Felix pulled away with a quickly suppressed flinch the moment he heard Emil gasp, though Cain might have seen it in his eyes. That reaction had told him what he'd needed to know, though it didn't mean it would be easy to say to the boy.

"It shouldn't have. I'm sorry..." Felix said, pausing to collect himself. Part of him, the part that spoke in Malkar's voice, would always expect punishment for failure.

"I can't remove the curse. At least, not with the information I have. The magic is buried so deep. It's like...a splinter...but it's become almost a part of who you are. The only way I could remove it would be through brute magical force. It's crude, but effective, without knowing what sort of theory shaped the curse in the first place. However, doing that would, in all likelihood, kill you," he explained to Emil, though he glanced from time to time at the other man in the room.

"There is one more thing I could do..." Felix offered hesitantly. There was a chance, a small chance, that unlocking Emil's memories would give him enough information to try again someday.