Before Her Very Eyes

Chapter 18

The young woman wrote down Arin's curse in a notebook. She studied it with narrowed eyes, pensive.

"I'm looking for a loophole," she said.

"Loophole?" Arin asked.

"Magic only works when we use words, and words are... well, faulty. They don't always mean what you want them to mean. Curses are like that. The mage can string the words together with an objective in mind, but the wording often implies something that the mage never intended."

Arin looked blank.

"For example, it seems like your curse will work if three conditions are met: 1) you love a person, 2) that person is before your very eyes, 3) you call out the person's name. That's what the words suggest. But I don't think the mage wanted the curse to be so conditional, you know. Or maybe she did. I don't know. I'm working on it. I want to find something that will let you live your life normally without worrying about the curse."

"Why are you even helping me?" Arin asked her. Arin didn't even know her name; this woman was an absolute stranger who was randomly doing so much for her, and Arin didn't know why.

"I protect the cursed, Arin. That's my job."

Protect from what, Arin thought. From the curse? From the cursers? From Arin herself? The latter seemed the most dangerous at this point.

It all seemed so hopeless. Why carry on if she was a walking weapon? Why stay alive when seeing someone you love die before your very eyes would always be a lingering prospect that you'll have to live with for the rest of your life?

"There's nothing left for me," Arin said. "You don't need to protect me. Can you use your powers to just end me?"

"Get those thoughts out of your head, Arin," the woman said, disapproving. She didn't let that depressing thought linger for long, and added: "I actually have an idea. I'm going to try something. A loophole. I'm going to tell you my name, and I want you to call it. If I die, I die. It's a chance I'm willing to take for you."

Arin shook her head, the memory of the purple faces coming back to her in flashes. She did not want a repeat of that. If this stranger was willing to risk it, Arin wasn't.

"No!" she said, plugging her ears with her fingers and singing "lalalalala."

The woman didn't seem to care. She just drew something on her notebook and held the notebook up to Arin's face so she had to look at it.

It was a symbol, "~".

Arin stopped babbling and unplugged her ears.

"That's my name," the woman said with a smile, pointing at the symbol.

"What even is that?"

"My name."

"That's not a name."

"For you, it is. It's the loophole. If you call it, I don't think I'll die."

"Well, obviously," Arin replied. "How can I call it if I can't say it?"

"Visualize it. Call my name. Let's see if it works."

And so Arin did that. She visualized the symbol and called ~'s name. Nothing happened.

~ smiled. "I heard you call me."

"Because of mind-reading magic?"

"No," ~ answered. "Because of eye contact. Words are not the only way to communicate. Even if you can't say my name, I can still know when you call me, Ar. This is our loophole. We'll find another one, but for now, this one is enough."