Curses, And How To Deal With Them

Stepping inside the class is stunned by sensory overload, desks scoot about the room of their own accord, papers fold themselves into planes and fly about the room seemingly propelled by nothing.

The teacher sits at his desk, which seems to be the only stationary object in the room, aside from his chair of course.

“Ah, welcome students! Come in, come in! We’ve much to go over and precious little time!” He says as you all file into the room, attempting to stay out of the path of the animated school supplies.

Once all students are within the room the door shuts by itself, apparently enchanted as well.

The teacher stands, a half elf (Or city elf, as the wood elves like to call them) dressed in fine clothes, all of which appear enchanted in some fashion.

![]https://imgur.com/gallery/d3B9Nqa

“As you can see, the world of magic and especially enchanted items can be both unpredictable and chaotic, so I thought it poignant to structure our first lesson around harnessing the chaos!”

“Everyone pick a desk, we will be working on the hex, curse speaking, which in essence will allow you to directly communicate with a curse, and depending on the curse, negotiate with it”

The class slowly, hesitantly approaches the herd of feral desks, as if approaching a wild horse.

“Excellent! Now each of you will find a rune etched into the desk, place your palm against it and open yourself up to what you feel” he says slowly walking among the students.

Your desk of choice wasn’t particularly interesting look with no real issues with it, you find the rune on the right side of the desks cubby.

You press your palm flush against the surface and feel a strange presence, you focus on it and hear mumbling at the far reaches of your mind as your vision starts to fade.

You persist holding your hand against it as the words start to become clear Ra going within your mind as if the thoughts were your own.

You stand on a small circular platform floating in an inky void, similar to the academy.

The only other thing on the platform is an amorphous black blob, it shudders and contorts itself, slowly shaping itself into abstract shapes.

“Greetings, meat, you wish to claim me..?” You must be talking directly to the desk, or perhaps the curse that inhabits it.

“I do, I was told that I might be able to negotiate with you…” you say slightly warily.

“You might… tell me, you… flesh creatures have a desire for individuality, yes..? A need for self expression…?”

“We do… yes..” you say in equal parts confusion and intrigue.

“I also have such needs, I’m sure you’ve noticed a lack of ornamentation? A lack of flair? A lack of style…?!” It seems to be growing frustrated at the topic as it shapes itself into aggressive sharp shapes with spikes.

“I have… you want… decorations then…? To stand out from the others..?” The idea of this entity made from arcana making such a human (albeit frivolous) request was rather amusing.

It smooths out considerably, seemingly pleased with your answer. “Yes… this would suffice… any will do… I’ll even settle with a ‘So&So was here’ “

With that you pull yourself from this strange demi-plane and stumble as your senses return to your body.

Your fellow students appear to be going through similar experiences as some of them stumble in place and gasp for breath as if having held it for too long.

Looking around you start to scrounge up something to decorate your soon to be workspace, you come across a few crayons that fail to outpace you.

And some colored ink jars that seem more focused on not tipping over than escaping your grasp.

You take your acquisitions to the desk and become styling it to the best of your abilities, you draw stripes down along its sides and fully paint each of its legs.

By the end the desk stands out from the others, even at a glance you could tell them apart now, you imagine your desk is rather thrilled at the notion.

You take a step back to observe your handiwork when the desk suddenly swirls around, scooting closer to you as if to offer you a seat.

Tentatively you sit down, the desk slowly and steadily turns around, facing you towards the teachers desk.

It appears you’re among the first to forge a partnership with your workspace as only 2 others are in a similar position.

“Outstanding work, I can see that some of you already possess a talent for curse speaking!” Says the Professor as he gives each of you a pointed nod of approval.

With time the others manage to do the same, those who can’t spend the rest of the class standing.

[Gained: Curse Reading]