausea and vomiting are a symptom of severe migraines. But thankfully we've actually figured out what's wrong with you this time."
"Oh really?"
"Seems the gentleman who cut you actually left you with an unpleasant curse." He noted. "We were able to find it from Sarah's examination. I have to apologize, while I do specialize in medicine I wasn't aware magic could do something like this, so I wasn't looking for it."
"So what's that mean doc?" Sylvia asked. "I don't actually have chronic migraines?"
"You do, but they shouldn't get that severe. At least not while you're healing as much as you are. The curse is basically intensifying the pain, and this doubles when you're trying to heal it."
"Then what the hell am I supposed to do? Can't someone fix it?"
Evania gently pat Sylvia on the leg as the doctor continued. "From what I was told by Sarah and Alice, Akeno is going to come by first thing in the morning to remove your curse. Sarah was going to do it but since we don't entirely know it's nature we agreed it might be better to make sure it's completely gone with some divinity."
"What about Kai?" Sylvia muttered. "Someone go wake her ass up."
She wasn't in her dorm. Evania noted. Alice said she'll be trying to send her a vision, but she couldn't make any promises...
"I'm not sure about that. From what I was told we weren't able to find her at the moment. If you manage to get into contact with her I'm sure she could do the same." The doctor agreed before leaning through the curtain and grabbing another bucket before handing the clean one to Sylvia and taking the "used" one away. "I'll leave you two alone for the night. If you need anything I'll be in the other room."
"Thank you." Sylvia sighed deeply. As he left she moved the bucket to the side of the bed before laying back down.
"Are you sure you're okay now?" Evania whispered once she heard the door close.
"My head doesn't hurt at the moment but I feel like everything is spinning. Why the hell is this guys curse effecting me now? It doesn't make sense. Curses don't act like this."
"You don't think it's his curse?" The vampire asked.
"No. He's too stupid to come up with something like this." Sylvia noted. "It has to be something else."
"It won't matter once Akeno or Kai cures you of it though. So it doesn't really matter."
Sylvia raised her left arm to look at her crest as it faintly glowed on her skin.
"What is it?" Evania asked.
"I didn't really think about it much... but this happened around the same time..."
"You think your crest is hurting you?"
"I think my crest may have triggered something else." Sylvia answered.
"What do you mean?"
"Your mana as my mate's should be healing me of any physical injuries or illness before it has the chance to become something like this. This whole time we had been in contact, so I shouldn't have woken up feeling sick to my stomach. It doesn't make sense. So something is attacking my very nature and turning it against me."
"Why would your crest do that?"
Sylvia's eyes trailed up to the glowing purple spirals that pulsed on her arm.
"Evania. We need to go wake up Kendra."
"You think Morgan has something to do with it?"
"I do. And I know how powerful she is. If its Morgan's curse than there's a chance even divinity won't be able to fix it. It needs to be removed by someone who might know the curse."
"Do you want me to go get her?" Evania asked, standing up.
"I'd go with you but... well... I think I'll throw up again." Sylvia offered.
"I'll be right back." Evania nodded, before leaning forward and kissing Sylvia on the top of the head. She then vanished through the curtain leaving the succubus alone.
Evania returned about twenty minutes later with Kendra in tow. The girl looked exhausted and she had clearly been woken from slumber. She was wearing a long night shirt and today's jeans that she had certainly pulled off the floor.
She tried to correct her hair over her brow as she stood beside Evania. "What's wrong? Are you alright?"
"How much do you know about Morgan's curse? The one she put on me?" Sylvia asked the young mage.
"I know a bit about it. It was supposed to make you look like a monster to the people around you. I just know that it backfired and it ended up making people think you were a gift from God."
"I think Morgan's visual curse was laced with an actual one. That should I ever embrace my family name, I would start to wither away." Sylvia noted.
You're dying? Evania asked.
"I don't know." Sylvia answered, shaking her head a bit. "I don't know if it's supposed to kill me or make me suffer. So far it's doing the latter."
Kendra moved beside the bed before placing one hand on Sylvia's head and the other over Sylvia's chest. She closed her eyes and seemed to focus for a moment before moving the hand on her head to the crest on the succubi's arm. She focused for only a second before blinking and looking at Sylvia in shock.
"The magic in the spirals, it's reacting to the crest. Like it's telling your body that the crest is evil, and it's attacking every other part of your body. It's corrupting your flow of mana and magic. Sylvia, it is killing you."
Evania's hand came up to her own chest as she felt the heart inside her skip a few beats before it began to race. Sylvia didn't think she was dying, but now she couldn't doubt it. Evania even more so.
"Well shit." Sylvia muttered under her breath.
"That's all you can say!?" Evania snapped. Kendra's body went ridged before she stepped back away from the bed as her face turned to the vampire who had appeared across from her. "You're dying and all you can say is 'shit'!?"
"Eva, you're magic is affecting Kendra." Sylvia warned her.
Evania's head snapped up to look at Kendra who was staring at her with watery eyes. The human mage wore an expression of absolute devastation, though she was clearly trying to steel herself. She looked broken, like her entire world had been taken from her. She seemed to snap out of her trance as she rubbed at the tears that began flowing down her cheeks before she took an intake of breath and turned back to Sylvia.
"It doesn't matter. She has every right to be angry with you. You sound like you're giving up Sylvia." The mage growled, her voice quivered with sadness. "You would leave Evania here by herself after everything you've done to help her get this far?"
"I'm not giving up." Sylvia admitted, looking between the two of them. "Hopefully now that we know it's cause Kai and Akeno can start working on it."
"Maybe..." Kendra seemed in thought for a moment. "Where is Kai?"
"They couldn't find her." Sylvia offered.
"Did you check Zali and Isirona's dorm?"
Sylvia and Evania blinked before exchanging glances.
"Zali is her best friend. They're allowed to spend the night..." Kendra rolled her eyes.
Evania blinked again before she vanished again.
"Seriously, do the two of you have a collective of two braincells?" Kendra narrowed her eyes.
"I know you're only mad at us because of Evania's spell, but damn..." Sylvia retorted.
Evania returned a moment later where she set Kai down on the floor. Kai seemed to brace herself before turning her head around curiously. "Evania, where the hell am I? You can't just kidnap me, I have no idea where you've taken me!" The fox growled.
"You're in the infirmary." Kendra explained. "Sylvia has an issue that we're hoping you can solve."
Kai corrected herself, standing up straight. "What happened?"
Evania seemed to explain the situation to the fox telepathically as she moved her hands a bit like she was speaking. The kitsune nodded a few times before taking her place across from Kendra. "Alright. I'll see what I can do."
"Kai, I don't think you're divinity is going to be able to outright cure the curse. But I think we can trick it with my blood." Kendra offered. "My blood shouldn't react negatively to Morgan's curse, but it might ignore yours entirely."
"What did you have in mind?"
"Normally I wouldn't suggest it, but the curse is actually killing Sylvia, and I know Chysolite can get into a lot of trouble for interfering in things like this." Kendra sighed. "I don't like the idea, but I can become your vassal for the moment, your divinity should be able to cleanse that curse from Sylvia."
Kai seemed in thought before she nodded. "You're right. It could probably work. If its your body the curse won't be able to sense me. But that's only if it's Morgan's curse."
"It is. It has to be." Kendra nodded. "I recognize it from incantations and circles in my home. It has to be able to resist divinity, otherwise Caliburn should have cleansed it from her body the moment she took hold of it."
Kai nodded. "Very well." She offered her hand. "I'll possess you temporarily. I'll leave you afterwards and we'll never speak of it again."
"Agreed."
Evania didn't understand why the two of them hated the idea so much. She assumed the two of them actually got along, though there must have been some kind of tension she didn't know about. Did they secretly hate each other? Kendra did seem like the kind of person who would put herself on a pedestal.
Kendra took the offered hand, and gave it a single shake.
"I don't know if you guys are creating some kind of pact that I should be aware of, but I don't really understand what's going on." Sylvia noted, narrowing her eyes between the two of them, clearly thinking the same thing as Evania.
Kai's body was swallowed in flames before it completely vanished. Kendra tensed a bit as red lines, similarly to the tattoos on Kai spread down her arms. Evania and Sylvia expected to see fox ears stand up on Kendra's head, but no such thing happened.
Instead, Kendra reached over, moving her hands back to Sylvia's head and chest before she closed her eyes. The purple spirals on Sylvia's body pulsed once, twice, and a third time before the glow became a steady light. Sylvia glanced down at her body nervously, waiting for intense pain or some kind of resistance.
Kendra took a deep breath before exhaling slowly, and as she did, the glowing spirals that had plagued Sylvia's flawless complexion for her entire life, faded out completely.
Sylvia let out a sigh of relief, as all her nausea left her completely. She turned to smile at Evania before a burning pain erupted in her back. She let out a scream of pain and gasped pulling herself away from Kendra's touch. She rolled onto her stomach before picking herself up so she was on her hands and knees on the bed.
It felt like something was trying to tear its way out of her back. Like her bones were breaking or sliding out of her. She completely shed her human form, one of her horns catching on the pillow and tearing it opened as her head turned quickly from the pain.
"Sylvia?" Evania called as she rushed forward.
"W-What's happening!? What the hell did you do to me!?" Sylvia snarled through her clenched teeth.
"I don't know. I should have just removed the curse, there's no reason for-"
There was a loud crack, followed by a second, and both Evania and Kendra stumbled back and away from the bed.
The pain stopped just as quickly as it appeared. Sylvia let out a soft gasp, like she didn't understand what the hell had just transpired. She took a deep breath, and lifted herself up to she was just kneeling on the bed, but as she went to look over her shoulder at her friends, she realized she couldn't.
There was something in the way.
"Sylvia..." Kendra noted.
Sylvia! You... you're....
"My wings..." Sylvia muttered.
The succubus folded and unfolded the appendage like second nature. Like she was testing her arm. The limb flexed and unflexed before she opened both of them, knocking them into the ceiling and the curtain's hooks, but she didn't care.
Evania had seen Isirona's wings. They were the same complexion as her demonic form.
Sylvia's form had almost completely changed color from what it used to look like. Her skin was no longer a pale gray like Isirona's. It was a deep, black with hints of purple. The membrane between the bones in her wings was a fluctuating purple color that brightened the further down it got. Her horns were much the same, brightening as it reached it's tip, and the same could be said for her tail. Even her hooves held a purple glow.
Sylvia turned, folding her wings against her back as she did so she didn't hit anything before opening them behind herself as she continued to look at them.
"W-What did you do?" Sylvia asked.
"I-I think my divinity mixed with you." Kendra offered.
"I don't hurt anymore." Sylvia blinked before looking at Kendra. "What did you do?"
"I have no idea." Kendra shook her head. "You're okay though?"
Sylvia looked to the golden crest on her arm. She expected it to glow brighter, she did not expect it to have spread up her arm. She pulled her own shirt collar down revealing it to have spread across her chest, outlining a cross over her collarbone.
"I don't think it's your divinity." Sylvia noted. "I think... I think it's mine?"
"Yours?" Kendra asked. "What do you mean?"
"I think this is what was supposed to happen when I drew Caliburn." Sylvia offered. "The Sword was forged with the soul of a God or something, wasn't it?"
"That doesn't make you a God." Kendra offered.
"But it made my Dad into a Holy Knight." Sylvia offered. "What if it did the same to me? Only it wasn't able to because of Morgan's curse? And now that it's gone....?"
"That's not- Actually that makes the most sense." Kendra seemed to stop herself. She went to snap back when Kai's body pulled itself from her back and the human mage stumbled a bit as Kai moved beside her.
"Are you alright Kendra?" The fox asked.
"Never again." Kendra retorted before looking up at Sylvia. "You really think that's the most likely scenario?"
"I do." Kai nodded. "Morgan's curse would have prevented Sylvia from being able to reach her full potential. Killing her was likely only an added bonus."
"It was supposed to make sure I could never truly wield the blade. To prove that I could never follow in his footsteps." Sylvia agreed. "But I was always supposed to be able to."
The succubus looked to Evania who was still staring at her. "What do you think? Too flashy?"
Evania blinked before hopping up onto the bed and pulling Sylvia into a kiss. The succubus was taken off guard and her wings knocked into the ceiling as she tried to steady herself before returning the kiss. Evania leaned back and pulled Sylvia into a hug, leaving her mouth right next to Sylvia's ear.
"It's you. It's perfect."