[Short story] Morden's Curse

Morden had been sailing since noon, but he had no idea what the time was now. The impossibly black clouds of the Dark Sea enveloped the suns rays, so it was impossible to tell the time. Even if it was the dead of night, he would be unable to rest. He was searching for one of the most powerful magics in the Dark Sea, called the Death Curse

Beringer had told him it was east of the Pelion Rift, a giant stone wall that covered the top right corner of the Bronze Sea, though Morden couldn’t tell if he was going that way, as his compass just span in circles. He’d never even heard of Beringer until this morning. Morden had been searching at the Sailor’s Lodge for something else, a bizarre flag he’d barely recognised, when his amnesiac friend, Mike, had ran into him. Mike had explained everything. The flag he’d been searching for was the logo of an evil organisation called “the Order of the Aesir,” and Mike needed his help to break into Fort Talos, where they’d been holding a mysterious man who held infomation they desperately needed to stop the Order’s continuing rise for power.

Morden found Beringer first, and nearly threw up upon walking into Beringer’s cell. The man was chained to a post, battered and bruised with a decaying, gaping wound in his chest. After explaining everything, Beringer had told him to seek out the Death Curse, or else the fate of hundreds, maybe thousands of others would be sealed. Morden doubted that he could do it, that there were way more capable, stronger magic wielders than himself who could take the curse. Beringer had told him that he saw something in Morden.

And here he was. The evil waves beat his ship, gigantic monsters edged ever closer, and the howling winds pushed him across his deck. He felt hopelessly out of his depth, one lowly mage on a measly sailboat trying to stop an entire organisation who had the power and the men to keep an iron grip over the entire Bronze Sea, and perhaps even further across the ocean. As his boat was rocked. But still, he had to keep going. Even if he and and his sailboat were dangerously at risk of being dragged into the uncaring depths of the Dark Sea, he had to get the Death Curse. He had to get the curse to stop the organisation who’d kidnapped him and Mike, who’d removed Mike’s memories and killed Tucker in their escape. The organisation who’d killed Beringer, and was prepared to kill many more in the pursuit of power

Suddenly, everything stopped.

The torrential downpour stopped. The howling winds stopped. The booming lightning stopped. The waves which used to batter his ship become still. The water was clear, but there was no fish, not even the horrific sea monsters that loomed dangerously close his entire voyage. Despite this, there was an overwhelming scent of rotten fish and… death. Then, he saw it. Hovering a few feet above the water, was a pitch black cube. It emanated a dark aura that filled him with a freezing, pure, fear. It made his hair stand on edge, and made him shiver harder than the subzero temperatures in this evil sea. He reached out, hand quaking, expecting any number of horrific things to happen. He touched it, and he absorbed it. A painless, but powerful darkness rushed through his body. Morden felt calm. He summoned a magic circle, and sent a beam into the darkness. Though it didn’t hit anything, Morden could sense it’s immense strength as he nearly flew off his ship from the spells recoil.

Suddenly, a giant frigate appeared on the horizon. Bearing the Order’s logo, it barreled uncaringly through the Dark Sea’s weather. Morden quickly set sail, knowing an army of Order initiates and perhaps even a Baron wouldn’t take kindly to one of the strongest curses being snatched from under their noses. The journey back was suprisingly quiet, as if possessing the Death Curse had killed the raging spirit of the Dark Sea.

He docked at Redwake, bought a room at an Inn, and slept for the next 16 hours.

Authors note: This is my first short story on this forum, and I plan to create more. Like this one, they’ll all be about off-screen events such as the kidnapping of iris’ father or whatever, im not too sure what I’ll do next

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Why did he shoot a magic beam after absorbing the curse?

testing power cuz cool, probably should have cut that tbh

I was confused because the most defining feature of a Sea Curse is that it doesn’t require the usage of magic circles. Being able to cast spells without circles is one of the biggest reasons why Sea Curses are so powerful, their casting speed is instant.

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oh i didnt know