Isaac made his way into the cave, where Tiy was sitting by the fire, watching as he walked closer. Isaac placed his bag down, and then he sat by the fire to dry off from the rain that had enveloped him.
He removed his clothes and placed them by the fire to dry out. As this was happening, Tiy was silently watching him and judging his actions. Isaac looked over at Tiy for a second, but quickly focused on drying himself.
Tiy finally spoke and broke the silence.
"Where did you go? Surely you had a reason for leaving the cave unguarded?"
Tiy's question was laced with anger that was bubbling, ready to explode. She definitely seemed more mad at the fact that Isaac had left her behind alone, instead of being out of the loop.
Isaac responded with a rehearsed calm, which was new for Tiy
"I went out to get some of those berries that give mana. I knew of a place where a bunch of them grow."
Tiy's anger seemed to grow even thicker to the point where her purple mana had leaked out, which was very rare for Tiy to do, since she had a very precise control over it. She then spoke with her anger practically flowing from her mouth.
"So you're saying, you know of a spot where those berries grow. Yeah, right, it took the tribe over a hundred years to grow a single bush, and even then those berries are not worth someone dying over."
Tiy's mana showed clearly how she felt as it shifted and twisted into some sort of spell, her purple skin started to change colour as the spell gained a darker and more sinister hue.
Isaac quickly took a step back, and then he picked up his bag and started pouring out most of the berries he had gathered. Isaac could tell that these berries must have been hard to get for Tiy's people, considering how few were in the pouch, but Isaac's bag was at least ten times that amount.
Tiy watched as Isaac poured out the berries. She was ready to use the spell at any point, but seeing the amount of berries, it had thrown her off guard and caused the spell to lose form and turn back into mana.
The cave floor looked like a lagar used for crushing grapes into juice. Tiy couldn't hold her shock any longer at the amount of berries.
"How do you have so many? This would take years to gather. The berries I had were from over three years of harvesting."
The impact of seeing the berries was clear to Isaac. As long as Isaac knew the location of the berries, Tiy would not be able to kill him. Isaac let out a sigh and spoke.
"I apologise for leaving without telling you, but I figured it was for the best considering the weather, we can't have both of us getting sick."
Tiy seemed to acknowledge the apology. The two of them gathered up the berries in a tense silence that lingered deep, it seemed like any trust that they had built was now walking a tightrope that would snap at a slight breeze.
As they finished, Isaac went to rest deep in the cave, as he had not slept since the previous night, but this was just a cover, as Isaac took some of the yellow star plant from his bag and went deeper into the cave, where neither he nor Tiy had gone.
Using traces of mana to guide his way, he delved deeper into the cave, where he sat down and began casting a spell. Unlike normal magic, support magic focuses on yourself, and that is one of the reasons why people who can use support magic are rare.
Lucky for Isaac, his magic textbook already had a language that could be used for basic support magic. Isaac was not confident in his ability to cast support magic, which was one of the reasons he brought as many yellow star plants as he could.
Isaac placed the plants down and began casting the spell to remove his curse. The world around him twisted and turned, turning a red colour, which meant that he must first get blood from the person he wished to remove the curse from.
Isaac places a small cut along his palm, mana around him falls onto the cut, and he draws out a few drops of blood. The mana changed colour again, but this time it shifted into a transparent blue, which means that water is the next item for the spell.
Isaac used chantless magic to make a small droplet of water, which was sucked into the wound on his hand. Dark spots in Isaac's mana started to separate as purple mana that is the same as Tiy's, flows into the drop of blood, which then is floating at around eye level.
Finally, the magic shifts once last time and turns light pink, which means healing in Isaac's view of mana, so Isaac places the yellow star plant on his hand. The plant starts to decay into a powder, and then the cut on Isaac's hand heals over.
The mana around him stirs one last time, turning dark blue just like Isaac's mana, and is all sucked into the blood. The mana from both the cursed infused blood and the mana for around Isaac are in a fight for dominance, but the amount of mana produced by Isaac is too much for the curse to bear, and it boils before it disappears.
Isaac's own voice reverberates inside his head.
"Trait Minor Curse has been relinquished."
Isaac leaned against the rock wall of the cave and let out a sigh, which was interrupted.
"If you wanted to get rid of the curse, you could have just asked."
Tiy walked around a corner of the cave and stood right in front of Isaac, who was now out of mana due to the remove curse spell taking all of the mana he had left, and due to lack of sleep, his body was not ready for the confrontation.