Penelope is certain I've ingested some sort of curse. To get her to back off, I went with her to an exorcist of some kind, who seemed to confirm what she was saying - whatever is wrong with me, he could see it too.

I've got his number, and he's given me an insane shopping list to get him in order to fix me.

The singular hair of a unicorn, the Fang of a Giraffe, and the 9th leg of a spider.

Not sure how to explain to him that none of that shit exists, but, I'm also giving him a free meal each week at my restaurant as payment. Whatever, looks like he could use a free meal so I'm not too upset about that part. In the meantime, some of the other rituals I've been reading about have started to bear fruit. A simple curse, placed upon something I've prepared... I'm sure it will work.

Rituals, rituals, and more rituals. Also some more training with blades - in and out of the kitchen. Some more of my reading has paid off. I figured out a way to borrow a small part of the underworld for storage purposes. It's tied to the owner's soul, which some people might find a bit iffy I guess, but it's necessary to open the way. A pinch of it stays with the doorway - in my case, my purse - and it does admittedly feel rough if the soul's owner stays away from that pinch for too long. My reading seems to suggest that the pinch would die, actually, and the gate seal. Obviously, I have not performed a first-hand test on this. If I were to do so, I'd use someone else's soul for it. Likely a good idea to just avoid that situation instead, however.

In more martial pursuits, I've been practicing using my Left Hand of Darkness in the kitchen to speed up prep times when working alone. Also out of the kitchen, with my martial arts. It works wonderfully!