Shadows of the Darkened Veil

'I knew it, it was a curse after all, I refused to believe it… How can she?' The Viscount was now relaxed. "It's true…" The viscount's face was hanging down, relaxed yet a lot more depressed. He was devastated, and regret was visible.

"Are you totally sure…? Like, why would her mother curse her?" Matthew kept pressing on the same topic to squeeze in as much information as possible.

"She hated the young lady… It has to do something with her twin brother who died during the birth. When she got to know that only one of her children survived, she blamed the young lady." The butler kept a straight face.

'So, it's more of an emotional thing rather than practical, then, she used black magic on her own daughter to Punish her?' Ravindra was trying his best to deduce this puzzle, 'Why would you punish her…Maybe it has something to do with the recent events or more like when she got cursed…maybe Rose provoked her mother and because of that her mother cursed her… Still, when did she get cursed though?' Ravindra's hand was let go by the butler, "Uhh… When did she get…curse…? It doesn't look new to me…"

'Nice one… He can handle things, is smart and reliable, and is just a little naive… Can become a pro…' Mathew analyzed the acting skills of Ravindra aka Praduman.

"It's three…three years ago… We know it's not great to wait this long…but in the start, it was just…normal…she didn't eat a lot and we were normally concerned then, suddenly she couldn't sleep anymore and looked so worn out, she looks so poor day after day… We tried the best doctor we could possibly find… No one was a black magic user unless the lord came" The butler was now making a sad face, he was tough, not someone who could break easily, which meant that he could think straight and that was not a thing Mathew and his brilliant team wanted to see.

"Lord… should know something that can…take this curse out of my daughter." The Viscount was pleading now, "There has to be something or someone, or maybe lord can do…something"

"I don't think anyone would do anything on this matter, as I said before curses aren't meant to be played, they can be suppressed but I don't think that can be a case… I looks kinda impossible to me… I can try to curse her in order to override the original curses…yeah…but that caries risk…"

"We can do everything to help Lord…" The butler talked like a diplomat, "All we want is that curse to be gone from her…"

"We can try…but I don't think she has more than two months or three at max" Mathew was testing their limits, giving them shock after shock wasn't enough by his side.

"Ok… I will try…but I need to…look up a lot of things…can get me any book you can find on curses, maybe they'll help me a little, to remove the curse… I know how to handle it or know what it is…but removing a curse…is not something I tried… It's so…difficult…"

"F-For Lord what can be difficult?" The Viscount was dancing now under their hands, he was not just devastated but also intermediated by lack of knowledge.

"Curses… It's cursed, like if I were to curse someone… I can't do that in a single day…or a week or a month, this one looks like a year or two at least. It's now part of her, if I met her like… three years ago, it wouldn't have been any trouble but now it's like a part of her. The same way we move limbs, the same way we can feel them, the same way it is a part of her…" With a sigh, Ravindra delivered the final part of the act, now all that was left was to use a spell to put Rose forcefully to sleep, it was like drugs, the same way medicines make us sleep. "I will use a spell now…and it's difficult to use… it will put her to sleep…not for very long though. It's risky as well. uh…Mathew give me a hand please"

"Yeah"

Mathew forcefully flipped her, she put both of her hands on her head. Ravindra used the spell to forcefully make her sleep, it was called dark satisium but they would brand it as a curse, as long as they didn't complete their mission they would put Rose to sleep with this spell.

When he used dark satisium, there was darkness coming from his hands or more like no light was coming through that area, it was just dark, and a red lightening would go off every second which was the effect of the spell but Mathew told them that it was the curse.

For a second Rose's face disappeared, "This amount of dosage should be enough right?"

"Hmm… Yeah…enough" Mathew checked her nevers, her heartbeat was relaxing, and it was the effect of the spell. "Let's put her to bed"

They picked her up through her shoulder and Ravindra her legs, "She is soo… light… she's like a paper…" Ravindra couldn't stop commenting though.

"Why don't we take her for a walk when she wakes up…" Mathew was impressed at Ravindra's suggestion.

"Yeah… Let's try that" In the starting, they need to show their 'sincerity' towards Rose.

"Okay…now if you please give me a room nearby her and make some arrangements in this room so that I can examine the curse and find out how it actually looks… Just put my books on this table," Ravindra pointed at a table far from Rose's bed. "Also keep the door open all the time and don't peek…only come in if I scream…"

"How can a young lady do anything at all"

"If I right now try to cut your right hand thumb would you let me…NO… It will be your normal reaction to protest, to save yourself and if I keep threatening to cut your thumb you might attract me and even kill me…if you can't think straight… That is the case with Rose, the curse is like breathing to her… She can attract with full force if she thinks that I can cut her limbs or her curses off her"

"Curses?" They were more shocked.

"Not curses but like binding, they like layers and layers of curses making it difficult for anyone to…remove them instantly."

At this point the books had arrived, most of them were about black magic except two of them which had a false front cover. They were kept at the table, a total of 10 books. Meanwhile, the attendees of Rose carefully straightened her up, and put a blanket on top of her.

"Doctors… Rest for a while, have dinner and then, see her…"

"Yeah… Keep an eye on her… When she wakes up…just tell me…" Ravindra was the MVP of the act, acted like a pro doctor and a good one.

After dinner, Mathew and Ravindra went for a walk in the garden of the mansion. They were casually moving here and there discussing a thing or two about black magic, the temperature inside the mansion was dense than it used to be after these doctors came, the broker however took his payment and left.

"Such a nice breeze… pew…" Ravindra was listening and was admiring the night walk.

"Indeed… hmm…" With a sigh, Mathew looked at the window of Rose and then said, "She will be sleeping, we will not study today… Let's look into her… You have to keep practising dark magic fire…"

"I would if I don't have to use that dark satisium… or something… It drains all the magic…" Ravindra was complaining.

They stopped moving and looked at the thatched huts on the farms, the farms are really big and the light looked like it was coming from really far away, in the night this distance looked more than it looked at day. "These farms are so big… Like if he has an underground then, it can…have a lot of soldiers."

They were whispering, "Yeah… I believe the same but let's just pray that there is no underground to these farms and this Viscount turns out to be a normal traitor."

"How are making the plan flawless like how do we make them believe in us…so that they leave us alone, we still need supplies, this will take a while here, to let us move into his office freely and use…you know…on him" Ravindra was not so sure how the Viscount would let them move around in their mansion feely, if they had to get all the proof on Viscount they would need to get to his office and look for letter or important document that would suggest that the Viscount was a traitor but that was only part one, they also need the viscount to believe in Ravindra aka Praduman so that he could use the Dark magic of illusion which requires dark magic fire, to get dark magic fire one needs to practise it, Ravindra if uses dark satisium then, it makes practising dark magic fire with his low level difficult.

With a sigh, Mathew shrugged and said, "I seriously have no idea how to do that… For now, let's just move along what we are doing."

"Okay… And can you tell me more about black magic, if I were to talk to someone or they straight up asked me about it…like…uh…I need something to say to them, you know what I mean…"

"I told all I knew about black magic, there is nothing else, we need to study more about dark magic and black magic…" Mathew placed one of his hands on Ravindra's shoulder, "We have to make drove that…Samul…mad, he should feel fear…"

"All that is ok…but that girl…how are we…I mean you will keep her alive" Ravindra still had no idea how much time that girl had left with, his concerns were simple, 'What if she dies like tomorrow…that will ruin all our plans'

"All I can say… It will be difficult and that is why she is going to be your practice, you will perform the basics of dark magic illusion on that girl and then, make her talk forcefully, curse or not curse, apparently dark magic gets the priority when it comes to magic, with your dark magic we might be able to figure out what curse that girl has." Mathew's intentions were more about the curses rather than getting information and finishing the viscount.

"Hmm… If you say so… But again, she should not be our experiment…She is so thin, so vulnerable" Ravindra was showing his concerns about using Rose as a test subject, this practice could kill the test subject.

"Don't worry about that, I will have things under control" Mathew sounded confident.

"Okay…if you say so…" Ravindra agreed as he was supposed to do things as he was told by Mathew. "Oh, that old woman whom I said was the patient said she wants to talk..."

"What does she want to say" 

"I don't know... She said it was important" 

The question still remained what was the reason for cursing Rose and what was the curse in the first place, what does it do... And more importantly, how were they planning to make sure they completed the mission given to them? The viscount was a cautious person and his butler was even more. The staff was also so selected, there was also garrison... No one was a fool here, they only had one weakness to exploit and that was Rose and her curse, how much can they exploit her curse... They is a limit to every thing, they needed to be very smarter than everyone at the mansion.