Katrina-Carlotta was baffled. She'd never heard of anything like that before. Curses that could be passed along by touch? She'd encountered a few of those. Spells that could control the mind? Those were common enough. Potions that would make even the strongest on men loose their sanity? She'd watched them be brewed. Curses that could bring out all the negative emotions in a person, leading them to do little but kill and destroy? She'd cast them herself. But this? No, she'd never encountered this.
The woman would never admit it, but that scared her.
Then there was the fact that both spells, the one on Mr. Lupin and Mr. Elldir, had been miscast. That had to be important, but the woman couldn't figure out why. That the magic on Mr. Elldir had been done imperfectly made enough sense, she supposed. The wizard was a good fighter, the one to do this to him could easily have been distracted or nervous. Then again, Khaat had said that Elldir must have been caught off guard, meaning that the planning involved must have been meticulous. Why would someone go to such lengths to ensure a perfect opening, only to miscast the spell? If it even was a spell. That wouldn't make any sense, meaning that the mistake was not a mistake, but purposely done.
But why would someone do that? Sure, it would be much more difficult to recognize and counter the problem, but miscast spells were unpredictable. There would be no way of telling how the miscast curse would affect Elldir. Katrina-Carlotta frowned slightly, that was a very large risk to take.
Elldir miscasting the spell could mean a number of things. Firstly, that he was only mimicking the spell that had been cast upon him. Since the man would not know the true curse, it would have to be a warped version of it. It could also mean that the man's mind, or at least a part of it, was still there and fighting, unwilling to cast a terrible curse on his friend. That, however, would make it more likely that he was being controlled, instead of just insane. It really was quite the puzzle.
Running her tongue along her top lip, the dark witch let out a soft sigh. "With your father, did anyone hear the incantation, any of it? Or was it cast silently? You said the curse is transferable by touch, does it have to be skin-on-skin contact? You also said primarily by touch, was that a slip in your speech, or is there another way for it to be transferred?" Katrina-Carlotta rattled off quickly, words almost slurring together in her haste to get it all out before she forgot something. The woman doubted that she would, but every little piece of information could be vital in a case like this.
"Your father has his mind, but how do we know that the madness isn't triggered by something, or takes a while to kick in? Do we know exactly when Elldir was attacked, or are you just guessing based upon when he started acting different?" the European asked a little slower. She wasn't trying be be cruel, but Katrina-Carlotta had never been one to soften the truth. If this was a possibility, even if the Lupin's didn't want to consider it, she needed to know.
A thought suddenly occurring to her, the dark-haired female's head jerked upwards slightly, to meet Khaat's eyes. "How do you even know that the spell on your father and Elldir are the same? They act quite differently. Is it possible that Elldir didn't pass his curse onto your father, but instead cursed him with a different one?" she queried. Katrina-Carlotta knew that she was just throwing out theories and guesses at this point, but it was the best she could do for now.
The woman would definitely have to ask Marie if she'd heard of anything like this. Even if the frenchwoman hadn't, hopefully one of her connections had.