She hummed, patting him on the arm before leaving him to his lesson.
Fix walked into the empty classroom and took his time looking around the space. The classrooms hadn’t changed much. Metal desks still sat in even rows, with their chairs tucked in facing the whiteboard. The posters on the walls were still there, but they’d been updated as curses and casts were broadened with more cases to draw from.
There was one thing that hadn’t been touched though. The engraved bronze plaque was on the back wall, the six core curse types sitting under the Nexus logo. He walked over to it, remembering staring at it for years on end and being made to recite them until they stuck.
A sound behind him made him turn, and he spotted a Nexus caretaker holding the door and ushering in a group of small cursebreakers, about six or seven years old, walking in a perfect line. Each had on a Nexus tracksuit, the color corresponding to what curse type they were suspected of favoring, and those who didn’t show any signs yet dressed in simple gray.
A few young eyes widened when they spotted him, taking in his large size and moving over his tattoos. Fix gave them a friendly smile, hoping to ease their discomfort quickly.
“Take your seats, everyone. Quickly,” the caretaker instructed, taking a few ingredients from a side pouch. The children watched as they cast a quick spell to do a head count. Numbers lit up over their heads in shimmery blue.
Fix walked over as the children did as they were told, the numbers fading. “I’ll take it from here.”
The Nexus caretaker didn’t question him, simply swept one more assessing glance over the class before leaving.
Fix closed the door after them and turned to smile at the class. “Hello, I’m Fix. I’m a nuisance cursebreaker from Slatehollow. I’ll be teaching your lesson today.”
There were a few shy waves and murmurs back, but nobody seemed inclined to break a rule or get caught speaking out of turn. Which wouldn’t do at all.
“What do you say we get more comfortable before we start, hm?”
The children all shared glances with each other, some whispering in confusion.
“Come on. Up and at ’em, these desks won’t move themselves.” Fix clapped his hands.
The kids got out of their chairs slowly, confusion clearing once Fix started pushing the first few desks to the side of the room. They began to follow, giggling and excited by the change in pace. Fix helped a few of them, settling them in a circle with himself at the ‘top.’
“Are there any questions you want to ask me before we get started with the lesson?”
One brave girl raised her hand and Fix smiled at her. “Are youreallya cursebreaker?”
“Really, really.” Fix opened his shirt slightly and bent awkwardly to show a sliver of his cursemark. “Just like you.”
“Mine’s on my leg,” she said, yanking the hem up to show off a small mark on her calf.
Others began to join in, shouting their curse placement. It was when one boy stood up to show the cursemark on his butt cheek that Fix called a halt to it.
“All certified cursebreakers,” he said.
“Not really,” one of the boys in gray murmured, gaze downcast and small fingers fidgeting. “I haven’t figured out what I’m even good at yet.”
Fix gave him a reassuring pat on the shoulder and said in a soft voice, “That’ll come in time. No one really wakes up just knowing.”
“Nuh-uh,” another boy in red said with his nose in the air. “The coolest cursebreaker was setting things on fire when he was, like, three and that’s how he breaks curses, so he must have known for forever!”
“Shh!” the boy next to him hissed. “We weren’t supposed to tell we heard.”
“Oh…” The boy froze. “Uhhh…”
Fix was far too amused. It seemed Ash’s legacy had lingered for the next generation of budding bonding cursebreakers.
“Well it’s not the same for everyone, just like no one breaks curses exactly the same way even if you work in the same field,” Fix explained.
“We learned that,” a girl in green said. She had a few twigs in her hair. “The teachers say we need to test a lot of ways to figure out what we like best.”
Fix smiled and gave her a nod. “Exactly.”
“What’s the biggest curse you’ve ever broke?” another child asked in excitement.
