Chapter 12

Aoifa let out a long, drawn out sigh of relief as she stepped under the flow of steaming liquid. Water may not be her element but it sure did smooth her soul. The stress from the past few days began to melt and flow down the drain. Never before had Aoifa been so personally invested in the outcome of a job. She wasn't even sure if she should call this a job. This would be her home, her new life, her people. All of these individuals were counting on her to make a difference and pull through.

The lack of progress over the past two days was disheartening. Several people were working on a list of potential curse triggers, several more went out every day and checked any suggestions on the lists. The first day they were practical, the new shipment of nonperishable produce, a beautiful collection of jewelry for men and women that many of the pack had tried on, the supply of toothbrushes the pack dentist handed out every month. The second day, after all the practical options had been exhausted, the list had almost any import they could think of, including little girls shoes, jockstraps, and a singular tin of chewing tobacco. Needless to say, today's list was even more disparaging.

Pushing it from her mind she focused on the feel of her nails on her scalp and the beat of hot water on the sore muscles of her shoulders. Another deep sigh out and Aoifa leaned against the wall, finished but unwilling to leave the solace of softly falling heaven.

Things between Gabal and Aoifa had remained strained. There was an unspoken distance that Gabal seemed set on maintaining. Something she could not overcome. It pained her to have him constantly pull away or avoid her at night. She understood the stress and burden he faced, more than he could know. And she wanted to help him whatever way she could, but drawing away from her would do the opposite of keeping him focused. Goodness knows she couldn't concentrate on anything while he was away. But Aoifa also knew that a lot of her frustration stemmed from her inability to simply fix the problem.

There were few illnesses she couldn't fix with the wave of a hand and a thought. Illnesses of the mind were often more complex, but the body was her domain. For her to visit them, suspended in pain, to see their loved ones mourning their loss as they spend day after day watching them slowly die, and then to leave after doing nothing… She would give anything, any amount of money, any one of a kind item, any form of currency or exchange someone desired to save these people here and now.

She stopped the shower and got out slowly, allowing herself a moment of wallowing before she had to go out and put on her game face for her match and her pack. Bracing herself, she dried and wrapped the towel around herself, shaking her jeans straight to put with her other dirty clothes. A pingin clinked against the tiles, bouncing twice before the coin rolled in a neat circle on its side, coming to a stop against her big toe.

She froze, a sudden thought coming to mind. Scrambling, she made a mad dash for Gabal's office here in his home. It was on the ground floor, the door right at the bottom of the stairs. She tore out of the master bedroom and took the stairs in two big leaps. At the bottom she ripped open the door and ran inside, chest heaving.

"Has anyone checked the money," she called to Gabal, who sat at his desk looking over her dripping, towel clad body in shock. "Gabal," she demanded. "Has anyone checked your currency?" Snapping his attention to the matter at hand had never been so difficult. They had only known each other for a few short days but his need to claim was overwhelming. Still, for the betterment of his pack, he drew his need within and collected his wits.

He grabbed the lists and gave them a quick once over. No one had written down or checked the money. An oversight that would be handled. "Coins? Bills?" Gabal was quick to begin questions, jotting things down and making a mental list of applicable personnel to handle the task. If his Match was this excited about the new lead then he was confident they had found their trigger.

"Coins. The paper, cotton blend of bills wouldn't be able to hold a curse for this duration. Metal is denser and can sustain magic longer." She was practically vibrating with excitement. After stale movement for days, there was finally a promising development. "If this is what we think it is, then whatever coins your pack is using need to be gathered up and inspected. Everyone should proceed with caution, no skin contact, using thick–" Aoifa was cut off as someone rounded the corner into the office behind her.

Gabal let out a bellow that shook the paintings on the wall and the poor man in his boots. He quickly turned around and ran back the way he came. When Gabal started to give chase, his Match was just quick enough to grab his arm. He risked towing her bare feet across the floor, or potentially bumping her into walls and door frames, so he stopped short, turning his curled maw and sharp eyes to her. She looked up at him with a sheepish smile.

"I'm sorry about that, love. Everything important was covered, I promise, and it had to be urgent for him to barge into your home like that. Why don't we go upstairs and you can pick something out for me to wear, then go see what he'd like?" He considered her gentle words and realized that he would very much like that. He wondered if any of the pack had a nun's habit for her to don for a while until he could get her one, or several. One for every day of the week.

He let himself be led upstairs, brought to his closet where some of her clothes had accumulated from the last couple of days spent here. He picked out a long, multicolored green, blue, and black skirt that had a confusing pattern of vines and flora mashed with geometric shapes. But the only thing he really saw was the length, leaving just enough room for her toes to peek through with every step. Then he got one of his own long sleeved turtlenecks in black, popping it over her head before she could say a word against it, not that she would have. Once he had helped her guide her arms into the correct holes he stepped back to retrieve the bottoms. He lowered his enormous frame to help her glide the skirt up full thighs and around an ample behind. His hands splayed out across her waist just above here he'd settled the elastic band of her garment, feeling soft skin and a quick pulse.

With extreme effort he pulled himself away and rose, taking the towel with him now that she was safely covered. The intimacy of that moment was not lost on either of them. The apples of Aoifa's cheeks glowed red above her broad smile. "We should do that more often." Gabal answered with a grunt that Aoifa had come to realize met yes. She grinned just a bit harder. "Time to face the music, big guy. Let's go see what the boy needs."

Her match puffed up at his new pet name, happy to live up to the image, his wild in agreement. He was unsure whether to be placated further by his mate's obvious dismissal of one of his top warriors as a boy. On one hand he could assume that meant she had written him off as a potential competitor for her affections, and on the other hand he did not know how any being could write Elric off as an adolescent. He was nearly as tall as his Alpha and almost as wide. He posed a decent challenge in the ring, more so than many others his age.

As Gabal held his internal monolog he was led back downstairs and out the foyer of his home, their steps echoing softly against raised ceilings and dark hardwood floors. He kept it simple in his home. Only the bare minimum was needed for him to be content, and why bother decorating when there was no match to impress. Now that she was here, he was a little embarrassed by the lack of style and personality his home offered. Aoifa, of course, had been charmed by the possibilities and had told him so several times over.

The sound of the front door clicking open brought him back to the moment, where he gently took over from his mate and tucked her safely behind his back. Standing erect with his head bowed stood all six foot seven of his warrior Elric, practically vibrating with restrained impatience. Before either one could say anything, he started to spew out words with a barely comprehensible urgency that took several seconds to decode.

"MyMaidenfellintheshopandtheythinkshehasthecursenoonewillhelp," he stated with desperation that did not fit his capable stature.

"Lead the way," said his mate, almost immediately. She had followed what had been said much easier than he. If what Elric said was true, they had a new patient on their hands and potentially an answer to what had caused all this trouble to begin with.

They made quick work of the distance from Gabal's house to the common area with trees and shops. Aoifa could feel the tension rising from the people gathered outside of the small general store where Elric's young match had been doing errands for their household. Reportedly, she had complained of a headache earlier that day, along with having a slightly stuffy nose. Both things were not uncommon for her and her match had just asked her to rest before he had left for the training rings this morning. People inside the store said they could hear her talking to herself, more than her usual mumbling, and said that she seemed shaky and flushed.

The symptoms were adding up and it seemed like they had their next victim, caught unawares as she completed her shopping. They would need more information to be sure, but coins were looking more and more like the culprit. Mollified, in part, that they were on the right track, Aoifa followed the wide path Gabal forged through the thickening crowd.

"About your business," he called to the uninvolved onlookers. His voice was stern, leaving no room for argument. Without looking back to see if anyone listened to him, he opened the shop door just enough to disappear inside, leaving Aoifa to follow after him.

The small interior of the store was well lit and bright with cheerful colors in a way that contradicted the somber mood. It boasted a neatly displayed variety of products divided into brightly labeled categories. The woman had collapsed near the counter, just a few short steps away from the full windows of the front door. Her body was still lying prone in a position that suggested no-one had offered her aid, just as Elric had reported. Money was spread at random around her, leading Aoifa to believe that she had been in the middle of paying her due to the cashier.

Aoifa rushed around her match, eager to get to the woman and see if she could help. Before she could make it two steps, she was pulled back into a broad chest. She looked up into grey eyes that stared intently back at her, that said all the things Gabal couldn't force from his mouth.

"I'll be okay. The only thing that can harm me is the trigger, and even that would have a hell of a time trying. I'm just going to assess her and see if this is what we think it is and then I'll examine the coins on her person without touching." She stroked his fingers that had curled her wrist in a tight grip, soothing him in a way only she could.

Properly reassured, Gabal allowed Aoifa to crouch beside her newest patient and waited with baited breath as his match placed a hand on her forehead. Both women remained still, the swell of steady breaths were the only thing that could reassure the minds of the men standing and observing.

Shortly after Aoifa had begun her assessment of Elric's Maiden, Ansel and Samuel had quietly joined them in the store. They each stood in silence, not wanting to disturb their Lady as she worked, fearing a break in concentration could make something go wrong. But none of her silent observers knew just how right they were.

Aoifa, from the moment she made contact with the woman she now knew as Corrine, was in a battle of life and death. The curse didn't have as strong of a grip on its host, being just implemented a short while ago. The inky, thick miasma that coiled around the soul of this woman had yet to consume her as it had the others. This was thanks, in part, to two things. The first being as simple as time. It took time for the curse to root itself inside of its victims. The second was the more complicated of the two. Corrie was pregnant.

It was a recent thing, no more than a couple weeks old, the soul of her child still deciding which shape to take. But it was alive, it possessed the will to survive, to thrive, and Aoifa would be damned if she didn't save it. She knew instinctively that Corrine would never be able to sustain herself and her young while being drained of life. Corrine knew this as well, so with everything she had, she fought. Battling back the dark trying to put her under, struggling with every ounce of her soul. She knew if she gave in, her baby would die.

So, Aoifa fought with her. She lent Corrine her strength and pushed away the sickly dark that attached itself to Corrine's soul.

Indoors, and in broad daylight, she invoked the light of the moon. She called forth the will of the Huntress and molded it to her own, working to envelop mother and maiden, two aspects of the moon Herself. The force was pliable under her metaphorical grasp, easily smothering the evil working against innocents.

Then, by no will of her own, she was pulled to follow the darkness as it fled. Her consciousness followed an invisible trail of matter that only the Light of the Goddess could sense. As Aoifa came to an abrupt stop, the feeling akin to having your feet dangle above the highest point of a rollercoaster dropped her stomach. As the feeling slowly dissipated, she became aware of her surroundings. What she saw struck fear deep into her soul. A fear she had not felt in over two centuries.

She was back. Back in her prison deep in the belly of a mountain, surrounded by hills of gold and riches, topped with the body of a golden dragon sitting proud and gazing at his treasure. Only this time, there was another at his feet. Surrounded by shadow in both body and mind, she crooned soft things to him, stroking claws and scales with love and worship. "My beautiful match," she exulted. "My darling drake. I am almost done. Almost enough. Soon, my love. Soon you will breathe again, fly again. And together, we will rend the witch that took your noble life. We will kill your Treasure and any that stand in our way. Together."