Chapter 2 of this strange adventure!
I use mostly male pronouns for Truth, due to his voice being slightly more male in my opinion. Truth doesn't have a gender though, and can change his appearance at will, so who knows, at some point I may have Truth be gender-fluid, or just change every now and then to screw with people.
Year (Earth): 990 AD
"I'm telling you, we should have a magical creature for each house!" A man shouted. The man had wavy red hair, and a beard to match. His green eyes glittered with determination, and a scowl adorned his face as he spoke avidly to three other people. A woman with dark hair and an austere look frowned back.
"I do not see why you assume we must have an creature of magical origin, Godric. If I had to choose, I would personally put a raven or another intelligent animal." she spoke in a strong Scottish accent.
"I agree with Rowena." A rotund, red haired woman replied soothingly. "It doesn't have to be anything special, personally I think a nice badger would do, they are very determined creatures."
The fourth person, a dark haired man sneered. "Helga, it is true that magical creatures represent the magical world more accurately, I would have to say that my personal favorite would be snakes, specifically the magical ones. The mundane serpents are much too weak to be anywhere as useful as a magical one."
Godric snorted. "Of course you would choose a snake, Salazar! It fits your cunning quite well. And I understand a raven would be a representative of you, Rowena, as there are magical breeds of the birds, but I don't understand why Helga would want a badger of all things. The creatures are diggers, and they live under the ground. That is no model for determination and loyalty!" Helga sighed.
"Well, have you ever tried to get too close to a badger? The creatures will fight tooth and nail to defend their homes, regardless of whether or not they could win. And speaking of creatures, I don't recall you ever mentioning a magical creature as your mascot!" she said to Godric. The man blinked then chuckled.
"I admit, that was rather hypocritical of me. I would choose either a Gryphon, or a Lion to represent courage, or bravery. Lions are the epitome of nobleness!" Godric admitted. He turned to Rowena. "Oi, Rowena, have you finished the runes on the doorway? I want to begin setting up defenses for the castle."
"And I wish to work on the traps for invaders, as well as my section of the castle." Salazar included.
Rowena growled, turning on them. "This isn't just some bloody doorway! This is the ward-stone, the thing that is directly over the ley lines, and will keep all of Hogwarts stable and magically supported!" She flicked her wand at the stone, which glowed and began sending pulses of light in seven directions. "There, are you happy now you hot-headed lout?" she said exasperated.
"Aye, I am!" Godric exclaimed, moving to the castle. The others shared a look of amusement, and followed.
Truth stepped out the other side of his gate, and into the middle of nowhere. Not exactly nowhere, as he knew what that looked like, but not into any place he knew of in his realm. Around his exit point was a bunch of pillars, placed in a specific pattern. He noticed that the entire structure was circular, and floated upwards to get a better view. The doorway he appeared from was now an archway, and had a milky white translucent curtain over it. Now that he had a decent view, the ruins appeared to be in the shape of a strange human transmutation circle.
'Hmm, I suppose there is nothing I can do it this is the exit point. Whoever lives here had better hope they don't try to go through it!' he thought to himself. The next thing he noticed was the air. It was strange, not in the sense that it was air, but something was off. He could sense the oxygen, hydrogen, carbon dioxide, and nitrogen all in the air, just like in Amestris, but there was a force, something that was like a philosophers stone, but much more diluted. Perhaps usable for minor feats, but not much more than accelerating and transmutations done. If someone had the ability to channel the ambient energy and store it, then it would really be useful. 'Now that I think about it, this ambient energy allows me to manipulate this place like it is my own realm!' He realized, and giggled to himself.
"Now, where in the void did all the stuff in my realm come from? The energy in the air is definitely the source that moved it to my realm, but who is using it?" Truth frowned, and extended his senses. He flinched at the amount of power from the land. The planet itself was enormous, much larger than the lands around Amestris, and there were so many people, spread out over the land. As he was marveling at the possibilities a land like this could have, something flared up in the distance, like a minor beacon, brighter and stronger than the surrounding pools of energy. "Might as well go there first, there has to be something interesting."
Truth had invented shortcuts a long time back, which were nearly instantaneous travel, merely entering The Gate for a brief second, then leaving at his destination. The ability worked in Amestris, back when he was introducing the basis of Alchemy to the humans, but he was unsure of whether it would work in this new place. "Might as well give it a shot." he muttered, stepping through reality and locking on to the power.
Godric grinned jovially as he focused on transfiguring a snarling gargoyle upon the ramparts of the castle. He had won the argument to have gargoyles rather than angels upon the walls, as they were better defenders, and would show that Hogwarts was a place to be revered, and would defend itself if it had to. It seemed that Helga was right in choosing a badger for that reason. He moved to add defensive spells to the statue, but turned around as he heard a strange sound, like a huge door opening, then rapidly closing. Out of nowhere, a strange looking man was standing not ten feet away from Godric, directly underneath the wardstone.
"Who are you? How did you get here?" Godric inquired, drawing back his wand into a dueling stance. The man turned to him, solid white eyes staring. A strange grin, one that seemed to say 'I know something you don't' was wide on the man's face. The man's clothing was rather strange, with a suit of some kind and a tie around the collar. His hair was white, just like his eyes, and his overall appearance made it hard to determine his age or gender, (but Godric assumed the person was a young man, but it was difficult to tell).
"Hmm? Oh, a human!" the person said excitedly. Their voice startled Godric, it sounded like many people speaking at once, and did nothing to help determine the gender of the figure. "I was worried there were some strange creatures here, like parasites that control other creatures mentally, or gem based creatures defending the planet! Luckily that isn't the case!" The man (Godric was going to refer to the person as a man for now) leaned closer to Godric, who was honestly a little creeped out by now.
"I asked who you are, and how did you get through the defensive wards?" Godric repeated, ignoring the man's unnerving visage.
"Why, I'm glad you asked! I have many names, but you can call me Truth!" Truth responded cheerfully.
Godric frowned at how calm the man was being, despite the fact he had somehow appeared through wards meant to stop nearly all unwanted beings. "I am Godric Gryffindor, one of the four founders of this castle, and I must insist that you leave. You are trespassing!"
Truth's grin stretched wider. "And how will you make me leave?" He asked, amused that this mortal thought he had the capability to-
Depulso! A streak of white flew at Truth from the stick in the man's hand. Holding out a hand, Truth caught the energy, using an alchemical barrier of condensed air to contain it. "My my, what is this?" he whispered, looking at Godric with a new light in his eyes. "I see, this energy is like the tectonic energy alchemist use, but in the air, and allows you to put an intent behind it. This one was meant to push me backwards, using an intuitive, gravitational based push. How wonderful! This place just gets better and better!" Truth transmuted a glass bell jar out of the ground, and picked it up. "Hmm, what transmutation circle would successfully prevent this energy from activating? Let's see..."
Godric stared in complete shock as the strange man, who had caught his banishing charm, muttered over a jar he had made out of nothing and held the charm in his off hand. "Ah, here we are." Truth transmuted a complex circle into the base of the jar, and it began glowing. He slipped the charm into the jar, and the ball of energy sat there hovering in stasis. "Now I can study you whenever." Truth said to the spell.
"Do you have anything else?" he asked as he turned to Godric excitedly.
Rowena was writing out the formulas for the runic projector that was to be placed in the Great Hall when one of the wards went off. Specifically, the ward that kept track of everyone within the wards. From what it was telling her, there were five people within the wards, but for some reason the other proximity and defensive wards did not alert her, despite only the four founders being on the whitelist so far. The attendance ward was designed to list the number of people within the wards and their general location. Glancing at the linked mirror, she pulled up the image of the outer grounds.
"What in Merlin's name?" she muttered, tapping the glass. The image showed the grounds clearly, and Godric facing away from the castle, speaking to someone. Where the other person should have been was a white blob, like the very image of the person had been erased. The name of the other person was flickering between hundreds of names, and eventually settled down as five block letters.
TRUTH
Rowena watched in frustration as Godric raised his wand at the unknown person and clearly cast a Depulso. She checked the location of Salazar and Helga to contact them. "Salazar, Helga, there seems to be a conflict at the front gate. Can you meet me there?" She spoke into the communication ward. The communication ward was a simple one, it replicated any sounds near the one who activated in, and would play it at a set destination. The plan was to install this ward into the castle, but they had just begun and had not gotten around to programming it fully. At the moment only the prototype was being used by Rowena and the others, and it was a one way communication. The Looking Glass, as she had dubbed it, was hooked up to a visual ward on the castle, meant to observe the outside if anyone needed to do so. A more detailed version was being worked on to be able to see through the halls of the castle.
She saw Salazar's location shift on the attendance ward, and Helga's move from by the forest. Gathering her wand and notes, Rowena left the room.
Salazar was in the sub level of the castle, using his wand to excavate the tunnels that would soon be the dungeons. Thanks to Rowena's new Vanishing Charm, he could vanish the rocks in the way, and then immediately conjure material to support the walls. It wasn't often he needed to strengthen the tunnel, thanks to the foundation of the castle being solid stone, but every now and then there was the odd pocket of soil and debris from some ancient object. He started when Rowena's voice spoke from behind him.
"Salazar, Helga, there seems to be a conflict at the front gate. Can you meet me there?" Her voice said. Salazar sighed, realizing that Godric was supposed to be at the front of the castle right around that point. "Very well, I suppose I must save that oaf from himself again." Salazar muttered to the air, even though no one could hear him. He strode from the room,
Helga cheerfully hummed as she tended to the herbs growing along the Enchanted Forest. Planting the Whomping Willow sapling earlier had placed her in a good mood, and there wasn't much that could make her upset at the moment. She looked around when she heard a sound, and noticed Godric and another figure standing by the front gates. "Hmm? Who is that?" she said aloud. As Rowena's message began playing, a concerned look came over her face. Helga gathered the plants she had collected so far, and placed them in her bag as she made her way over.
Godric was not one of the most sensible of people. When a man appeared out of nowhere, ignoring wards meant to stop such things from happening, proceeds to challenge him, and acts like a powerful spell is nothing, he tends to not think rationally. So when the man is asking for what he can only assume to be another attack, Godric gathered his magic.
"I am Godric Gryffindor, one of the four founders of this castle, and I represent Strength and Bravery." Salazar face-palmed, seeing where this was going. "I deem you to be a threat, and I will do my best to remove you from the area. I give you one chance to leave."
"Goddamn it Godric!" Salazar muttered, and began running towards the two. Helga and Rowena both respectively moved faster as well.
Truth stood there with an offended look on his face. Seeing no response from Truth, Godric swung his wand in an arc, firing a multitude of spells that flew through the air. The spells arced towards the white man, who simply glanced at them. Rowena and Salazar were within fifteen feet now, and Helga was shortly behind them. She leapt forward, throwing a protective shield forward, and Salazar moved to subdue the man that had appeared, and they stopped in surprise.
Truth, if that was the man's name, didn't move a muscle, and simply stared at the incoming spells. The air shimmered, and a large amount deflected, about 5 or so, and blew up in midair, others stopping. Two Bombarda's continued moving, and were caught in Truth's hands. Truth looked down in surprise when the Incarcerous Salazar cast took effect. He crushed the spells, and the glowing energy turned into lightning, traveling down and simultaneously causing the ropes to dissapear.
The four founders stood still in surprise, watching the figure who had stopped the spells without a single movement.
"Wow..." Helga said aloud, as Rowena frantically tried to figure out what had happened.
Truth glanced down at his jar containing the previously caught spell, only to see it have been broken by the Incarcerous. He glared at the group. "You broke something of mine. Equivalent Exchange." he said, holding out a hand.
"Excuse me?" Salazar asked, unnerved by Truth's voice.
Truth didn't respond, simply repeating. "Equivalent Exchange."
And that's Chapter 2! I made the ending ominous, maybe a bit rushed, but things will be more interesting next, with some Void shenanigans. The next update will be in a while, what with everything else I have written. The next story I will update is going to be the Armored Alchemist, then the Aurum and Argentum Oculi.
Truth is kinda the eccentric hyper kid, and goes around doing a ton of stuff, and collects everything because it fascinates him. The founders do not know what a suit is, and the Jars use the ambient magic/Alchemical Energy in Truth's Realm and the Wizarding world to keep the spells in permanent stasis. Truth's powers on Earth are basically Father's, and some spacial manipulation.