Kingdom Hearts: Heart of Heaven

Chapter Twenty: Curses

Day 5- Evening

"Wh-what?" Eda says suddenly straightening and turning to look at me with wide-eyed panic as she takes a step away from me. "Curse? What curse? W-What would make you say that I'm cursed?" she says as her eyes frantically look all around the room...

As if looking for ways to escape.

"What Eda means to say is that…" King interrupts, dragging attention onto himself as he slides in between Eda and me. He pauses for a moment as his eyes shift back and forth before they widen. "Is that she is cursed with the Aging Hex!"

"Aging Hex" I stated neutrally as I barely heard Luz mumble the same thing in confusion. So, she either didn't know about the curse either or King was lying.

"Yep, the Aging Hex. It is a terrible curse that makes a Witch lose their magic as they grow older. Nothing to worry about, pinky swear!" he says as he lifts up his third claw up to me even as Eda between him and me in worry.

I just narrowed my eyes at him, as his eyes shifted slightly in worry. "Fun little fact." I say, shifting my gaze to Eda. "One of the ways the Falna grants strength to people is by granting them Skills, an arcane technique that is based off of great feats of strength that they've accomplished."

"However, sometimes this feat of strength is just enduring something nobody reasonably should. Like losing a limb instead of your life or making a name for yourself despite contracting an incurable lung disease. This gives the Falna holder a detrimental Skill, a powerful tool but one that weakens you over time." I say before looking away from king and looking Eda straight in the eyes.

"So, Eda. What is the Owl Beast?" I stated with absolutely no amusement in my tone as King takes a step back, pulling his arm back to himself as he realizes his lie failed.

"It's not Eda's fault!" Luz cuts in as she steps in front of me, King taking that chance to hide a in her shadow. "She was cursed by her sister decades ago, she's been managing it well, but one time we ran out of elixer and-"

Then Eda places a hand on Luz's shoulder. "It's alright Luz, the jig is up. Not like I could've hid it forever." She says as she gently pushes Luz and King to the side before standing in front of me with her arms crossed. "Alright Ethan, what 'Skill' exactly did your Tattoo give me?" she asks, sounding a little miffed and exasperated with the whole situation.

"Tried to give you. I stopped it before it could fully form." I corrected, feeling a little miffed myself that they were hiding something so dangerous from me. Sure, I have my secrets too, I'd be a hypocrite if I got mad at that, but my secrets don't risk the safety of everyone around me!

"But for your information, it was called the 'Owl Beast Emergence'. When you transform, it permanently decreases your Magic stat and transfers it to the Strength and Endurance of your bestial form. So, what is it, Eda? Some form of lycanthropy? Feels like something you should've told your roommate a while ago."

God, if it was a lycanthrope situation this could've been so much worse. If Eda ever transformed while in the house, I would've assumed she turned into a heartless and if we fought…

I probably would've killed her. Killed her to save her heart and protect those around her. Not knowing that she could've been turned back.

And shattering this small family in front of me, leaving Luz and King without a guardian.

Then Eda sighs as she rubs the bridge of her nose. "Yeah, that figures. Thanks for not letting the curse ruin another good thing in my life." She says as she grabs a chair and drags it over to sit down on. Just… looking defeated.

"Eda" Luz says sadly, about to put a comforting hand on her shoulder when Eda cuts her off with a raised hand. Running a hand across her face she looked towards her ward with a tired smile.

"No, Luz he's right. I should've told him this a while ago. I just… kept pushing it off, 'out of sight out of mind' and all that." She says before looking up at me, a weary determination in her eyes as she takes another deep breath.

"Forty years ago, my sister cursed me to win a tournament that would have gotten her the 'honor' joining the Emperor's Coven" she says the last part with such venom it took me back a bit "She thought it was only going to be for a day, that I'd lose my ability to cast magic against her and she'd finally get a win against her talented little sister."

She explains as she looks down at her hands, "So, after I forfeited and walked off the stage that's when I felt a pain in my chest. My fingernails became claws, feathers grew across my skin, and I became the Owl Beast."

Eda says with defeat and slumps into herself as Luz looks at her sadly and King wanders over to one of the bookshelves in the corner. "Turns out? That one day was just one day for the curse to settle. After that… the curse becomes permanent." She says as she reaches into her puffy hair and pulls out a beaker filled with a glowing golden liquid.

"I can suppress it with this Elixer, but it only lasts a day before I need to take another." She admits as she sets it on top of the table, the glowing liquid sloshing for a moment before she lets out another sigh. "It's not my age that's made me lose my magic. The curse did. My magic combined with the elixir is what really keeps it at bay… even as the curse withers away at it, bit by bit over all these years."

Then King hops up on top of the table with one book in his hand as he turns to the three of us. "In the past when she used up too much magic or got too stressed, the curse would start to turn her into this-" and opening to a random page, he holds the book open to show us a sketch of a sphinx-like creature.

"But even though her magic is mostly gone, she's still doing great at keeping the beast at bay!" He says as he gives Eda a thumbs up with Eda returning one back, albeit with an exasperated expression.

I looked closely at the image, studying Eda's transformation… "God, Eda. Do you realize how bad this could've been? What if I didn't manage to cut off that Skill in time? What if you transformed and I didn't know it was you?

"Woah, Ethan. You are making this out to be wayyy worse than it really is." She says as she waves her hands in a calming motion. "I've had this curse for decades and I can count the number of times I've turned on one… two hands" she says as she sits down on the table, idly grabbing the beaker of glowing liquid and swirling it around a bit.

"I've learned how to make enough of these even with the smaller resources of this town and I've taken the proper precautions just in case." She says as she reaches into her hair again and pulls out two more bottles held between her fingers before she puts all three back in. "So, just trust me a little here kid. I've been handling it for decades and I'm not about to let it get me now." She says with a defiant pose and a proud smile, looking as if she could take on the world.

Then I turned and looked to Luz, the girl looking a little uncomfortable with this entire conversation. "Luz, you said there was a time you guys ran out. What happened?" I asked as Eda wilted a bit and Luz looked unsure but seemed to gather herself as cups her hands together.

"It was the first week when we arrived. We only had a couple of elixirs on hand and well, we had to scramble to get all the ingredients we need to make more. We, kinda, didn't make it in time." She says with an unsure smile as I raised an eyebrow.

"No one got hurt" Eda stated as the two of us looked at her. "Once we knew we were running out of time the two tied me down in the basement, while they got the rest of what I needed to get back to normal." She says as idly rubs her wrist. "Yeah, the owl didn't like that. My wrists hurt for days with how much it struggled to break free."

"… and does Mary know?" I asked as the three of them nodded. I held in a sigh. Yeah, it seems like I'm going to need to talk to her too.

"Yeah, she kinda walked in on us as we were turning Eda back to normal." King said as he rubbed the back of his head. "She had one mean glare but once we explained what was going on, she gave us first priority at the reagent shop, and we've been good since."

I leaned up against the wall, feeling my anger fade as I took a moment to just focus my thoughts. Why was I letting this affect me so badly? The Detrimental Skill was bad and even if I didn't manage to catch it in time, then I could've just warned Eda about the skill. The effects would've been minimal as long as she kept up her 'medication'…

'I-isn't there a cure? Something to help him, we are a part of the Company, there has to be something?!'

'There is'

Breathe in

'None that work in Hell'

Breathe o-

"Ethan. Are you okay?"

I blinked as I felt my hands shake. Looking down at my right hand, I see my limb tremble as my index finger twitches inward, trying to pull something that isn't there.

"Kid, we're sorry we didn't tell you," Eda says as I turn to look at her. "Having a curse isn't easy and well… It ruined a lot of my relationships back home."

Luz places a hand on Eda's arm as the two share a smile for a moment before Eda turns back to me. "I thought this place might be a fresh start. Give people the chance to see me, Eda Clawthorne, the greatest Witch from the Boiling Isles. Or was at any rate."

Then she frowns as she locks eyes with me. "So… what do see when you look at me Ethan?"

… I let out a sigh. "I see a woman stuck in a terrible situation and trying to make the best of it."

And I get that. I really do. God, I feel like a hypocrite."

"Sorry for the third degree Eda, it's just-"

"Nah I get it." Eda says as she pushes herself off the table, her high heeled shoes clicking as she touches the wooden floor.

"I've received plenty of third degrees in my life and, dear Titan, yours doesn't even rate on the scale." She says as she lifts her hands towards the ceiling stretching her whole body out before turning back to you with a cheeky smile. "Heck, can you even call it an interrogation without a single threat?"

I chuckle a bit at the grim humor. "Fair enough" I say as I just felt… tired, today has just been a rollercoaster of a day, and honestly a bed sounded great right about now.

"Buuuut, if you want to make it up to me~" She says with a sly grin before pointing a thumb toward King. "Maybe you could help him out with his book?" She asks as King makes an oddly endearing noise of surprise, hugging said book closer to his chest. "He's been making a record of all the monsters he's seen so far, and I'm sure you could double-check his work with your vast experiences"

I shrugged. "Sure, but I have an… assignment for you too," I say as I take out one of the notebooks that I bought for Luz's class but hadn't used yet. "Falna's have the ability to grant anyone the use of magic. However, it is limited to holding three spells, and other than grimoires, which don't exist here, I am not sure exactly how one goes about filling those slots."

I offer the book to her, and with only a moment's hesitation, she takes it from me as she flips it open, looking visibly confused at the empty pages within. "So, what I need you to do, is pick the most useful spell you can think of and write down everything you can about it. How to cast it, what it's supposed to do, and add as many other details as you can think of. See if that will fill the slot," I say as I tapped the notebook that she had in her grip.

"And if that doesn't work then try practicing that spell or recreating it somehow. I'm not sure of the exact mechanics on Falna-based spells, so we will need to experiment a bit."

Eda looks at me, then looks back down at the notebook, then back to me… Then she slightly lifts her head and lets out a groan. "Ughhh, nobody said there'd be homework."

"Sucks, doesn't it?" King half-comments, not backing down even as Eda glared at him, all the while Luz covered her mouth in a vain attempt to not giggle and draw Eda's ire.

"Fiiine. If it gets me back my magic, I'll do your stupid homework. I'll probably start with the Levitation spell; I miss being able to move things with my mind…. Or I could start with the Bolt spell. It's a classic for a reason." she mumbles, idly scratching the side of her head as she thinks over all the possibilities.

Then she snaps the book shut. "Eh, I'll go over my notes and see if there's a spell I'm overlooking." She says as she starts walking towards the stairs, only to pause at the first step.

"All right you three." She says as she points at the three of us. "I made dinner so it's your job to clean the dishes and put away the leftovers. I don't want to see spot of grim or any sitting in the sink by morning got it?" she says as Luz and King said 'yes ma'am' in that childish tone only kids could get right.

"Good, have fun with your book King. I got, ugh, studying to do. "She says with an exaggerated shiver before climbing up the stairs and heading to her room. "Night kids."

"Night Eda!" King says as he waves, waiting until he couldn't hear her footsteps anymore before spinning around and standing proud in front of us. "All right my minions, your mission, should you choose to accept, is to help me finish my almanac!" He says as he holds up his book, proudly displaying its title to the two of us.

101 Demons Monsters and
How to Defeat/Befriend Survive Them.
By King Clawthorne

"Wow King, your sketches have really improved." She says as she examines the cover before tilting her head to look at the dirty dishes sitting on the table. "But shouldn't we finish our chores first?"

"Pfft, chores smores. This is the real mission Eda left us with. With so many new monsters running about, I'd thought I'd expand on my previous work and publish it for all to survive in these dark times." He says proudly, before turning it around and taking a few seconds to look at his cover.

"…You three are already doing so much to help the town." He states, sounding solemn as his posture droops a little. "Eda makes the potions, Luz you teach magic, and Ethan protects people. But me? I can't do any of that." He says as he runs his clawed hand over the cover. "At least this way, I can help, even if it's just a tiny bit."

Me and Luz share a look, before she lets out a sigh, "Okay King, where would you like to start?" She says as she pulls up a chair and sits down at the table, right in front of where King is standing.

The fuzzy demon's eyes sparkle for a moment before he opens his book and flipping to a random page, he spins it around and sets it in front of her with pride. "Behold! The Crimson Chime! Its bell-like toll commands fire to strike down the un-weary! Always carry water to douse this creature so it loses command of the flames that dance to its tune!"

I'm… pretty sure that Crimson Chime isn't actually its real name, but for the life of me I can't remember it's 'canon' name. It has been years since I last played any of the games so my memory of the entire thing was hazy. I wouldn't be able to remember such a small detail like its name...

Eh, 'Crimson Chime' it is then. "I would change that last sentence to magic water. The heartless are immune to anything that doesn't have even the slightest bit of magic in it." I suggested as I pulled up a seat next to Luz and looked over the page.

"Really? Dang that sucks." He says as he grabs a pencil and starts changing the relevant sections.

"Yeah, you might also want to write down that it also heals from any fire magic and is weak to ice magic." I say, still feeling a bit lethargic but I can push it off to help these two.

"Is that the same with the other ones too? The blue and yellow heartless?" Luz asks curiously as King looks up as well.

I nod, "Yes, at least for the blue as it is weak to fire, I'm not actually sure on the weaknesses for yellow yet, nothing seemed to work especially well on them as far as I've tested…" I say, trying to go off experience while filling in the gaps by what little I still remember from the game "Oh, and the green ones do resist all kinds of spells so you are going to want to smack them down normally"

King nods as he hums thoughtfully, finishing the red heartless and moving on to the next page. "And what about these guys?" He says as he points a finger down at the sketch of a basic Shadow, which he dubbed… Sneaky Shadow.

I mean. He wasn't wrong.

"I think we need to start from the beginning. Do you have an intro into the Heartless? Kind of a description of what they are and what they can do in general?" I asked as he shook his head in negation. Reaching down, I flipped through the pages until I got to the first heartless page, which was a depiction of the Possessor or as King calls them-

"Zombie Mist?" I ask looking at King with a raised eyebrow.

"Well, it's a mist, and it brings anything it jumps into to life! I think it fits!"

"So… what you are saying is that I fought a Zombie Mailbox the other day?" I asked with an amused grin.

"Exactly!"

Luz giggles as I start copying the page to a different part of the book so that I can make room for the introduction. "I think Possessor is a better name. Easy to remember and straight to the point of what they can do."

King kicks his little foot. "Zombie Mist sounds cooler" he quietly grumbles in protest.

"Agreed." I say as I turn back to the original page and start erasing. "But we are trying to make a survival guide here. It's best to be as clear as possible. I don't want to get people confused on what their actual abilities are." Then I stopped as a horrifying Idea came to mind. "You two haven't seen them possess dead bodies have you?"

The two shook their heads and I sighed. Possessed corpses meant the possibility of a variant Possessor who could also copy all the skills that corpse had in its past life and I really didn't need that stress in my life.

"Good, that'd be bad," I said as I started with the title of the new section.

'Those that Dwell in the Realm of Darkness- The Heartless'

"So, to start with there are actually two different kinds of Heartless-" I state, getting the full attention of the two. "The first kind is called the Purebloods, they are sneakier as they hide in the shadows and tend to have darker tones to help them do so, but less variety in terms of abilities."

As I began filling out the intro with what I knew, King and Luz leaned in closer to look at what I was writing. "The second kind are called Emblems they are the ones you need to watch out for. For once they have taken someone's heart the number of abilities they have starts varying widely. So, you have to be careful when you find a new type. You never know what they can do."

I say as the two kids pay close attention to my words as I helped them refine their book into something that could one day make the difference between life and death.

I was once again dreaming of steel and machinery.

It seemed I was condemned every night to work on this gigantic platform of cogs and gears. It wasn't all bad though, I could still be back in hell after all, and I achieved some kind of Zen-like state as I worked on it. Slowly removing and fixing gears and wires as I carefully worked with each small part of this giant metal stage.

And the task was getting easier as I progressed. The leaking tar wasn't as much as an Issue anymore. Not since the Star appeared.

They just appeared one day, a ball of prismatic fire hovering right above the center of this machine. I didn't know what it was, but its light was comforting and the tar seemed to slowly evaporate underneath its light.

And as I investigated it the flames didn't hurt at all no matter how close I got. I could even touch it and it didn't hurt at all! So, I came up with the idea to split the fire into five parts, and set four of the pieces into it's own section to spread it's light as far as I could.

One piece I kept by my side, however. The fire was useful for remolding broken pieces and helped burn away the tar that sometimes still sprang up from deeper within the platform. Sometimes the flames seemed to wither and the job became harder again as they couldn't hold back the tar as well as they used to but they'd always return to their former state, just that bit brighter than before.

And as I held that small spark of flame, I felt a connection there, as if… as if it was alive in someway. A presence that despite being asleep, did it's best to comfort me, to protect me, as little as that protection was.

And I was grateful for it. For it small assistance. Maybe one day, this presence will wake up and we will get the chance to properly introduce each other. But as far as I could tell, it was always asleep and if it did wake up? It probably only did so while

I was asleep.

Figured that the only company I would receive was one I was unable to communicate with.

But it's presence was nice as I worked on the steel contraption below me. I wasn't exactly sure what it did, exactly, but deep down, I knew it was important somehow, and my efforts helped keep it ticking on, day by day.

And as I was replacing a particularly big piece. I felt something shift in the air. Taking a second to lock it into place, I stood up, only for my eyes to widen as I saw the lights from the five flames begin to dim. A dark mist roiling in from the infinite expanse of the abyss all around me.

Gathering the five lights I tried to concentrate them all into one spot, to consolidate the light and concentrate it to fight against this unknown force but as the darkness crept ever closer, snuffing out the light, and I knew it wouldn't stop, that

I wouldn't be able to stop it.

So I looked into the star that hovered above my hand. I felt the sleeping presence within and I took a deep breath.

"Please," I say as the darkness crept ever closer, "You have to WAKE UP!"

My eyes snapped open and locked onto another pair of glowing yellow pupils as a vague form gripped the ceiling above me. The thing let go and dropped down, its sharp claw posed to strike deep into my chest.

With just a flick of my hand, the Everlight answered my call, shifting into a scythe as I swung, cleanly separating the head from the creature's body.

For a brief moment as the creature entered the vastly reduced radius of my Everlight's glow, I saw the Shadow Heartless disperse into dark smoke as it died to my blade.

Then as I leaned up I had to take another swing as another hazy form tried to take advantage of my prone form as I killed that shadow as well.

Then I was finally able to take in my surroundings, noticing that all the lights were out, No, diminished, as I spotted the lanterns in the room barely flickered anymore as a dark mist covering the room tried to choke them out.

And in that mist, I saw malevolent yellow eyes staring at me. Before all of the heartless charged forward, claws outstretched to attempt to take my Heart as they tried to salvage this ambush.

Attacking when I was at my most vulnerable.