Card the moon

Chapter 10 – The more you know

A handsome blonde man stood before a darkly elegant woman. Long shadows drew hard lines across his boyish face in the soft glow surrounding her and the floating crystalline orb; stoic, poised.

"Jadeite, report!"

His air of composure belied how much he did not want to give his report. It was bad news; she was not the sort who took bad news well. She was, however, exactly the sort to shoot the messenger.

"Yes, my queen."

Framing alone would be his salvation; frame the bad news so that it sounded like good news.

"I am happy to report, the magic users we have infiltrated appear to be more powerful than we originally surmised."

Wait for her to take the bait… "How is that?" Bingo.

"Of the thirteen subordinates I planted throughout the castle to observe and collect life energy, all have been destroyed, twelve by forces unknown."

Pause, wait for her to process, "Are you telling me you've lost all of your subordinates?"

Reframe the question, "Not lost my queen, destroyed. I have confirmation of all twelve deaths."

"How di—wait, twelve? You said you had thirteen, but twelve died of unknown forces. What happened to the other?"

Oh yeah, that one, "Explorational sacrifice."

"Explain."

"During my initial survey of the castle I discovered numerous sealed rooms and hidden places. It seems that apart from being a school it is also a holding place for various powerful or forbidden things. In my attempts to invade a certain room and divine the nature of its inhabitant, she was lost to the creature."

"And this creature was strong enough to destroy a youma?" He nodded. "What manner of creature could do this?"

"Horrible," he said, resisting a shiver. "It was mostly amorphous till it woke. All eyes and tentacles, squirming, wriggling, undulating…"

"Enough!"

He almost jumped at the exclamation but managed to stop himself. He knew the creature to be upsetting, but he'd thought his description sufficiently vague. Apparently not. In all the millennia he'd served her, he'd never seen Beryl so, fidgety.

"My queen?"

"Yes!... ehem, um, yes Jadeite, you were saying, about the other twelve. Were there any clues as to the nature of the culprit?"

"None I consider reliable. I found one of the student's unconscious at the scene of one. She was mostly drained, half-asleep and grumbling about cats and short skirts."

"I—see."

He didn't, "As I said, none reliable. But given the other things hidden away in the castle it seems likely they haven't registered the youma as a unique anomaly, just another bit of the background magic.

"How convenient for us," the queen mused.

"Yes, my queen." Don't get excited. Let her ruminate. Don't rush. You still have 'it', just in case.

"Hmm, yes. Is it possible one of the instructors of this school was responsible?"

"Unlikely my queen. The teachers meet weekly to discuss matters of the school and students. There has been thus far no mention of anything like the youma, and they are being especially observant this year. Some sort of criminal is believed to be hunting one of the students."

"Really? Do you know which one?"

"Yes, my queen. He is actually quite famous for an incident when he was a babe. Survived an allegedly unsurvivable murder curse from some powerful wizard who'd been terrorizing the community with his cronies. The boy survived, the wizard died, though not before murdering the parents; his organization fell apart, and now one of the followers has escaped prison and come after the boy."

"Hmm, and this boy, what is his name?"

"Harry Potter my queen."

"And how do you find him?"

"Extraordinary only in how unextraordinary he is."

"Doesn't quite live up to the legend?" she smirked.

"If I hadn't heard the same story from everyone I asked, I'd have thought it a joke. He seems nothing more than a perfectly average young man in all regards save one.

"He is purported to be an exceptional talent on the flying broomsticks I believe I mentioned in my last report. The youngest member of his house's team in his particular position in over a century."

"So, he plays a game well. Anything else?"

"No, my queen. He appears no more talented than any of his cohort who I must report are terribly average."

"So, our youma slayer is unlikely to be found there."

"That would be my assessment, though I will of course continue to observe all of them."

She said nothing to which he took as an encouraging sign. So long as she didn't say 'actually' he was safe, probably.

"Have any of these children shown, predilection, that may be beneficial to our cause?"

"Regrettably my queen, no. While some certainly think highly of themselves, in reality they are painfully mediocre."

"Mediocre talents may not be such a drawback if the mind is sufficiently, pliable. You understand me Jadeite?"

"Of course," not. "Shall I, make efforts?"

"Hmm… for the moment the secrecy of your position is of greater importance. We have waited ten thousand years, a little longer will not hurt."

"Yes, my queen."

Sensing dismissal, he turned to leave without making it look like a hasty retreat. A chill raced up his spine like an avalanche in reverse when he heard the word, "Actually."

Oh stars, it was happening. This was the end. "I just remembered something. You'll be pleased to hear Nephrite has secured a property in the village outside your castle, Hog—something. He will be managing operations from there under the guise of selling books and minor magical trinkets."

"I—see."

He staggered out of the throne room with as much manufactured dignity as he could muster. To anyone watching it would have looked like he had something shoved up his ass.

"Hey Jadeite, want me to pull the stick out for you?"

"Zoisite."

It would be Zoisite. Well tough, his legs said, we're knocking off for a few minutes so you're just gonna have to deal with it.

"Geez, what's your problem," Zoisite snickered as he slid down the wall. "How bad did you screw up."

"I didn't."

"So what gives? Not getting enough sleep or you just want to suck my…"

"DON'T! finish that sentence."

He glared at his fellow general, the snickering jackass. Ten thousand years was a long time; ten thousand years with Zoisite was the very definition of hell, unless your name was Kunzite.

"So spill, what gives?"

"Why do you want to know?"

"I'm bored."

Not difficult, Zoisite had the attention span of a gnat. It was only unfortunate Beryl couldn't have all her generals running around at once, except, "Weren't you supposed to be infiltrating London?"

"Kunzite's working on it," he said flippantly. "We found this rich couple that should work well, but they got a kid and he's off at school. We're taking turns observing them, so we'll be ready to take their place once we see how they interact with the brat. So…"

Sigh! He wasn't going to let this go, "She said, 'actually'."

"Ew! Wait, why are you still alive?'

"She just needed to tell me Nephrite was moving in next door. I guess she forgot."

"Oh, that. Yeah I hear his lieutenants have really wormed their way into the underbelly of that continent."

Iolite and Sodalite had been sent to infiltrate the country of France. They'd found an advanced criminal network spanning the entire continent and were well on their way to establishing themselves as major players. The Dark Syndicate, not terribly clever but it worked.

"Where is Nephrite anyway?"

"Decorating his new pad, I guess. Why, you need to make a booty call?"

Ugh, alright legs, breaks over. Time to go.

"Zoisite, you are a wretched, contemptable whore, and I hope someday that bites you in the ass, and not in a way you enjoy."

"Aw, don't be that way. Let's kiss and make-up."

Just ignore him. He's only doing it for attention. Don't give it to him.

Stomping purposefully through the portal, he reappeared inside his office; the schools vaunted wards utterly useless against a sort of magical travel they'd never seen.

A quick shift and Jadeite was once again handsome but nerdy Professor Jade. And as Professor Jade, Jadeite went to his desk, opened the drawer, its secret compartment, and pulled out the booze hidden within.

After his near miss with Beryl and having to deal with Zoisite; arguably the more taxing activity, he needed a drink like he'd not needed a drink since they were sealed into the Negaverse.

The unexpected knock at his door had him biting back a curse. Schooling his features, he called, "Come in," squirreling away his bottle before the door opened, revealing a bushy haired girl.

"Professor Jade? I'm sorry, am I disturbing you?"

Compared with where I've just been…

"Not at all Miss Granger," he said with the most genuine fake smile you'd ever seen. "How can I help you?"

"Harry, I don't like it."

Sigh, "Just ignore it Ron."

"It ain't right I tell you," because just ignoring it was apparently out of the question. "Just not right."

"You know she's doing it just to get a rise out of you?"

"You think?"

"Yeah."

Of course, Ron thought he meant Hermione was trying to get a rise out of him; when in fact it was Luna herself, sitting at the table, nice as you please, leafing through some massive text.

"I don't like it."

"Let it go."

Okay, so in his defense, Luna really was trolling him, and like a large mouth bass he was gobbling up the bait, hook, line, sinker, and about half the rod as well. Let it never be said he didn't excel at something.

"Sorry I'm late. I had to speak with Professor Jade," said Hermione shuffling up and dumping her overstuffed bag on the table with a frightful thud.

"Asking him for some extra homework?" Harry quipped, receiving her glare with a look of pure innocence.

"You wanna do something about that," said Ron, jabbing an accusatory finger at the feline of his ire.

"What's she reading?" A quick scan of the current page, "Cutting spells?"

"Ah ha! I knew it. She's gonna chop up poor Scabbers. I knew it!"

"Oh Ron, don't be ridiculous. She's just a cat. She hasn't even got a wand."

She didn't, but Harry did, which was actually what she was reading for. They'd be having his first spell training soon, and in order for her to teach him, she needed to research. And since she didn't have hands, she needed someone else to get the books down for her.

"She's well read!"

"She's an evil monster."

"Guys! Keep it down or you're gonna get us thrown out."

"Mrow."

Obviously, a better system need be devised, and quickly.