To the observation chamber

When the elevator opens, you're shoved out the door by the security guards behind you. This basement level looks strange compared to the Victorian-era main hall--instead, it looked like glass walls, floors, and ceilings contained within cavernous stone formations, feeling much like you were walking through some sort of hidden underground passageways. Down one passage, a room full of crates sat unopened, undoubtedly representing more of Emilia King's vast occult collection. Down other rooms, you saw... holding cells? Many contained a single artifact, seated in their center, almost like they were being contained so they could be monitored. Some of them, such as an onyx carving of an alien-looking creature reaching toward the sky, seemed menacing, almost exuding an aura you could feel through Tori's body, if she was receptive to supernatural energies like you thought she might be. Other rooms looked more like some sort of place for some very bizarre beings to congregate, from someone flipping a coin and instantly switching genders to some sort of large knight in ancient armor, to a transparent looking woman drifting around?

The door to one of the glass containment rooms slides up, and you're put in the center, forcefully dropped into a chair before the guards leave, letting the door close on their way out. You didn't bother trying to struggle to get out of their grip, nor to look for a way out of the cell--you basically asked to be in here. Glancing down, you looked at your reflection, seeing Tori's face with a black eye and a cut on her cheek stare back. You gingerly touched

Sorry, Tori. I didn't think they'd hit us that hard.

It's fine, Tori replied. It's not that bad, honest. You run pretty well for giving me a bigger butt, you know! The info kiosk woman called it cute, I liked that.

You glanced around, as the minutes ticked by. Glass rooms near yours held a floating triangular stone, or some sort of slimy-looking quadruped that reminded you of some kind of alligator. Very strange beings to have locked away. What if everything upstairs was just the weak, ineffective stuff and down here was all the really dangerous magical items? One of the conspiracy theorists you'd head online was that Emilia maintained a sort of special forces group of 'unnatural people', perhaps similar to Tori. Were they cursed? It was hard to say.

A woman walked up to the front of the glass before you, holding up a clipboard as she turns on an intercom. "Hello there, my name is Alice Kensington, I'm in charge of maintaining the displays on exhibit. We take attempted theft very seriously here, but we will forgo pressing charges if you remove the bracelet and put it on the ground in front of you."

You shook your head in disbelief. "You know I can't. If I could've done that, I'd have probably chucked it into the ocean, if I'm being honest! If it were that simple, either your guys would've taken it off my wrist or you wouldn't have brought me down to this place in the first place." You looked over at more of the creatures or objects being held in glass boxes. "I'm guessing it's a precautionary measure, but it wouldn't be because of what the Countercurse Bracelet does, would it? It's what it's suppressing. The jerk named Mike said that Emilia personally sent the bracelet to him, to use on this body. And I would love to return it, but I don't have the combination to do that."

I like when you make me sound all tough! Tori thought.

Alice looks at you for a moment, before she picks up her phone and steps away. Not long later, she returns--accompanied by a woman with rust-red hair cascading down her shoulders, seated in a wheelchair. She didn't look particularly frail, but the business attire she wore may have been designed to hide any sign of weakness, given how often she supposedly ended up in the hospital. She might have bandages on every limb and you wouldn't know. "Ah, yes. Just like I expected, my collection is a bunch of boomerangs that always return to the source." Emilia spoke softly, smiling politely as she glanced at Alice for a moment. "You always doubt, but I know **** people quite well by now. When a person asks for magic on behalf of someone else, it almost always is without that someone else's knowledge. And so far, said magic has always come right back. Isn't this a record, Alice?"

"By a week, Emilia." Alice clicked a pen, trying to hide some sort of defeated look in her eyes like she'd lost a bet.

Emilia smirked, as she turned back to you. "Very fast turnaround indeed. See, people who take the initiative for cursed people do these things they think are in the name of love, but it's almost always out of selfishness. They have to change things on your behalf because they don't understand your nature, they only understand the parts of their world they see that reflect themselves. It's impossible for them to think that maybe, just maybe, someone cursed with magic might seek a way to live in harmony with it rather than try to extinguish it. I'm very familiar with this story." Emilia sighed, as she took the clipboard from Alice. "Victoria Ward, in a relationship with a Michael Powell, the shining knight of this story."

"No longer in a relationship," you said on Tori's behalf, shuffling your feet slightly anxiously. Emilia's monologue delivery felt a bit intense!

"Noted. Seems you were moving in with a longtime friend anyway, a Peter Becker, according to phone records Alice has obtained. You two traveled to Seatown for a basketball game, and then his phone signal disappears suddenly, he's just gone. And then you travel all this way to remove a bracelet that has suppressed a notoriously challenging Channeler's Curse as soon as possible." Emilia squinted at you. "If I was to wager money on this, I'd bet that your desperation is because that bracelet caught you mid-channel. Peter, am I speaking to you now?"

"...Yes, you are. Tori wanted me to understand her curse better, so she initiated a willful channel with me..."

Emilia grinned widely. "Fantastic, two subjects for my purposes. You know, channelers are quite hard to find! The curse likes to be kept hidden from public knowledge. Mike probably should have kept that Countercurse Bracelet for himself, since his letter was read by a dozen people on my staff. A curse might consider that to be public knowledge, and if he's even so much as touched Victoria, then he's infected with a seedling of the curse, as are you, Peter. You sound like a better friend from what I have written down here where I'd assume you can keep a secret better, but I guess if I needed two channelers I could compel a public statement from you if Mike somehow escaped the consequences of his actions. I have other fun ideas in mind, however."

You frowned, trying to stare down Emilia, but you didn't stand much of a chance from your little holding cell. "It's not enough that we brought your stuff back? And now you have everything confirmed about us, so isn't that enough?"

"Oh my no, if you want the combination to that bracelet then you'll both agree to help me out with an experiment, either one done together or two done separately. Otherwise, you can leave with the wristband still attached and live a magic-free life from here on out where you try to figure out how to start your new beginnings as your friend, how does that sound?"