Whatever Vera has done to you, you're not going to torture her anymore. What's done is done and there is no need in drawing this out.

You put away your pistol and crouch down besides Vera who is still upset and probably expecting you to kill her.

"Vera…Vera…shhhhh…calm down…" you say.

Vera still doesn't look in your direction still crying. You run your hand briefly over her hair and then move in closer to hug her.

Vera immediately hugs you back, you feel her squeeze you as if her life depended on it.

"Don't let go…don't let go…just hold me forever…" she says in between the tears.
"I got you Vera." You say.
"(sob) I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."
"I know."

Vera mumbles more things about how she wishes you both could do everything all over. She then feels something against the side of her head.

She moves her head back enough and looks at you with tears in her eyes.

"I love you…" she says.

You pull the trigger, blowing Vera's brains out the other side of her head onto the wall and also getting blood on you in the process.

You sit with Vera's body for a moment saddened that this was necessary at all. You wipe your own eyes and eventually stand up and compose yourself.

You get some of your people to dispose of Vera's body making some comment that she was an enemy to Holgard. (Not that they were going to question you anyway)

And that's it. There's nothing more to it. You'd like to forget about this dark day as soon as possible, but you know that's going to take a bit of time.

To get your mind off it, you focus on your other problem, which is the curse you're still dealing with. Honestly, if it hadn't been for that, things might have been different with Vera in the first place.

Since Heather doesn't seem to be very helpful right now, you go back to wondering if you should seek help from other magic types which again makes you consider sending someone to ask around Klyton or the magic University in Delantium.

You already got an agent that reports on Klyton so that's no problem. Delantium however is another story since Percy just said the ECS killed everyone you sent there. While you don't want to piss off the ECS severely, you also don't like being told where you can't go.

You decide to hold off on sending anyone to Delantium until you get word back from your agent in Klyton. Based on his report, you can make your decision to risk sending some to Delantium or not.

A month passes and eventually you get word from your agent in Klyton. She mentions that the Klyton magic school is barely better than the one in Holgard and the only main difference is they have a nicer looking school and tend to be more "scholarly" as opposed to "battle ready."

Your agent says that they were interested in based on the sealed letter you had her deliver to them. However it would require you to take a trip to Klyton. A bit unusual for you considering you haven't left Holgard in…well since you got here nearly twenty years ago.

You imagine you could get the time to leave though if you wanted.

This brings you back to pondering if you should still send an agent to the Delantium magic university. Chances are, if they're interested they're going to just ask you to do what the robes in Klyton want you to do. Namely go there yourself and that's probably even going to be even more dangerous than just sending an agent there.

You just head to Klyton

After all you've been through, maybe some time away from Holgard is exactly what you need right now. Plus you're not exactly anxious to go pissing off the Ebony Claw Syndicate again after they basically left you off with a warning.

So you write a letter back to the Klyton magic university and explain that you'll be heading that way as soon as possible. You also write a letter to your agent there saying that you want her to meet you and make arrangements for when you arrive next week.

You then pack a few things and give notice to the baroness that you're leaving for Klyton making something up about rumors that her brother Peter is potentially working with the Klyton government in order to form his next invasion.

Being the paranoid sort she is, she's perfectly fine with you going there personally to check things out. Of course as you predicted, you still have to stick around a bit to take care of some of your current business.

After a few days of taking care of your mundane tasks you catch the next carriage out of Klyton and you're soon on your way.

The trip to Klyton is uneventful, but it gives you plenty of time to think and even appreciate the countryside somewhat. You haven't left the city in so long, you almost forgot what wilderness looked like.

A lot of the wooded area that used to surround Holgard is gone now thanks to years of Ludmilla expanding the roads and building the fleet to protect the city. Just as well as Warts runs his trading post now as he won't get many offers as a guide anymore.

By nightfall, the woods disappear completely and become more open field. It's at this point you drift in and out of sleep a bit. You see a few random homes and eventually you see the city. Much like Holgard, great walls surround it and the tops of tall structures can be seen looming above, though such structures already look fancier than any in Holgard.

When you're within the gates it's dawn and you can see that the city is a lot cleaner and organized looking than Holgard. Granted since you've risen in status, Holgard has gotten a bit better about this, but this is definitely a city that has never undergone the same struggles Holgard ever has.

Also unlike Holgard there are a lot more carriages not only going in and out of the city, but also within it. Public transportation was never a high priority in Holgard for various reasons, you're wondering though if it should start.

Your parents differed on speaking about their old home to you and your sister. Your mother sometimes would talk about fond memories in Klyton, but your father not so much. As far as he was concerned the best thing about the city was meeting your mother.

Makes you wonder though how things might have been different if you'd run to Klyton instead of Holgard. In any case, you're not here to sight see; you're here in the hopes that your condition can get cured or dispelled or whatever they have to do.

You exit the carriage and your agent is soon there to greet you.

"Hello sir. Your trip was without trouble I trust?" she asks.
"It was." You answer.
"Good to hear. I have you booked at the Galloping Mare Inn. It's one of the better places in this city."
"That's fine. Just as long as it isn't infested with vermin. I'd rather get a bit of rest without potentially getting bitten. (Yawn) So how far is it…apologies what's your name again?"
"I'm Claire, and it's not far sir, we can take a carriage to there quicker. It's also fairly close to the university so when you're rested I can take you over there."

You nod and soon the pair of you are in another carriage and heading over to your inn. You arrive at the Galloping Mare where Claire leads you to your room and you immediately head over to the bed and get some rest. You figure you won't sleep too long since you already slept a little on the ride to Klyton.

You wake up in a few hours and fortunately its still light outside. Probably afternoon by now though. After preparing yourself, you leave your room and find Claire downstairs having a drink with some merchant type. When she sees you approach she excuses herself and immediately goes to see you.

"You're awake sir, are you ready to go?" Claire asks.
"Yes, who was that?" you ask.
"Oh just one of my contacts for information sir. I can give you a full report of what's been going on here after you've completed your business with the wizards if you like."
"Sure, might as well. Okay let's go."

Doesn't take long for you to get there and soon you're at your dad's old place of higher learning. You never thought you'd ever be here.

Claire then takes you to the magic school area of the campus and that's where you part ways with her. She tells you she'll be back at the inn.

You step inside one of the magic university buildings and expect to be stopped or "greeted" much like how you were in Holgard by Heather's underlings. Instead you encounter nobody and walk down several empty corridors almost wondering if the place has been abandoned.

Eventually you see some old guy in a robe and figure he must be someone of importance. You call out and he slowly turns to you and making motions with his hands.

"Hold on! Hold on! I'm not here to do anything sinister! I'm the director of Holgard security and I'm here about a curse. I have one on me. I sent two letters to this place and my agent gave them both to your people. I was told you agreed to meet me and could help."
"Hm, must have been High Mage Thomas. He tends to like to speak for the rest of us whether we want him too or not. The man for some reason believes magic should mainly be used for altruistic reasons. The man might as well be a Joachimite Priest if he's going to believe such nonsense." The grumpy wizard says, but puts down his hands.
"Isn't this a school? Where is everyone?"
"It is a school, but I'm not sure what you were expecting. Magic isn't exactly a common force in the world that it used to be so you're not going to find with place overflowing with people. If it were, things would be severely different in this city. Not to mention the government isn't exactly the most keen on supporting it. If it wasn't for one of our own on the Klyton Council, I dare say this place would have been shutdown entirely."
"That's rather short sighted, wizards can be useful allies in case of an attack."
"Hm, well glad to see you have some sense at least from a pragmatic standpoint, which is more than can be said for those fools on the Klyton Council. Though there's currently a man running for a spot on there. He seems to be more in favor of relaxing the magic restrictions in this city. I might actually vote for him. Anyway you said had a curse or some such bother?"
"Yes."
"Well, I guess since you're here, might as well take a look at you. Indeed I'm currently the only one here to do so. Come with me."

The old wizard motions you to follow him and mentions that his name is Ahmed. When you ask where are all the other wizards, he says that most of the staff are at some conference and as for any students, the few that they do have are currently out performing their field assignments for classes so they wouldn't really be lingering around here.

"I'm sure there are a couple of other staff actually around, but probably locked up in their labs either performing experiments or reading. That's how it usually is for us nowadays though. Seems like we're all just studying magic rather than actually using it for any real purpose."
"But you said you send the students on field assignments."
"And depending on the wizard, even that could be fairly easy. Personally I send them to at least bring down a beast of some sort, but many staff member have gotten so complacent they usually just tell them to go hunt down various plants. Honestly it'll probably be the most excitement they'll ever get if they stay in Klyton. And if they do stay, they'll probably become staff and they'll send their students on some piss easy task, because hey that's what they had to do so why break the cycle? Feh, it's really fucking pathetic of what this institution has become."

Ahmed sounds really bitter. Makes you wonder why he's still here

Soon you enter a small lab and he motions you to sit in a chair and asks you to tell him exactly about your condition and how it's affecting you and how you acquired it.

You go into your story about Tanya and most of what that entails. While you're speaking Ahmed occasionally holds up a glowing magic object to you and mumbles a few incantations. He just ignores you whenever you ask what he's doing and finally he speaks.

"You don't have a curse on you." Ahmed says.
"What?" you say.
"I detect no curses. Infernal or otherwise."
"Are you sure?"
"I'd take that as an insult if I actually thought you knew what you were questioning. However, yes I am quite sure."
Well maybe it's not a curse, maybe it's a magic disease like demon crotch rot or something."
"Trust me, if THAT was your problem, you wouldn't even be here right now."
"But…but all those girls. They all died."
"Yeah, well shit happens. Look, I can't explain that since I wasn't there. All I can tell you is you don't have any curses on you. As for the girls, well it sounds like you weren't exactly going with the most morally upstanding ones and violent death is usually a common one amongst the lower class and lesser born. I'd chalk it up to bad coincidence."

Well this is a bizarre outcome. You almost can't believe it.

"However, there IS something." Ahmed adds.
"Shit, I knew it." You respond.
"Well calm down it's not actually bad, or at least not actively bad."
"What is it?"
"Your relationship with a succubus is extremely unusual and while she didn't curse you, she DID leave a mark on you. Now most of the time when this happens, the victim usually dies after the succubus finally tires of them and kills them personally or in a much rarer case, the victim falls into a deep depression and commits suicide after an extended period time of separation because the succubus has abandoned them."
"So is that going to happen to me?"
"Well, you've already lived much longer than someone marked by a succubus. Now I imagine in your case it helped immensely that you developed a loving relationship with this Tanya before she fully changed, but I'm sure you still feel the loss correct?"
"It is still there from time to time. Yes."
"Mm. Well I wouldn't want to assume that you're going to be fine just because you've severely beaten the odds. You're still marked and who knows what that could do if it ever really kicked in. However, we can purge that from you. If we did you probably wouldn't feel as bad and a great weight would be lifted."
"That can be done? Wait, do I have to have sex with some girl in a circle while you perform the ritual to summon Tanya?"
"What?! No! Where did you get that idea? We don't need to summon anything, but it's still going to take a little prep work on my end first. I would like you to come back here in a couple days and see me if possible."

You think about it at first wondering if you should go through with it. Then you think that that's pretty much why you came here in the first place and it would be good to finally rid yourself of all of Tanya's "presence" even if you were fond of her. Plus now this sounds even less risky than it did before.

"Sure. Might as well have a clean slate."
"Good, glad to hear it. Okay, you can leave now, I should start preparing."

You part ways with Ahmed and feeling slightly more upbeat you rush out of the magic school and head back to the inn where you find Claire speaking with a couple people.

"Claire! Where's the nearest brothel in this city?!" you ask.
"Um, a couple blocks south of here sir. The Fancy Tickler" Claire responds.
"Thanks!"

Before she can even respond back, you're gone and already on your way. When you get to the Fancy Tickler, you immediately start throwing coin around so that the ladies can start throwing their pussy your way.

You spend practically the whole night at the place.

Then the next day you do it all over again. It truly is a wonderful thing to be free!

Third day in Klyton and you figure Ahmed should have his shit together by now and you're ready to get this taken care of completely.

You enter the magic school which is still relatively empty and head to Ahmed's lab. When you arrive, you see Ahmed speaking with a very well dress man with a goatee. They both turn towards you.

"I'm here. What's going on and who is this?" you ask.
"This is Mr. Reynolds. I believe I mentioned him the last time we spoke. He's running for a spot on the Klyton Council." Ahmed says.
"Oh."

Mr. Reynolds begins to move closer towards you, studying you even.

"You…you look very familiar. Almost like someone I once did business with…tell me someone in your family ever own an inn here?" Mr. Reynolds asks.
"Um…yeah my grandparents, though my dad also worked there." You say.
"Hah! Yes! That's where you looked familiar. I loaned your grandfather money which your father ended up paying off. Well, this is a nice coincidence, or perhaps fate?"

Searching your memory, you remember in one of your mother's stories about the inn she mentioned a Mr. Reynolds before. You never knew much detail though since you never really paid much attention.

Mr. Reynolds flashes a smile at you, which really puts you at unease. In fact you're starting to smell something not unlike brimstone. And that smell can only mean one thing.

"Fuck! Infernal!" you shout and before you can even get your pistol out, Ahmed's already cast a spell that's frozen you in place.

Mr. Reynolds sniffs the air around you a bit and then speaks.

"Yes, this one certain does have a tether to the infernal realm and I can certain use such a thing for the upcoming election, though hardly need the entire body, just the heart will do."

You look on helplessly as Mr. Reynolds slowly puts his hand into your chest and pulls out your still beating heart. He then thanks Ahmed for this and says he will definitely honor his agreement to push magic as a greater force in this city.

As for you, your body slumps lifelessly to the floor and will play no more role in world events whatever those may be.