forum We're All a Little Mad // OxO // Closed

Started November 01, 2019 by @ElderGod-Icefire

tune

The person sighed softly. "Ah. Yikes." They ran a hand through their hair. "I see."

Aliana looked at them. She said nothing though.

"What do you know about me?" they finally asked.

"We know that you were the guardian of the Vorpal sword." Hatta replied simply.

Aliana bit her lip debating if she should add on or not.

"Anything else?" they asked, linking their hands together.

"And, and you might know more about the, uh, Jabberwocky curse," Aliana added on her voice meeker than earlier.

They frowned slightly, and nodded. "Yes, that too."

Aliana bit her lip again worried she had said the wrong thing.

"What's your name, by the way?" Hatta asked.

"Glade." they replied simply.

Aliana smiled at Glade.

"Okay. So…can you help us out?" Hatta asked.

Glade let out a breath. "That depends on what you want."

"What, what do you mean?" Aliana asked her heart sinking slightly. Did he not know how to save Hatta?

"The Jabberwocky thing is not a curse. It was a burden that the Quin family willingly undertook. Of course, at that time the family was larger. They would never have dreamed it would be reduced to a single man." Glade responded.

Aliana's heart fell for Hatta. There probably wasn't a way to undo it then. Hatta would have to bear his family's burden wouldn't he, "So, so there's no way to stop it?"

"Now, I didn't say that. Don't put words in my mouth, young lady." Glade's age was difficult to pin. Their hair was silver, but their face was unlined, young seeming.

"Oh, um, sorry," Aliana muttered her face growing red. She shouldn't have jumped to conclusions so quickly, but it felt like that was where he was going.

"It could probably be removed. Probably." Glade said slowly. "Thing is, that's what's keeping a lot of malignant magic bound and out of the hands of those who would do harm."

"Right," Aliana responded softly as her mind traveled to the man who had taken her some time ago.

"If that malignant magic was loosened…it caused havoc back when it was first loose. Plus, undoing it would cause all sorts of problems for Hatta."

Aliana went quiet. She bit her lip before asking, "Like, like what?"

"Well. The malignant magic is as much a part of him as his normal magic, and removing the malignant magic would cause the remaining magic to essentially devour him from the inside, since it is accustomed to having the malignant magic to balance it out." Glade explained.

There was no way to help him was there? All this travel for almost nothing. Aliana's heart just kept falling and she stayed silent.

"So Hatta needs to continue holding at least a little malignant magic, though that doesn't mean that the Jabberwocky binding cannot be undone." Glade reasoned.

"The, the malignant magic and the Jabberwocky are two different things?" Aliana asked softly.

"Sort of. The Jabberwocky is the physical incarnation of the malignant magic. However, it is only like that because of very specific spellwork, wherein Hatta absorbs all the malignant magic, thereby becoming the Jabberwocky." Glade explained.