Chapter 1609: Dark Tendrils

Sylmira examined her surroundings as she made her way through her assigned section of the district.

The air carried a foul stench that seemed to have settled into everything around her, clinging to the buildings and lingering in every breath she took.

It was the smell of decay that refused to fade, as though the corruption had seeped so deeply into this place that even the air had become tainted.

Sylmira scrunched up her nose in disgust but continued walking.

She knew she would have to get used to the conditions if she intended to stay here for any length of time.

This city was filled with curses, suffering, and all manner of unnatural phenomena, so the stench of something rotten would be a common experience during her investigation.

As she passed one of the houses, a small girl stepped outside and caught her attention.

Sylmira couldn’t tell whether the child was five or ten years old because her condition made it difficult to judge her age.

Her body was thin and frail, with rashes and scabs covering her skin alongside numerous scratches.

Her clothes were tattered and dirty, her pale face appeared gaunt beneath the faint light. She looked terribly unwell, and Sylmira felt a pang of sadness as she took in the girl’s condition.

Even so, she offered the child a gentle smile, unwilling to let her own distress show.

"What are you doing?" the girl asked in a quiet voice.

"I’m looking around," Sylmira answered.

The girl stared at her for a moment before asking another question. "Did you come here to heal us? My father said we’re sick. My mother died when she gave birth to me here. I hope you can cure us. The others have already tried, but nobody has succeeded."

Sylmira felt as though something had struck her directly in the heart. The girl’s words were simple, yet they carried a weight that made it difficult to respond.

She had lived her entire life in this wretched place, suffering from a condition she couldn’t understand, and she had lost her mother before she was even old enough to remember her.

Sylmira’s expression tightened as grief welled up inside her, but she quickly suppressed it and maintained her gentle smile.

She didn’t want to burden the child with the sadness she felt on her behalf.

"I’m..." Sylmira began, but the words caught in her throat. She wasn’t even certain what she could promise the girl, and she refused to offer false hope when she had yet to understand the curse herself. After a brief pause, she managed to continue. "I’ll do my best."

The girl simply stared at her and blinked without saying anything. For a moment, Sylmira thought she might ask another question, but the child eventually turned around and walked back into her house, leaving Sylmira standing alone outside.

From what the girl had said, Sylmira could only assume that she was born in this miserable district and had known nothing but its suffering.

Her mother died giving birth to her, and the child herself grew up afflicted by the curse.

What kind of life could be more miserable than that? The worst part was that the girl no longer seemed to expect much from anyone.

She had asked for help, but when Sylmira could offer nothing more than a promise to try, the child simply returned inside as though she already knew how the story would end.

Perhaps she believed Sylmira would be no different from all those who had tried before her, the council who arrived with promises and left without changing anything.

Sylmira released a quiet sigh as she watched the closed doorway.

She wanted to comfort the girl and give her something to hold on to, but empty words would accomplish nothing.

The child didn’t need another stranger telling her that everything would be all right.

She needed someone to actually change her circumstances and the only way to do that was to find a means of breaking the curse that had condemned this district to such misery.

With that thought in mind, Sylmira continued deeper into the area.

The farther she walked, the more clearly she heard the suffering around her.

Some people cried behind those closed doors, their sobs muffled by thin walls, while others whimpered in pain or cursed angrily.

Every sound added another painful impression to her growing understanding of the district.

Their misery wasn’t confined to a single tragedy or a brief period of devastation. It had become part of their everyday lives.

As Sylmira ventured farther in, the cursed energy grew increasingly dense. It pressed against her senses with an oppressive weight, and before long she noticed dark tendrils drifting through the air.

Their shapes resembled strands of black smoke, except they held their form instead of dispersing.

They stretched between the buildings and curled around the narrow streets, occasionally writhing as though something invisible stirred within them.

The tendrils were visible even to the naked eye, yet the people nearby paid them no attention. They continued with their daily routines or remained inside their homes without so much as glancing at the dark strands hanging around them.

Sylmira observed the scene carefully and came to a simple conclusion. These tendrils had probably existed here for a long time. The inhabitants were so accustomed to their presence.

She committed the observation to memory.

She didn’t need to write anything down because her memory was more than capable of retaining details, allowing her to recall them later without difficulty.

She continued her investigation and paid attention to every detail she saw.

Some buildings showed signs of prolonged Magic exposure, with dark stains spreading on their walls in irregular patterns.

In other places the ground beneath the tendrils was discolored.

Several doorways bore faded protective inscriptions, their markings worn and damaged, while others had layers of newer symbols drawn over the old ones.

Sylmira couldn’t tell whether these were attempts by the inhabitants to protect themselves or remnants of earlier efforts to contain the curse, but she made a mental note of their locations and appearances.

She also watched how the cursed energy behaved around different structures and inhabitants.

In some places the dark tendrils gathered more densely near the walls, while in others they stretched across open spaces without any obvious source.

The air felt heavier in certain corners of the district and the Magic pressure seemed to fluctuate as she moved through them.

Sylmira couldn’t yet determine whether these variations held any significance, but she didn’t overlook them.

There was no guarantee that every detail would prove useful. Some of her observations might turn out to be nothing more than meaningless symptoms of the curse. Nevertheless, she recorded everything in her mind as she continued forward.

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