[ When he asks his question, she opens her eyes, woken from her thoughts. Rem considers how to answer as she continues to look at the hands in her lap. Her nerves have quieted, but in its place is defeat. ]

Some sort of… cough and weakness.

No one knows what it really is, but I had it since young. A mutant malboro made by the enemy Empire attacked the village, back then. It might have been that… [ There’s some doubt in her voice, though. Even if a wretched monster spewing disease and poison is the best theory, it doesn’t explain how she didn’t exhibit the same symptoms as the other infected townsfolk at the time. Or that Machina, who survived the attack with her, was unaffected.

The origins don’t matter to her so much as that it affects her, and this all reminds her, in part, why she wants to make something that can function as the Altocrystarium.

Slowly, she raises her gaze. She doesn’t mean to be helpless. She refuses to be idle so long as her body works. It is why she’s been trying all this time to become stronger, to gather phantoma, and to find something she could use instead of the Altocrystarium. ]

Even the Archsorceress couldn’t figure it out.

[ because she was one who cursed her ]