Chapter 686 The Curse Of Elaris

Liam continued staring at Elder Eldric, his expression carrying none of the casual amusement that usually accompanied his conversations. The drawing of the two strange beings remained open on the table between them, the flames and ice captured on the page looking almost alive beneath the light coming through the nearby window. Liam slowly folded his hands across his chest and leaned back slightly, his deep blue eyes fixed directly on the elder. He had already asked once, and the silence that followed had told him enough to know that Eldric was hiding something. Liam wasn’t particularly interested in forcing information out of people when there was no reason to, but this was different. The lives of an entire village were involved, and whatever those creatures were, they had clearly been connected to Elaris for years. "I’ll ask again," Liam said calmly, though there was a firmness beneath his voice that made the room feel quieter. "What is the history of this town with whatever the hell those things are?"

Eldric remained silent for several seconds.

Then he sighed.

The middle-aged man slowly pulled out one of the chairs and sat down, his hands resting heavily on his knees. The friendly expression he had worn when Liam first entered the house was gone now, replaced by something much older and more exhausted. He looked toward the drawing again, and for a brief moment his eyes seemed to lose focus, as though he wasn’t looking at the ink on the paper anymore but at something buried deep within his memories.

"I think..." Eldric began slowly, "it’s time we finally tell you the truth."

Liam’s eyebrows rose slightly.

"The truth about what?"

Eldric looked at him.

"About what happened five years ago."

"Hmm."

Liam’s attention sharpened immediately.

He didn’t interrupt.

Eldric took a slow breath before continuing. "Five years ago, Elaris was nothing like the village you see today. We had problems, of course. Every village has problems, but people lived normally. Children played in the streets, farmers worked their fields, families gathered together in the evenings. We weren’t wealthy, but we had enough to survive, and there was no fear hanging over everyone’s heads."

He paused, his fingers tightening slightly against his knees.

"Then a woman was accused of witchcraft."

Liam’s expression remained neutral, but he listened carefully.

"She was a stranger who had been living near the outskirts of the village for some time. She kept mostly to herself, and there were always rumors surrounding her. People said she possessed strange objects, dark accessories, things that ordinary people shouldn’t have. Nobody paid much attention at first, but then something happened."

Eldric’s voice became quieter.

"The crops began dying."

Liam’s eyes narrowed.

"At first it was only a few fields. Then more followed. Livestock began collapsing. Some animals became sick and died without warning. People started falling ill. The entire village seemed to enter some kind of dark omen, and within that same week, seven people died."

Irina’s expression hardened.

Eldric continued, "Seven people. And that wasn’t counting the livestock or the crops we lost. For a small village like this, it was devastating. People became terrified, and when people are terrified, they start looking for someone to blame."

Liam already knew where the story was heading.

"The villagers searched her home," Eldric said. "They found the dark objects people had been talking about. Strange accessories, symbols, things that many believed were connected to witchcraft. To them, that was proof."

"Proof of what?" Liam asked.

"That she had caused the curse."

Liam’s eyes remained on him.

"And you believed her?"

Eldric looked down.

"I wasn’t the elder back then."

That wasn’t exactly an answer.

Liam noticed it, but he didn’t press him yet.

"The villagers confronted her," Eldric continued. "She denied everything. She insisted she hadn’t cursed anyone. She begged them to listen. But by then, nobody wanted to listen. Seven people had already died. The crops were failing. Animals were dying. Fear had consumed the village."

His voice became heavier.

"They stoned her to death."

The room fell silent.

Liam’s face didn’t change much, but something in his eyes hardened.

"Okay," he said slowly. "They stoned her to death."

He looked down at the drawing for a moment before raising his eyes again.

"So what does her story have to do with those things?"

Eldric stared at him.

"Her story was only the beginning."

Liam’s attention sharpened.

"The woman had two sons."

Irina’s head lifted slightly.

Eldric continued, "They weren’t in the village when it happened. They returned later and discovered what had happened to their mother. They found out that the villagers had accused her of witchcraft, that they had blamed her for the deaths and destruction, and that they had killed her."

His expression darkened.

"And they were furious."

Liam leaned forward slightly.

"What did they do?"

"They took her work from where she stopped."

The words lingered in the room.

Liam’s eyes narrowed.

"Meaning?"

Eldric swallowed.

"Whatever their mother had been doing, whatever she had started, her sons continued it. But unlike their mother, they weren’t interested in simply cursing crops or killing livestock. They wanted to punish the entire village."

His voice trembled slightly as he continued.

"And they did."

The elder’s eyes lowered.

"For months, Elaris suffered."

Liam remained completely silent.

"People disappeared. Some died in their homes. Others were found wandering in the forest, completely broken. Families lost everything. The crops failed again and again. Livestock died. Food became scarce. Then hunger came."

Eldric’s fingers trembled.

"We lost hundreds."

Irina’s eyes widened slightly.

"Many died from hunger alone. Others died because there simply wasn’t enough medicine. Some families disappeared completely. There were days when you could walk through this village and barely hear a voice. There were homes where entire families had died."

Liam slowly shook his head.

"Then why didn’t you leave?"

Eldric looked at him.

"What?"

"Why couldn’t you people just abandon this place?"

The elder stared at him as though the question itself had reminded him of something he wished he could forget.

"We tried."

Liam’s expression changed.

"You tried?"

"Of course we did." Eldric gave a humorless smile. "What sane person would willingly remain in a place where hundreds of people were dying? We packed whatever we could carry and left. Some went east. Others went west. Some traveled for days. Others tried to settle in neighboring villages."

He paused.

"But no matter how far we went..."

His eyes slowly lifted toward Liam.

"We always came back."

Liam’s eyebrows drew together.

"What do you mean, came back?"

"I mean exactly that. We would walk for hours, sometimes days, believing we had finally escaped. Then we’d wake up and find ourselves back in Elaris."

Irina’s expression became serious.

"Even if you traveled in a straight line?"

"Yes."

"Different directions?"

"Yes."

"Different people?"

"Everyone."

Liam leaned back slowly.

"So you were trapped."

Eldric nodded.

"We were trapped."

Liam stared at the table for a moment.

Then he said quietly, "Good."

Irina turned toward him.

Eldric looked confused.

Liam didn’t explain.

He wasn’t happy that the villagers had been trapped. He simply recognized the importance of the information. If the village had been magically bound to its location, then there was a mechanism behind it. Something had prevented them from leaving, and anything powerful enough to imprison an entire population within a specific area was unlikely to be an accident.

Liam tapped one finger against his folded arms.

"So what happened after?"

Eldric slowly shifted in his chair. He crossed one leg over the other and leaned back, his gaze becoming distant again.

"What happened next..." he murmured, "was the turning point for us."

He looked toward the window.

"After months of suffering, there was a battle."

Liam’s attention returned to him.

"The brothers came themselves?"

Eldric nodded.

"They had become something far beyond ordinary humans by then. We didn’t understand what they were capable of. Their power had grown to a point where our weapons meant nothing. The villagers fought anyway because we had nothing left to lose."

His expression became grim.

"We were losing."

He paused.

"Badly."

The elder’s voice became quieter as he remembered it.

"People were dying everywhere. Houses were burning. The ground itself was being destroyed. We had reached the point where everyone believed Elaris was finished."

He took another breath.

"Then something happened."

"What?"

"The two brothers turned on each other."

Liam’s eyes narrowed.

"Why?"

Eldric looked at him.

"Because one of them killed a girl."

Irina’s expression changed.

Liam remained still.

"His brother’s lover," Eldric continued. "The elder brother killed her."

"Why?"

"We never learned the entire reason. Perhaps she betrayed him. Perhaps he believed she was responsible for something. Perhaps it was simply madness after everything they had done. But the moment her brother discovered what had happened, everything changed."

Eldric’s voice carried a strange weight now.

"He attacked his own brother."

Liam stared at him.

"They fought."

"During the battle?"

"Yes."

"And the villagers?"

"We ran."

For the first time, Eldric almost smiled, though there was no happiness in it.

"We had already lost. We understood that. So when the two brothers turned on each other, we stayed away."

His eyes lowered.

"They fought for hours."

Liam listened.

"Their hatred for one another became greater than their hatred for us. They destroyed everything around them. The very powers they had used to torment Elaris were turned against each other."

Eldric paused.

"And eventually..."

He looked at the drawing on the table.

"They killed each other."

Silence settled over the room.

"The girl’s soul," Eldric continued, "was the reason we were finally freed. Her death caused the brothers to turn against each other, and when they died, the barrier trapping us here disappeared. We could finally leave."

Liam’s gaze became distant.

"But you stayed."

Eldric nodded.

"Some people left. Many couldn’t. They had nowhere else to go. Elaris was all they had ever known. Others were simply too broken to begin again."

He looked toward the floor.

"And although the brothers were dead, their hatred apparently wasn’t."

Liam slowly looked back at the drawing.

"So even in death..."

"They still won’t let this village rest."

Irina’s face tilted slightly as she thought through everything Eldric had said. Her expression showed that she was trying to connect the pieces just as Liam was. Two brothers. A murdered woman. A curse. A village trapped for years. Two supernatural beings appearing in the night, one made of fire and another of ice.

Something didn’t fit.

Liam felt it too.

There was a missing piece.

He turned his head slightly.

His Aether Sense suddenly picked up something.

A presence.

It wasn’t strong, but it was there.

Liam’s eyes moved toward the far corner of the room.

"Anybody there?"

His voice became stern.

Eldric’s expression didn’t change.

Irina immediately turned toward the same direction.

For several seconds, nothing happened.

Then a figure slowly stepped out from the shadows.

It was a woman.

She had been hiding behind the corner, and now that she was exposed, she immediately pulled a cloth around herself, covering her body as though she were frightened of being seen. Her movements were nervous, almost timid, and she kept her head lowered while avoiding direct eye contact with Liam and Irina.

Liam’s gaze immediately settled on her.

Something about her frightened him.

Not because she looked dangerous.

Quite the opposite.

She looked scared of everything.

Her shoulders were slightly hunched, her hands tightly gripping the cloth around her, and her eyes moved around the room as though she expected something terrible to happen at any moment.

Eldric suddenly stood.

For the briefest instant, a dangerous light flickered through his eyes.

It was there for barely a moment.

Neither Liam nor Irina noticed it.

Liam’s attention was entirely focused on the woman, trying to understand who she was and why she had been hiding in the elder’s home.

Eldric’s expression immediately returned to its warm appearance as he turned toward them.

"Ah."

He smiled.

"Guys, meet my wife."

The woman looked toward Liam nervously.

Eldric gestured toward her with a gentle smile.

"She’s a little bit shy."