Chapter 4
A/N: Short chapter coming up. Not boring, however.
A man in black robes leaned over a desk, his only light provided by a candle whose flame didn't get any lower with the passing night outside. The room he was in was cramped and cylindrical. On his desk stood what appeared to be a Pensieve. Swirling mist shone out of it, but the mist seemed to be a lustrous black instead of the usual shining, vapory white.
The images beneath the surface appeared to greatly interest the man at the desk. Grunting in satisfaction, he stood up suddenly. He pointed a wand at the floor and murmured something that caused dense black smoke to issue from the tip. It sunk to the floor where it condensed into a thick cloud, and began raising him like an elevator, up through the pillar that he used as his hideout.
At the top of the pillar, he stepped off the smoky platform, took two running steps, and leaped. Ocean water rushed up to meet him. Water was like solid rock from this height; he had to be more than a hundred feet up. Water was a smothering, preying creature. Water would crush him if it had the chance.
It never got the chance. At the very last moment, the man twisted in midair, his body's build vaporizing into sparse strands of smoke as he spun.