Zalair stared into the goddess’s emerald eyes for a moment, his own thin as he thought hard about the image. As he thought, his hand reached up, touching the marking on her forehead.

The carving of the wing acted like a button, pushing farther in. A moment later, from the top of the door ink came pouring down in a perfect manner. The background behind her turned blue, the clouds turned a fine clear white, and her skin turned the same shade as Zalair’s. The prince stared in near shock as the goddess’s hair grew the color black.

He opened his mouth, but didn’t breathe a word. He quickly pushed past the door and into the room following it. After he took a few gasps to catch his breath, Zalair reopened his eyes.

The room was a very simple stateroom. In the center was a large wooden desk. The whole room was shaped like a circle, even the desk. On each side of the desk were two tall torches, again lit with blue flames.

Zalair walked in, looking at the clear surface of the desk. He looked behind the desk, spotting the glyph of the sun behind the desk on the wall.

“Heh, Dad can hide real important stuff well,” Zalair smiled, walking to the wall.

He touched it, pushing his full flat palm to it. The sun lit up magically, a dim golden light filling the room. All the circular walls surrounding the room creaked and rattled. As Zalair turned around, seeing circular shelves lifting up from the floor.

“Whoa…” Zalair put a hand on his hip, the opposite ruffling his hair. “Well, I guess that’s one way to hide the most important documents in the kingdom…”

He shrugged, walking over and began to read through the titles of all the books.

Finally, he found the book, “Heh. Volume two.” He pulled out the old leather bound book with faded writing carved into it.

He took a seat on the desk, flipping open the book. Through old pages and pages filled with black scripture of words that were clear, Zalair squinted at the writing.

“It’s… In the Northern’s language…” Zalair groaned, shifting his weight. He continued to turn the pages, halfway through the book, the writing turned to Zalair’s native language, one he could read. “…Halfway… The other book wasn’t like this.”

He started to read through the blessings, flipping past them without much interest. He finally stopped and started to read once he reached the curses.

Slowly and carefully he studied the curses well into the night.

“This might be it,” he said at last, stopping to read it aloud to himself. “When the host is enchanted with this spell, he won’t realize it. Should he touch anyone with direct contact of skin to skin, that person shall be the one who’s cursed.”

Zalair shifted a bit to get more comfortable. “Once the curse is activated the host’s activating spell is removed. The person who activated the curse, the one who touched the host, will be the one who is cursed.”

Zalair rolled his eyes, starting to read the details of the curse. “Symptoms of the curse are intense frequent fatigue resulting in loss of consciousness. This fatigue, as the cursed being ages, becomes more frequent and more intense. High fevers, and fainting continues to extend for longer periods of time. The cursed being can still live life without dying.”

He groaned, pushing the book onto his lap. Zalair sat in silence, trying to think about the curse’s details and how he could’ve gotten it. There was no way he was just randomly cursed, not this curse. This one was given to him for a very specific reason.

“But… Then when was I cursed?” Zalair thought, then his thoughts stopped instantly. “…That was the day I started fainting.”

Zalair slammed the book shut, rolled his head and eyes with a groan and then let out an exasperated sigh. “I am so going to kill him.”

After putting the book back into its spot on the shelf, he pushed the sun’s glyph and watched as the shelves returned to their home in the floor. After exiting the room, Zalair looked back to the goddess, her emerald eyes gazing just like they were. Nervously, he closed the door, and relocked it.

He sighed relief when the goddess’s eyes closed and he was free of that intense gaze. As Zalair went back up to the staircase, he glanced once more to the goddess and shook his head.

“No way.”