In situations like this, it's sort of traditional to ask for the bad news first. You have an urge to do exactly that, but you shrug it off.
"Let's start with the typical news," you tell Briar. "Given that you were poking around in Cordy's head right before you got thrown across the room, I'm guessing you found something that wasn't related to the evil necromantic shadow creature. Am I right?"
"You are."
"Oh, fabu," Cordelia groans. "So, what? Am I secretly part-demon like Tatsuki, or under some sort of mystical seal like Strawberry Boy? Oh, let me guess; I have some huge terrifying creature living in my soul like Dragon Girl here."
Altria frowns.
"None of the above," Briar says firmly. "As far as I can tell, you are absolutely one hundred percent human, you are not under a seal or compulsion of any kind, and whatever sort of spirit animal you have - and you do have one, Cordy, everybody does - it isn't big enough or active enough to show up casually." The fairy pauses, then sighs and adds, "You are, however, cursed."
"...shouldn't that be the bad news?" you venture after a moment.
"It would be if the curse was active, but it's not. It looks like the trigger hasn't been tripped yet, whatever it is."
"Like Sleeping Beauty being cursed to die when she pricks her finger on the spinning wheel?" Altria guesses.
"Pretty much, although this doesn't feel anything like as aggressive as a death curse."
"Can you get rid of it?" Cordelia asks.
"I can't. Sorry."
The brunette sighs. "That'd be the bad news, right?"
"Actually, the bad news is that this feels like a divine curse, not an arcane one."
Cordelia frowns. "What's the difference?"
"If it was arcane, it would have been put on you by a practitioner," you say. "Someone who was willing to invest their own time, effort, power, and pure spite in an attempt to hurt you. If it was like that, it could have been taken off the same way - a little research to find the fix, a little magic to make it happen, and bam, no more curse."
"And since it's divine?"
"That means a god's involved," you tell her seriously. "Not some familiar spirits backing an angry witch or a jumped-up demon granting power to a sorcerer, but an actual divine entity, working towards its own purpose, with or without mortal involvement." You scowl. "A curse laid by something like that is a lot harder to get rid of."
"How hard?"
"Generally? You need another god to step in and lift the curse. A powerful mage could still do the job, but there's a serious risk of backlash even if you succeed, which could be anything from a mystical smack on the nose like Briar got, or dying on the spot." You glance worriedly at your fairy.
"I'm fine, Alex. Like I said, it's not that aggressive a curse, at least right now. I think it was intended to rely on concealment rather than direct defense - it doesn't even register to the general detection spells. I only spotted it 'cause I was specifically looking for curses, and even then, it only showed up under a deep scan. Speaking of," Briar adds brightly, "the good news is that Tall, Dark, and Evil didn't leave any surprises of its own behind."
"Hooray for silver linings," Cordelia mutters, lying back on the couch and closing her eyes. Her hand, still in yours, squeezes tightly.