Arisen

'I never thought I'd say this,' Scorpius said to Rose, clutching his steaming mug of tea, 'but thank God for your crazy obsessive packing.'

'It's only done us so much good,' she said, gaze sweeping across the inside of the tent. 'We have somewhere to hide out. On the other hand, you're still in your pyjamas.'

'And the ever-so-fetching fluffy slippers,' said Selena.

Explosions were never good. They were even worse at two in the morning, when nobody had time to pack, only some of them had time to throw on shoes, and only ingrained reactions had made Rose snatch up her backpack before piling out the bedroom. Mostof what they had travelled with had been unpacked, the clothes and personal effects. But the tent had still been in the bag, and the supplies they'd packed for when they'd be camping beyond shops, and so they weren't going to die of starvation, exposure, or, worst of all, lack of tea.

They had almost died of Fiendfyre. And splinching. But as the searing heat had come blasting down at them, Rose's apparition had yanked them spinning through space, away from danger and death and…

…onto the side of a mountain in the middle of the night, without a single source of light in sight. But the sky had been clear, there had been no sign of Fiendfyre, they were all together and, miraculously, none of them had been splinched. Lisa had stomped around the area like she was expecting an ambush at any moment, but Albus had, of course, been calm. He'd had them put up the tent. He and Lisa had set up some protective wards to hide them from sight. They'd had some tea. And they'd slept, because there was, like he said, nothing to do until morning.

Now it was morning, and they could finally ask the big questions. How had they been found? How had they almost survived? How had Rose managed to apparate them away in time?

Where the hell were they?

'I don't know,' she said for the umpteenth time when Scorpius asked for the umpteenth time. 'I know I should know, and it's a miracle we didn't get splinched, but I was focusing on getting away. I was trying to think of somewhere in Greece I could envision well enough for a mass apparition, but this is the first time I've been to Greece. Something must have popped into my head.'

'It doesn't matter,' said Selena. 'Or, rather, it does matter, but I'm just grateful we're alive. We're lucky.'

'Luck,' said a voice from the tent flap, 'had nothing to do with it.' Lisa would have cut a comical figure, striding into the tent barefoot, wearing the bright pink spare pyjamas Selena had loaned her, if it hadn't been for the knife-edge air of control about her, the tension with which she gripped her wand. 'That was a hell of an apparition, Weasley.'

Something had changed in her, Scorpius thought. She'd started out like an angry animal that had been spooked, reverting more to flight than fight instinct, though with the latter simmering somewhere under the surface. It wasn't that odd; he didn't know how he'd feel after weeks in Prometheus Thane's tender care, but curling up inside himself sounded like a good start. Conversation had been like watching someone try to act normally again with Bambi-like dexterity; well-meaning, he thought, but clumsy and uncertain. Now that someone was trying to kill them, she looked a lot more at ease. As if she'd explode at any moment, but this was obviously something she understood, something she knew how to deal with. It was like they'd stopped playing a game she'd only read the rules for, and moved into one she'd mastered.

He wished he couldn't understand that so well. He didn't want to be used to people trying to kill him. But it was happening.

Rose coloured. 'Not if I don't know where we are.'

'That would be useful,' Lisa agreed, moving to perform a sweep of the tent's central room, as if some new threat had appeared in the ten minutes she'd been outside. 'But being alive is the priority.'

'It's not like we can have a secondary goal without that one,' Scorpius pointed out to Rose. 'You did well. We got out of there in one piece. Or, more importantly, in six.' He took her hand and tried a reassuring smile.

She did her best to return it. After they'd appeared she'd all but collapsed from the effort, which had contributed to Albus telling them to put up the tent and stop for the night. Mass apparition with this kind of control and chaos couldn't have been easy, and he could only marvel at how she'd risen to the challenge. He couldn't have done it.

'The wards are untouched,' Lisa said once she seemed satisfied the tent canvas wasn't an enemy, and she pulled up a stool. 'I swear, when we get clothes again, I'm sleeping in my boots.'

He raised an eyebrow at her. 'You say that like you're angry you weren't doing that already.'

'And look where it got me.'

'So, the world of bodyguarding's a mental place.'

Her expression tensed - then the tent canvas opened and her wand twitched at it before Albus and Matt slunk in. Matt was the only one of them with proper clothes, still in what he was wearing last night, and Albus was the only other with shoes, having pulled them on before he'd answered the door. With Albus borrowing Matt's big coat, which was a bit tight around the shoulders but had still been packed in Rose's bag, not needed in warm Paris, Monte Carlo, or Kythos, the two of them had set off at dawn to have a sweep of the area.

'I think,' said Matt, 'that we're in Greece. Is there any coffee?'

Scorpius gaped at him. 'Seriously? You've been out there for thirty minutes and all you can do is confirm we're still in the same country?'

He scowled. 'We can set up some triangulation charms to try to locate ourselves, but it'd be best if I travelled, say, an hour in each direction to get the best and most precise results. I'm not doing that without breakfast.'

'I don't like the idea of us splitting up that far apart,' said Lisa. 'We need to stick together for safety.'

'We need clothes and shoes,' said Selena.

It wasn't often, mused Scorpius, that Selena could say that and be absolutely right. 'Practical clothes, of course,' he said, 'though I bet you wouldn't turn down a little kitten heel right now.'

'Depends on how cute it is.'

'Can't we just transfigure something?'

For the look Selena gave him, Scorpius might as well have said, "can't we just rub mud all over ourselves then Morris dance down Diagon Alley". 'Do you know your measurements, Scorpius?'

'No, but -'

'And that's even before basic fundamentals of tailoring. You like your clothes to look nice, Scorpius, not hang off you like sacks. You, of all people, should know that it's more than simply throwing cloth together, or else why do you spend so much on your shirts?' She waved a dismissive hand. 'We would look odd without the most meticulous planning. Subtly, unavoidably odd or, worse, shabby.'

Rose slid hot drinks to Matt and Albus as they sat down, desperate to move the topic on. 'There was nothing else out there?'

'We're halfway up a mountain,' said Albus. 'There's no snow higher up, but there wouldn't be this time of year. I'm sorry, I really couldn't see anything else distinctive.'

'Can't we just apparate somewhere we know really, really well?' said Selena.

Rose sighed. 'Two problems with that. The first is that there isn't anywhere in a reasonable apparition range that I know really, really well. This is the first time I've even been to Greece. So that would make an apparition tough in the first place. The second is that without knowing where we are exactly, apparition becomes even harder. The odds of us making it here okay were stupidly long. We're lucky to be okay and I don't want to risk it again.'

'Stop saying we were lucky,' said Lisa. 'We're alive because of your skills. But I agree there's no point taking the risk when we haven't explored other options.'

Scorpius cocked his head at her. 'Speaking of still being alive, what the hell warned you last night?'

Her expression tensed. 'Those rituals - the delayed blast Fiendfyre - were the same sort of magic used in the ambush of myself and the Professor in Copenhagen. I detected the magical signature they left. It was discreet; if I hadn't recognised it, I would have probably dismissed it as a background presence.'

'You're in the habit of checking what background magical signatures are present wherever you are?' said Matt, eyebrow quirked.

'In this line of work, you learn to be paranoid, or you don't learn at all.'

'You make a compelling point,' sighed Scorpius. 'Still. Thanks. I didn't fancy waking up crispy.'

Albus nodded. 'We owe you our lives. You and Rose. But we need to think about what happens next. We need to get in touch with someone but we have no Floo, we can't do the Patronus communication, we can't apparate safely. I suppose we could try hiking until we get to civilisation.'

Selena tossed a hand in the air. 'I don't think we have much of a choice; it's not like shouting really loud is going to make Britain hear us.'

An idea sparked in Scorpius' mind and exploded like the Fiendfyre, and he sat bolt upright. 'Yes, it will!' He looked at Lisa. 'Bring down the wards. I want to try something.'

She hesitated - then looked at Albus, who nodded, and with some reluctance she got to her feet and swished her wand in a circle about the inside of the tent.

It wasn't as if Scorpius could consciously feel the protective wards. But when they went down his mind felt more open, like the world was creeping in from the background, and so he got to his feet with a spring in his step as he drew a deep breath. 'Rigby! Rigby, come here! Master wants a word!' He didn't know for sure if it would work, but this was powerful magic, old magic.

Just a part of him hated himself for trying.

'What is he doing?' Lisa muttered to Albus - right as the air snapped in the middle of the tent's dining room and there stood the small, wrinkled, sackcloth-wearing form of Rigby, the Malfoy family House Elf.

'Master Scorpius called?'

Scorpius punched the air. 'Ha! I knew that would work!'

Rigby turned his huge eyes at him, something sinking in beyond the initial, instinctive response to a summons. 'Master Scorpius is alive?'

'Wait, what?'

Rigby threw his hands in the air. 'Master Scorpius lives! Master Draco will be ever-so-pleased to be told that he has not been burnt into tiny green bits! Rigby must go tell him right now -'

Scorpius goggled. '…what?'

Lisa was on her feet in an instant. 'Stop him.'

'Rigby, stop!' Scorpius held up both hands. 'Okay. Now. Er. Both of you explain. Why am I dead and why can't I be reported not-dead?'

She nodded at the House Elf. 'Make him answer first. We find out what's going on before we do anything.'

'Okay. That makes some sense.' Scorpius turned to Rigby. 'Why am I dead?'

Rigby worked his mouth. 'But… Master Scorpius is not dead…'

Selena pinched the bridge of her nose. 'Oh my God, I miss Harley…'

So do I, thought Scorpius, then thought he'd never expected to think that. He gave Rigby a firm look. 'Why am I thought dead?'

'Because Master Scorpius was reported dead,' said Rigby promptly, then seemed to realise more was expected of him. 'A message went out. This morning. Was put up everywhere but a copy made it to the house's front door, so Rigby brought it to Master Draco! But it was a bad message. A paper. It said you were dead.' Rigby's finger swept across them all. 'All of you. Except her. Rigby didn't read about her.' This last was, of course, directed at Lisa, who shrugged.

'The newspapers said we were dead?' said Rose.

'No.'

Rose pursed her lips. 'He's not very good with elaborating, is he?'

Scorpius winced. 'Sorry. My father pretty much only wants him to do as he's told, answer only what he's asked. Initiative isn't what he values in a House Elf. I wasn't sure he'd still answer my calls, but I didn't think my father would care to stop Rigby from helping me, it's not like I used him much.' He sat back down and looked levelly at Rigby. 'You're not talking to Master Draco right now. You're talking to Scorpius. I want to know everything. You can't say too much. It won't upset me. I promise.'

Rigby hesitated, then gave an awkward nod. 'During Crisis, a paper went out. People calling themselves Council of Thorns. Bad people, people who were hurting you. Said they were responsible for the illness. This was the same sort of message. Said it was written by a man named Raskoph.'

'This would be quicker if you could bring us the paper.'

'Rigby can do that.'

Lisa lifted a hand again. 'Tell him he cannot tell anyone that we are still alive. Someone told Raskoph where to find us, and until we know what's going on, we should assume we can't trust anyone but the people in this room.'

Scorpius nodded and looked at Rigby. 'Can you do that? I know you won't lie to Father, but don't mention you've come to see us. Just bring us this paper and then come right back, okay?'

'Rigby can do that!' said the House Elf, little chest puffing out - then he snapped his fingers and disappeared with a crack.

Rose looked at Albus. 'If our parents think we're dead…'

'That's good for nobody,' finished Selena. 'I know your parents might be heroes, and all, but I don't want to know what my mother's going to do.'

'I would imagine my father's throwing a tea party,' said Scorpius in a flat voice as he stood. He went to pace, stopped himself, and settled for moving to the back of Rose's chair, resting his hands on her shoulders. He could pretend he was reassuring her while he drew on comfort himself, and he relaxed a little when she lifted a hand to his.

'Can we trust the House Elf to keep his mouth shut?' said Lisa.

'He won't lie to my father. But unless Dad directly asks, Rigby won't volunteer. It's as good as we're going to get, and a House Elf is a damned sight more secure than most wizards. And if this has all gone horribly wrong, Rigby is the last person Dad's going to pay attention to.'

Rose pursed her lips. 'How come he "heard" you?'

He made a face. 'When I say that the Malfoy family has an old-fashioned way of treating its House Elves, I mean old-fashioned even by the standards of keeping House Elves. They must be absolutely loyal and always available to help the family. Dad wants to be able to bellow wherever he is and have Rigby bring him what he wants; something about enchanting Rigby's own name so when a certain voice says it, somewhere in the world, he can tell. I wasn't sure it would work from this far out, but it seems it does. There must be a maximum range on the summoning, but seems we're not outside of it.' Scorpius rolled a shoulder. 'I can't explain more. I never paid attention to it before. I tried to not use Rigby too much.'

Then the air twisted and cracked, and the House Elf was back in the tent, clutching a piece of paper that had been burnt at the edges. 'Rigby had to rescue this copy from the fireplace!'

'Rigby,' said Rose as Scorpius took the parchment. 'Where are we?'

'Rigby was summoned to Mount Parnassus!'

Realisation crossed Rose's face. 'Oh.'

'Where?' said Selena.

'I must have been thinking of the Oracle of Delphi,' she said to Matt.

'That's always my go-to bolt hole,' Matt said, voice dry. 'But at least now we know.'

Rose shrugged. 'Sorry. I could only get us somewhere I'd read of. So I must have thought of Delphi at the last second. We must be pretty near there.'

Scorpius was only half-listening to this, though, because his gaze had been locked on the parchment. 'Guys… this is bad. They've got someone in the Ministry.'

Albus sat up. 'Thane?'

'Yeah, but - this is Raskoph.' His gaze swept over the text. 'It openly says that we stole from them in Monaco, that although we didn't set back their plans we still defied the Council of Thorns,' he read, paraphrasing the block of text below. 'That they have eyes and ears in Britain, in the Ministry, and that for all our efforts to remain secret, it was easy for them to find us. So they came to Kythos and killed us in revenge.'

'Shit,' said Matt in a low voice, as stricken as the rest of them.

Something caught in Scorpius' throat. 'That's not all. They wiped out Kythos.'

Albus sat up straight. 'What?'

'Fiendfyre on the whole village, too. They were sheltering us, Raskoph writes. And that made them enemies of the Council of Thorns, so they were wiped out.'

'Oh my God.' Rose had gone white. 'There were - those people had nothing to do with this.'

'And now they're dead,' said Matt. 'Dead, because of us.'

Albus stood. 'No. Dead because of Raskoph. Dead because of Thane. That's a catastrophe, a tragedy, and something they must be held accountable for, but this is not because of us.' He let out a low, shaking breath. 'We have to get in touch with home.'

Lisa looked at him. 'Why?'

'Because otherwise everyone thinks we're dead!'

'Good.'

'Good? Why is that -'

'She's right,' Scorpius found himself saying. 'The Council of Thorns wanted us dead, and now they think we've succeeded, because we were never seen leaving that house and, well, who the hell can do a mass apparate safely out of a hot-spot like that? And we shouldn't have even seen the blast coming. If we let the world know we're alive, then they'll just try again.'

'Exactly,' said Lisa, who had looked surprised at his agreement. 'This way we can continue to work, continue to hunt - but they won't be looking for us, expecting us. And there's a leak in Britain, someone in the Ministry. You took measures to keep this secret and it wasn't enough. Who knew where you were?'

'My mum,' said Rose.

'And Tobias Grey - he owned the house. Neither one of them are going to betray us to the Council of Thorns,' said Matt, looking between Lisa and Scorpius. 'And, no offence intended, but you two don't exactly have family back home who are going to be losing their minds over this.'

'I think they would lose their minds more over you actually being dead,' she said. 'And somebody told Raskoph. We have to be in this to win.'

Selena drew a slow breath. 'I agree. I don't like it, and I think when my Mum finds out I'm not dead she's going to kill me, but the Council of Thorns has just demonstrated that what we thought was secure is not secure. They're not going to give up, and the gloves are off. They will kill not just us, but anyone they can get to who's helped us. At the least, we have an obligation to help keep those people safe.'

'I think the only way we can reveal we're still alive is if we just go home and give up on this one,' said Scorpius. 'And maybe that's possible. I bet the International Convocation's gonna have to get up off its arse now that an entire island's been wiped out. They can't pretend Thane and Raskoph aren't serious threats. Professionals will be on the case.'

Albus nodded. 'Very well. But we have to all be in agreement on this. If one of us goes back, that blows us all open. And if even one of us wants to go back, they get to go back. I'm not forcing anyone into putting their families through this, into carrying on now this is decidedly more lethal. Either we're all in agreement on keeping this quiet, or it's not kept quiet. So. Does anyone want to tell their family? Or even go back?'

His gaze swept across the table. Scorpius didn't move, and wasn't surprised when Selena didn't, but he looked down at Rose. Her lips were thin, and he could feel the tension in her shoulders under his fingertips, but she didn't shift.

Eventually Matt sighed. 'No. I don't want to go back. I don't like hurting my family but I don't want to get more innocent people killed, and I don't want to get us killed by carrying on this work and exposing ourselves to possible security leaks. Maybe we're just being stupid kids but we've come too far to give up. And now I really, really want to ruin those bastards.'

Rose nodded. 'Yeah,' she said in a low voice. 'But don't just ask us, Al. Tell us what you think.'

He gave a sad smile. 'I am telling you what I think, Rosie. I'm in this to the end.' Then he sat up. 'So we need a next move. Which is going to include a where, yeah, but we need money and we need means of transport if we're not moving through official channels.'

Scorpius let go of Rose. 'I think I can do some of that, too.' He turned to Rigby. 'I need you to do a few more things for me. Clothes, bring me all the Muggle clothes I bought last summer. Er, except for the formal things. Don't bring me the bloody wardrobe, even Dad might notice that. And also, there's a loose floorboard under my bed. In it's a lockbox; bring me that. And, er, that's all for now. Come back quickly.'

Rigby bowed, then twirled on the spot and disappeared. Selena raised an eyebrow at him. 'Lockbox?'

'Some pocket change. But also all the bank details and cards for my Muggle accounts.' Scorpius pulled up his chair next to Rose. 'What? Until this year, all my money had my father's oversight. So I acted like I spent huge chunks of it and instead put it the one place he'd never look: the Muggle world. Just in case I needed money he had no access to or control over. It's not a lot, it won't fund us in fancy hotels or the like but it should tide us over for a little bit. I admit, I kind of forgot about it after we got out of Hogwarts, because then I was seventeen and had my inheritance money for myself.' He made a face. 'Those will revert to my father now. Damn, being dead's going to be complicated.'

'It beats dead-dead.'

'Okay.' Albus reached to refill his mug of tea. 'When we've got that, we'll relocate so we're harder to find, put up new wards. Then Matt and Scorpius, and maybe me if I can find anything that fits, will go find somewhere to buy some bloody clothes and food. And then we need to know where we're going next. If we're going to be presumed dead so we can stay one step ahead of the Council of Thorns, then we need to make the most of it.' He looked at Matt. 'Do you know where to go next?'

He made a face. 'I have a theory. It's more like a curiosity, but seeing as our hand's been forced, until I get a better idea I think it's worth going to check it out.'

'Go on.'

Matt leaned back, gathering thoughts. 'The Crusades were wars shared by Muggles and wizards alike. With such integration of magical and non-magical society at the time, religious zeal and political ambition were easily shared. On both sides of the war. The Knights Templar were no different; their wizards participated in fights against Muslim wizards, a war alongside the ones in the Muggle history books. Of course, wizarding historians don't like talking about this much; it's evidence of how much we've tagged along behind the Muggles in the past, rather than beating our own trail -'

'You can skip to the point, you know,' said Scorpius.

Rose squeezed his hand in admonishment and Matt scowled, but he pressed on. 'Just as the Muggle Templars owned and built forts and holdings in the Crusader States over the centuries in the Levant, so did their wizards. Several, in fact, but there's one which stood out for me because of two facts. The first is that it was apparently built and commanded in 1163 by a Templar wizard named Reynald de Sablé.'

'Hey,' said Scorpius. 'That's our guy!'

'If you mean the man whose sarcophagus we found in the Catacombs, no, it's not. Because his birth date was listed as 1254. But it's the same name. Now, I considered it could have been a coincidence, or a family, until I found this miniature of a feature inside the fort.' Matt opened the Book and turned it so they could all see. It was nothing more than a two-dimensional and stylised depiction of an archway, the keystone of which was emblazoned with the red Templars' cross, the rest of the masonry bearing etchings and markings which looked only like decoration to Scorpius.

'I don't get it.'

'These stood out to me because they're very Celtic in their style, aren't they?' Matt ran his finger along the designs across the archway. 'And then I realised they're familiar. Because these are, if I'm not mistaken, exactly the same as the ones which were in the alcove in Paris. The one the Chalice used to sit in.'

Rose looked at him. 'You said the Templars took the Chalice on the Crusades.'

'So the stories go. They somehow got it in Wales, and then took it with them to war. I'm getting the impression they did believe it was holy, as well as possessing a tremendous capacity to heal the wounded and dying. It had to be kept somewhere in the period the Templars had holdings in the Levant; I think this is where.'

Scorpius winced. 'Why are we going to look where it used to be?'

'We have no idea at what point the fake was put in Paris,' said Matt. 'What if it was never brought back from the Crusader States? What if it's still there? Also, the more we know about it, the traditions around it, the more likely we are to find a clue to wherever it is now. So that tomb in the Catacombs said de Sablé was born in 1254. What if that was a lie? The Chalice could apparently imbue the drinker with a long life-span. What if he'd carted the Chalice around for centuries, to the Levant and then back to Paris, changing his identity so nobody got suspicious he was responsible for something this powerful?'

'Then why would they make him a tomb?' said Scorpius.

Matt paused. 'I… have no idea. But it's a theory.'

'It is,' said Albus. 'And I'm convinced it's worth a look. It beats sitting on a mountain in Greece, anyway. What's this fort called, and where is it?'

'Castle of Ager Sanguinis,' said Matt. 'There actually was a Battle of Ager Sanguinis between the Muggle Crusaders and Muslims, which was a huge and bloody victory for the latter, and diminished the power of the Christians in the Principality of Antioch in the early twelfth century - okay, okay, skipping to the end. There were two of these battles, because the wizards conducted their own fight at the same time some distance away. The Muslims won that one, too, with an enormous loss of life on the part of the Christians, and historians are arguing if the Muslim wizards managing to get to the Muggle army in time after they'd won contributed to the Muggle victory -'

'This isn't skipping to the end.'

'When the Crusaders regained supremacy in the Principality of Antioch, the Templar wizards had a fort built on that site. Apparently somewhere which had seen so much magical death at such a huge degree held power, and it was power they wanted in their hands. Unfortunately, records don't give me many more details on that. Ager Sanguinis was abandoned in the late thirteenth century; never conquered, but the Templars lost Tortosa and abandoned the Levant for Cyprus, and the wizards didn't stick around.'

Rose's brow furrowed. 'A site of a large amount of magical death.'

'Yeah,' said Albus. 'I don't like that either.'

Lisa quirked an eyebrow. 'Fill me in?'

'Something like that was necessary as ground zero for the Phlegethon ritual at Hogwarts. A site of a huge amount of dark magic, where the barriers between the worlds of the living and the dead were at their weakest,' said Albus. 'I dislike that the Templars and the Chalice are tied into something similar, if the Council of Thorns are interested. But this is just conjecture.' He looked at Matt. 'Do you know exactly where this place is?'

'Exactly?' He winced. 'Not exactly. Somewhere in the Syrian Desert. More than that, I can make some educated guesses. And do more reading.'

Albus nodded. 'Do that. We'll get equipment. Clothes. Relocate somewhere safer. And then…' He exhaled. 'Then we'll figure out how the hell to make this next move.'

Rose found him hours later, stood just outside the tent while others were on their hunting expeditions for clothes and the rest were getting some sleep. He gave her a wan, tired look, before silently lifting his wand to put up the simple charm James had taught him, the old trick to produce a buzzing noise to those eavesdropping and make getting information impossible.

'There's got to be a way,' said Albus tensely, 'for you to use Legilimency discreetly.'

Rose made a face, catching up with him almost immediately. 'Not really.'

'When she's asleep?'

A shrug. 'It's possible. I could get surface thoughts, dreams. Maybe from there ride some waves naturally. But I can't guarantee anything, and she might well know I was doing it. Do you want that?' Her eyes were tense.

'You don't want to do that.'

'Legilimency isn't something to do casually, easily. I'm not here to bloody well loot through the minds of people we've just met to know if we can trust them, abuse their privacy. We didn't have a choice with Paquet. I was taught how to do this magic by Mum, but she also taught me the responsibility.'

'If you can't do it discreetly,' said Albus, 'then can't you just do it and then wipe her memories of -'

Rose grabbed his elbow, eyes flashing, grip hard enough to hurt. 'Al, listen to yourself. That is an utter violation you're talking about. I know you're scared, you're worried, but she saved us.'

He closed his eyes, drawing a hissing breath. 'You're right. I'm sorry, you're right, I'm just - Kythos. Did she sell us out?'

'She saved us,' she repeated.

'And yet, she's the only thing we gained from the Rabbit's Foot. No Chalice. No leads.'

'Okay, so say Thane did know the Chalice was fake, say it was a lure, say he wanted us to succeed and that Lisa's an infiltrator. Kythos almost killed us all. That Fiendfyre almost killed us all. She warned us, yes, but there was no guarantee none of us would be caught by that Fiendfyre, no guarantee that my apparition would work. That's not a gamble, that's insanity. We almost died, and she'd have died with us. Trust that, even if you don't trust her.'

Albus' breath caught. 'I want to trust her,' he said. 'I look at her and I see - she's like a caged animal, isn't she? Hurt and scared and ready to lash out. But can we afford trust?'

Rose gave a slow, sad smile, hand sliding down his arm to squeeze his hand briefly. 'What does your gut say, Al?'

He exhaled slowly. 'To trust her. But my gut's too damned nice -'

'Yes, it is. And stop viewing that as a weakness. If you don't trust her, trust that she almost died with us. Whatever came before, whatever happened before - we only have each other now. We're in this together.'

'Talk to me, Prometheus.' It was evening now. Money had been acquired, clothes had been acquired, and they'd relocated. She'd said she was going to check the wards, and because she'd done it over and over, nobody was suspicious or inclined to join her. So it was an easy thing for Lisa to step beyond them, to take her time in this patch of rocky Greek wilderness away from the tent and the others and, at last, make contact.

It was another minute before one bright eye was visible through the two-way mirror. 'You're alive? Thank Merlin.'

It was relief, she thought, genuine relief, and something swelled in her at the prospect of such a sincere reaction. He wouldn't lie to her; there'd be no point. Despite herself, she smiled. 'We got out in time. We're laying low. What the hell is going on?'

'It's Raskoph. I can't - I may have underestimated him.' It must have hurt him to say that, she thought. 'I wanted to continue the hunt for the Chalice, but he was furious that we lost the money to Guerrier and, realising I'd sent you with them, blamed me. So he didn't listen. So he called up some contacts… and we were sent to Kythos.'

'You said you had him in hand.' Lisa's jaw tightened. 'You said you could manipulate him, lead him -'

'He dug his heels in; I misjudged him. And don't forget he's officially the Council's lead man on this; officially I work for him -'

'He wiped out Kythos.' Her voice shook with a vehemence and pain which surprised her. She was no stranger to death and suffering; witnessing it, delivering it. But there was always a purpose, or so she told herself, and death on this scale was nothing she had ever seen a need for. Because the only need was vengeance and theatrics. 'Hundreds of people, Prometheus!'

'I know. But, look - the Council is not united in its support for Raskoph. There are some who feel he went off the rails in targeting the Five, and in that huge a loss of life. Not everyone shares his love of brutality, not without purpose; this was an open declaration of war far beyond the subtlety of the Stygian Plagues. Give me time, Eva, and he will be brought to heel.'

'So the Council can't even make up its mind on what it wants? Great.'

'Not everyone wanted the Five dead.' Prometheus paused. 'There are those with interests in them.'

She narrowed her eyes at the mirror. 'Who was the source on our location?'

'Someone in Hermione Granger's office. She's been found and arrested already.' His voice bore a hint of hesitation.

'But where there's one, there are others.'

'Of course. But nobody thought Raskoph would do this; it's possible they may have given him information more… innocently. All I know is that there is someone terribly high up within the Council who's now calling for Raskoph's head.'

'And who's connected to the Five. You have your suspicions, don't you.'

'I always suspect people. But why do you think I've been so hands-off, why do you think I didn't kill them, why do you think I've watched some of them so carefully?' She could see him shake his head through the mirror, though there was no hint of where he was, no background visible. 'I'm not naming names. I don't know. I only have suspicion. Some of their associations are far too pure, some of them have fought too hard against the Council. But the same voice which has fed me information on the Five also told me to, yes, hand over the Resurrection Stone.'

She looked away, watching the tent. There was no movement she could see, and she was too far away, standing in the rocky scrubland, to hear voices from inside. She was still safe to talk, and drew a deep breath. 'So what happens now?'

'We continue with the plan. Raskoph has yet to have the leash pulled and I know he has backers in the Council. Politics will happen, but I'm confident he'll get reined in. Even if I get told to do it permanently.'

'But if I tell you where we are, where we're going, then you'll have to tell Raskoph if you want to move on it. And then he'll bloody kill us.'

'Then keep silent until you have something definite. Maybe until you have the Chalice itself. He thinks you're dead; let it stay that way. It means I can't help you, it means you're on your own, but you can do this, Eva.'

It was odd, even after only a few days, to be called by her real name. She'd been stopping thinking of herself as Eva. The sensation of not being Lisa was jarring. 'No support from you. Watch them, follow them, help them, shield them from Raskoph. Stay out of touch with you. And if I get a chance to grab the Chalice and betray them, or just run… do it.'

'That's my girl.' He smiled, perfect white teeth gleaming through the narrow gap of the mirror. 'I can't help you without showing I know you're alive. Don't let them know. Don't let the world know. Britain can't be trusted, I assure you. If Raskoph is reined in, I will make contact, and we'll resume the plan as before.' He paused. 'And, Eva? Keep them alive.'

'You have suspicions on who wants them alive.'

'I always have suspicions. No, I'm not telling you.' Prometheus sighed. 'Good luck. And… goodbye.'

This might be the last time she spoke to him, she realised, her gut lurching. Back in Monte Carlo that hadn't been her concern; she'd been focused on the job ahead, and Downing and his brutality. But now they were set to part, to stay out of touch until the job was done, and this was a dangerous job. For both of them. If Raskoph knew he'd protected them, warned them, there would be consequences.

And she doubted that getting to the Chalice of Emrys would be a cakewalk, even without the Council of Thorns nipping at their heels. Else someone else would have found it before them.

She drew a sharp breath. 'Stay safe -'

But he was already gone, the mirror already turning to just a normal mirror, and she was speaking to nothing but a locket and the wind. And now Eva Saida really was alone.

Something caught in her throat. She'd worked independently, but always at Thane's behest, always with some means of getting in touch with him, some sort of backup, or some notion of how long this would go. But she knew what this meant. If Raskoph caught up with them and came to kill them - her own side, her own employer - she would not be spared and Thane would probably not compromise his position in the Council to save her. She trusted him. But she knew him. He was a professional.

It would hurt him, but his job came first.

The noise from the tent made her jump, made her grab her stolen wand and whip around instinctively - then she realised it wasn't a shout, or a noise of magic, but a roar of Scorpius' loud, infectious laughter, the echoes of the others with him.

People were trying to kill them, their families thought they were dead, and they were in there, joking and laughing. Days ago she would have thought them childish and naive. Now, she had to concede this spoke of a resilience she hadn't expected them to be capable of.

Eva Saida was alone. But she wasn't Eva Saida now. She was Lisa Delacroix.

She snapped the locket shut, tucked her wand away, and walked towards the light of the tent. Ducking in through the flap got her little attention, everyone engrossed in what had made Scorpius laugh: Selena, stood at the table, waving a shoe in Matt's face in a thoroughly indignant rant questioning just what had possessed him to buy her this shoe in that colour and that make.

Albus did look up as she came in, though, and grinned. Despite herself she smiled back and he nudged the stool next to him out so she could sit, just as Rose slid a cup of tea across the table for her, warming, welcome.

Eva Saida was alone. But Lisa Delacroix wasn't.

And some day Lisa Delacroix would betray them all.

A/N: The House Elf summoning thing is, perhaps, questionable. It's incredibly vague at the beginning of Half-Blood Prince how Dumbledore summons Kreacher to Harry, to my recollection; he waves his wand and then Kreacher is there. The notion behind this is that on occasion the Malfoys have become quite obsessive in keeping track of their House Elves, and I can see this story's Draco using more, ha, draconian methods. This is a kind of House Elf controlling magic that is rare, expensive, and highly socially frowned upon.

Scorpius squirrelling money away, before anyone asks, is not another endless pit of cash. The boy's probably had a few hundred pounds or so kept in Muggle places. Which is great to get food and clothes in a crisis (or, pocket money for him if he wanted cash Draco didn't know about) but really doesn't fund international travel. They still have their backs to a wall.

As for the history - Battle of Ager Sanguinis was something which legitimately happened; everything Matt relays about Muggle history in this chapter is truthful. We are now getting into my 'exciting' extrapolation of magical crusader history. More shall come in future chapters. But next… to the Levant!

Writing is progressing. I think I'm getting through the worst of the plot snarl which brought me to a halt (though this week I wrote and scrapped a whole chapter, which I think is hurting me somewhere deep in my soul). The full story has cracked 200k anyway, making Starfall my longest fic to date, and we're not in sight of the end yet!