The Broken Doll

Chapter 10

"What are you doing?" Yuma asked. He perched on his hammock as Yuri seemed to be dialing something on his cell.

"Calling some friends," he replied from his place on the floor. Somehow, Yuma convinced Akari and Haru to let him stay for the night and for as long as he needed. "Different versions of your Astral and Black Mist. They're spellcasters in our world. Astral specializes in light magic, and Dark Mist, which is what he goes by, specializes in black magic. They're more than likely going to find a cure to this."

"To what?"

"They'll tell you when they get here." Yuri finished dialing and held the cell up to his ear and spoke into the microphone. The voice on the other side wasn't clear, but by the tone, it was probably the spellcaster version of Astral. Soon, he hung up. "They'll be here soon."

Only ten minutes passed before another portal opened. Familiar figures emerged, but the aura they emitted was different. Black Mist, or Dark Mist, seemed more docile, and Astral a little more expressive. "You called?" Dark Mist asked.

"Yeah," Yuri replied. "Something's wrong with Shing, and I have a suspicion of what it is."

"Tell us the symptoms," Astral said. He clapped his hands together and opened them again, making a book that appeared in front of Dark Mist. Immediately, the book turned black.

Yuri was the one who told them the symptoms since he was more attentive of them. While he was doing so, Dark Mist flipped through the pages. Yuma saw different names that held a sense of doom to them. They seemed to be illnesses, but not normal kinds. In fact, they were more like curses.

When Yuri was done, the both of them looked over the page they landed on. Upon reading the words, their expressions became comically surprised. Yuma would have laughed if he didn't know it was something terrible.

Both spellcasters started whispering among themselves, trying to confirm that this was the result. Then, Dark Mist turned to them. "It's a curse. Heart Broken is what it's called."

"Heart Broken?" Yuma asked. "That sounds kinda weird."

"It's both weird and rare. Only someone who was deep in their heartbreak and sorrow would be a candidate for the curse."

Astral closed the book. It turned a default gray color. "Fortunately, there is a cure, but it involves..."

"A sacrifice," Dark Mist finished darkly. "By her own hand, she must kill the one she loves most."

"Who would that be?"

Both beings shared a glance. "We don't know yet. There are people she loved dearly in our world, but we also have to consider some of the people here," Dark Mist said. "Astral can go and sense out who it is."

Astral nodded. "It should be easy to find her hidden desires and such without getting too close." He made the book disappear and started out the window. "I should be back by midnight at the earliest and in four days at the latest." With that, he flew out the window.

Dark Mist conjured up a window to watch the spellcaster so that they could keep track of his progress. Dark Mist, Yuri, and Yuma gathered around it to watch until the two boys were called to lunch. After eating, they went right back to watching.

~.~.~

Astral flew around the city, looking for the queen of his world. She shouldn't have been so hard to locate, but she was. It's probably because of the curse, he reasoned. Logically, she's dead, but she still walks the earth, bound to curse and cause heartbreak among the people of the city she "died" in. It makes sense that I can't find her very easily.