I looked up at a new voice saying my name, a figure I didn’t recognize stood in the door to my hospital room. In the doorway, a hand raised to softly knock on the door, was a man…maybe a foot or so taller than myself, broader shoulders, and a wider chest, but his body was thin and lithe with sculpted muscle, upright and straight posture, and long sculpted limbs…like a gymnast or maybe a swimmer. He had a long, low tail of hair that was either ink black or maybe a very dark indigo color that fell as straight as pins down his chest to end against his waist, a thick fringe fell from his widow’s peak across his forehead and tucked behind his right ear. He had very sharp and angular features, as if he wasn’t born, but sculpted; a slightly Roman nose, defined cheekbones and a sculpted jaw and strong brow giving him this regality to how he stood there…no facial hair, but his hair being tied back showed that his ears were these very large and harsh bat-like ears pointed back to mid-way along his head, he had almond shaped eyes angled up at the outer corners, thickly framed in smoked out liner…but his eyes were a strange bright yellow-orange color, like that of a flame. They actually did glow in the darkened state of my room, but the stark light of outside I could very easily see that his skin was purple…not cool toned, but quite literally purple, a heavy grayish tint to the purple and a rich royal purple shade. He was dressed in a very nice-looking suit of dark green crushed velvet, a black button-down with a navy/silver brocade vest under, a creamy ascot at his throat, gold pocket square on his left breast, a gold pocket watch chain was visible and very reflective black shoes were on his feet. His hands were folded showing black, pointed nails and as he tilted his head, four long hanging earrings hung in each ear, he had…makeup on too, aside from the liner, maybe some sort of metallic makeup along his cheekbones and maybe some sort of gloss on his lips by how reflective they looked in the stark lighting difference between my room and the hall.

“…Dr. Kuroki?” I asked

“…darkness…” a voice whispered as a shadow seemed to pass behind him as he stood there

“Ander” he said with a soft nod, “You’ve had quite the eventful past few days, haven’t you?”

“Without a doubt” I sighed quietly, “You…have…magic like me, I guess?’ I asked, it felt weird to say that just as I did, I’ve been taking in everything, but there was still something in my head telling me that none of this was real and that there’s no such thing as magic.

“Similar yes, like you, no” Ander said as he stepped into the room, not put-off walking in like the other nurses or doctors have done when getting close, they’ve mentioned to me that I am apparently the inverse of a space-heater, that my very exitance makes the room much colder than it should be and that the smell of my magic is very intense. Things like magic scent and appearance was talked about in the packet of information, it was an interesting read nevertheless it was very confusing to someone that has no idea that all of it even existed just a short while before. “I am a cleric.”

“You’re a priest?”

“No, magically classified as a cleric.” He elaborated as he sat in the chair to my left, “How are you feeling?”

“Spiders…” a voice added as I looked towards him

“Just…off” I sighed as I looked towards the wall ahead of me, not looking at him, “I’ve spent so long…thinking that there was something physically wrong with my mind or body…only to find out that the world decided that I am to be cursed.”

“I’ve known people who had a curse be their genetics as well, but I’ve not met someone who had that curse be so intrinsic to their person as you” he said with a soft shrug as he crossed his legs, I’ve gotten used to the scent of my magic that I’ve been told people are starting to complain about due to how intense the tics and flashes of the curse are, so I was able to quickly pick up on a different smell that started as soon as he walked in that I could safely assume was his own magic, it was a very pleasant scent: the sweet, slightly stinging scent of icy cold plum wine…the earthen minerally scent of rain, petrichor, I think is the name for it and the sharp, sour, citrus tang of yuzu…it was without a doubt a very Asian mix that based on his last name, I’m guessing Japanese.

“How were they different?” I asked

“Beauty and the Beast style curses are not…uncommon, you just don’t see them often.” He laughed quietly, his voice was low, rough and gravely, either he smoked or maybe he’s asthmatic or something along those lines, I couldn’t place his accent exactly because of how slight it was too. “There’s others that usually happen upon people due to magical items or going places they shouldn’t.”

“So…what kind of classification am I?” I asked, “In the packet of information they gave me it talked about all the various classes that someone’s magic could be classified into.”

“Because of the nature of your curse and the magic it gives you, most people would accurately place you firmly in the sorcerer classification, sorcerers get their magic due to the magic that’s laced into their genetics…it is something that can go dormant in human families for generations before popping up at random or it can be something that appears in every generation.”

“But nobody else in my family is like me.”

“Help…us…”

“A distant ancestor being magical is not the only way to become a sorcerer; sometimes a magical accident can make someone a sorcerer or infusing themselves with a magical source or various other ways that are not the guidelines for a warlock, cleric or paladin as we are the only classes that are gifted their magic from a secondary source; warlocks through their patrons, clerics through their gods and paladins through their oaths. Artificers get it through their connection to the idea that magic is in everything and anything around them, but it is sourced internally…bards get it through their various art forms, druids get is through their connection with nature, rangers get it through their connection to the hunt and wizards get through their connection to the very nature of magic itself.”

“So what sets an artificer and wizard apart?”

“Think of it in a nonmagical way: an artificer is the scientist who actually does the experiment, a wizard may do an experiment, but they’re not reliant on the numbers of it. Artificers mix technology and magic whereas a wizard is just the magic itself.”

Alright, at least he can better explain a lot of all of this.