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The Council of Thirteen
Book Thirteen: The Sixth Lord
Homecoming
One Shot
Beta:
Inside the guest room assigned to him in the London Hiiragizawa home, Dante Martin, a young man with spiky golden blond hair and eyes with a supernatural sharp orange tone, dressed in a black suit with white pinstripes and a white undershirt with a black tie, stood examining the disassembled pair of M1911-style handguns. The pistols were named Anna and Maria, after his late mother Annamaria and served as his magical foci and he was making sure they were in peak working condition.
As the Lord of the Tool Users, the politically correct term that describes the magicals who relied on magical items to work their magic, Dante had naturally built the guns himself. They were at once his pride and joy, masterpiece and tribute to his mother. That alone meant he was driven to keep them in tip top condition but it was also a necessity. He fully expected he'd need to use them quite a bit during this mission.
A very important mission to him indeed. For at long last, after eight years of training, the Italian Sixth Lord was finally going on his first field mission on his own. Sure he still had a partner but unlike the few other missions he'd undertaken before now, she would be his equal not his superior sent along to guide and supervise him.
He was incredibly excited at the opportunity to put all that he had learned under the tutelage of the Thirteenth Lord into practice. It had been something he had been looking forward to ever since the first day the woman had showed up at his family's estate and explained that magic was real. That all the odd happenings that were taking place around him in the year or so since his mother's death from cancer had been the result of his magic.
Ever since that fateful day, he had latched onto the idea as a clutch to overcome his grief. But that was mixed in with a genuine amazement that magic was real. And over time with a growing sense of respect for his Master and a desire to make her proud.
"It looks all good." Dante said to himself with a grin as he began reassembling his Mystic Codes.
He was almost finished when the door to his room was unceremoniously slammed open and his girlfriend and fellow Lord, Rose Iris Potter, waltzed in.
She looked frazzled. Her long waist length raven black hair looked like it had only been haphazardly brushed and her off shoulder plaid shirt and jeans looked wrinkled. As far from the norm as her unkemptness was for his usually put together girlfriend, it was nothing new for her since she had been assigned this mission and they got to Britain. The idea of dealing with Wizarding Britain, the culture that had birthed her and destroyed her childhood through abuse, ate at her nerves. Which was precisely why they had been given the mission by the Council of Thirteen to investigate reports of a new Outsider cult operating within the isolated community. The Thirteenth Lord, their Master, and Rose Iris' foster mother, Dom, wanted Rose Iris to finally confront her past. And he was there to help her keep her cool as she did.
"Are you ready?" Rose Iris questioned as she absently paced his room and began rambling.
"I've already said goodbye to Eriol, Kaho and their Guardians, so you don't need to."
"It's not very polite." Rose added. "But they understand the need for urgency."
Things aren't that urgent. Dante wanted to add but didn't cut in, instead focusing on putting the last few touches on his guns' reassembly. At least not for anyone but you. Then again the Hiiragizawas know that. Though I'd better make it a point to apologize to them at a later date.
"I'm ready," Dante said as he holstered his completely reassembled guns, cutting off his girlfriend's ramblings. "And for the thousandth time Ri, everything will be alright."
Rose Iris relaxed a little at his use of their private pet name, breathing out a frustrated sigh.
"I'm overreacting aren't I?" Rose asked, before swapping control with Iris. "Sorry."
"It's fine." Dante reassured her, putting his hands on her slender shoulders and giving them a squeeze. "I understand."
"Thank you," Rose Iris said in a whisper uncharacteristic of when her two halves spoke as one as she pulled him into a hug.
They stood there in each others' embrace for a long moment as she recollected herself before with one final fortifying breath she offered him a smile and pulled away.
"It's time to go." Rose said solemnly.
"Yes, let's go get this over with." Iris added irritably.
"Lead the way, my lady." Dante said, bowing theatrically and earning himself an amused smirk from his tense girlfriend.
"You ham," Rose told him even as Iris smacked his arm playful before slipping her slender arm with his. "Do the honours."
"Your wish is my command," Dante said in as over the top a voice as he could manage even as he cast the Teleport spell that would take them to their destination.
It was with the melodious giggles of his girlfriend echoing in his ears that they were gripped by the spell and in a burst of bright light was transported to the British Ministry of Magic.
As Rose Iris sat in the office of the Madam Amelia Bones, Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, waiting for the aforementioned woman to meet them, the twenty one year old Fourth Lord tried to distract herself from the fact that she was back in Wizarding Britain by thinking back on how she has been raised and trained in the intervening ten years by her foster mother.
It was tough. She thought with a wistful smile. For all that the Thirteenth Lord was her foster mother and truly lived up to that title, mothering her in ways that Rose Iris could never find the words to fully express her appreciation for, she was also her mentor in the ways of magic and as a Lord of the Thirteen. And as much as Dom lived up to being her loving foster mother, she also fully lived up to being her mentor. She put me through hell during training…
Be it through rigorous study, carefully guided spell development, sparring, missions… All of it had been harsh and demanding but never something she couldn't handle without some grit and determination and the occasional helping hand. Through all that, she was shaped into becoming the confident Fourth Lord that she was today.
Except I'm not feeling all that confident right now. Rose Iris confessed to herself and sought another distraction. She glanced at Dante but his worried frown dissuaded her from starting up a conversation. He'd probably want to talk about my feelings. But that's exactly what I don't want.
Looking away from her well-meaning boyfriend, her wandering eyes settled on the twin wands whose tips poked out of her sleeves. With a well practised flick of her wrists, they slid out of her wrist holsters and settled comfortably into her hands. Ebony and Ivory were made out of their namesake materials with the cores made from her own hair, one from atop her head and the other from between her legs, and served as her Mystic Codes.
And wasn't the plucking of the hair for Ebony's core an experience. She thought with amusement.
The twin wands had been crafted for her by her boyfriend and one of many Codes that the Tool User Lord had manufactured for the Council and its associates over the years. And of course that meant he'd had to acquire the necessary components himself, to ensure their potency. Oh, he'd tried to demur and insist he could make do with whatever Rose Iris provided him but she'd wanted the best possible Mystic Codes so she'd insisted.
Like that was the only reason. Iris thought with a giggle.
To be fair, it's not untrue either. Rose shot back defensively. I mean if I wanted to keep the duality theme that is the bedrock of my magic, then I needed one of my pubes for Ebony's wand core. And as our wand smith, Dante, really had to pick it out himself for the best results.
And the idea of him being between my legs had nothing to do with it. Iris rebutted. Oh! Right, it did! 'Cos I ended up having him eat me out after he'd got the hair he needed. Or what we did after that? Hmm...
T-That was just a bonus!
Rose Iris blushed as her Rose personality wallowed in embarrassment and Iris giggled like a loon. Sometimes having two personalities could be such a pain.
"Ri, you okay?" Dante asked as he reached over and gave one of her hands a light squeeze, pulling her from her thoughts and reminding her that he was there with her. "A penny for your thoughts?"
"I-It's nothing," Rose said hastily, before Iris took over and spilled the beans. "I'm just remembering how you picked out Ebony's core."
Dante blushed at that and Rose Iris smiled, glad that he found the whole thing as embarrassing, she hoped, as Rose felt it was. Not saying it hadn't been a fabulous experience, but thinking about it was nevertheless embarrassing. And explaining it to others when describing her wand, a disturbingly common practice when dealing with Tool Users, was just mortifying.
But at least I'm not the only one that has to suffer through it. Rose Iris thought as she reholstered her wands.
"You know you're the best boyfriend?" Rose Iris told him honestly, offering him a smile that he returned with that oh so charming smile of his own.
The two of them had had a mutual crush for each other during their time as fellow apprentices to their master but both had been too gutless to act on it for years. Thankfully things had finally changed on her sixteenth birthday.
Flashback
Tonight is the night. Dante thought to himself as he psyched himself up and began walking towards Rose Iris at her sixteenth birthday party in the ballroom of Sanctuary's Governor's Palace. The party was honestly incredible, but the young Sixth Lord paid it no mind as he nervously but surely made his way towards the birthday girl. Tonight is the night that I confess my feelings to her.
As he did he admired how Rose Iris' dress makes her even more amazing than usual. She was beautiful usually, her long raven hair, perfectly sculpted face and shapely figure was model worthy. Better than most models in Dante's biased opinion. But the strapped, V-neck, sleeveless dusty blue gown with beaded crystals decorating the bodice that she was wearing tonight made her seem elegant and aristocratic. She seemed like a Queen!
It made Dante even more attracted to her.
"Hi Dante," Iris said to him when he was too caught up in his admiration to say anything.
"Enjoying the party?" Rose added, smiling at him shyly.
"Uh, yeah, hi." Dante said as he took a deep breath to recover his wits somewhat. "And shouldn't I be asking whether you're enjoying the party? It's your party."
"Yes, it is." Iris said with a giggle.
"And I am enjoying it." Rose finished.
"So," Iris said with a knowing look. "What's up Dante?"
"I, uh, have something to tell you." Dante said, his cheeks flushing as he struggled to string the words in his mind to say what he wanted.
"Oh? What is it?"
"Iris, don't be mean." Rose chided herself. "It's okay Dante. What do you want to tell us?"
"I, uh, I, um…" Dante stuttered, unable to form a proper sentence as his nerves got the better of him.
"Too nervous to ask?" Rose asked, blushing.
Why was she blushing? Dante thought, his mind running wild with the possibilities. Could she-
"If so, then I'll ask instead." Iris said, offering him a cocky grin before taking a fortifying breath.
"Dante, would you be my boyfriend?" Rose Iris asked daringly in unison, blushing lightly even whilst offering a welcoming smile.
"Y-Yes!" Dante said eagerly, earning a giggle from his new girlfriend.
"And since we're dating now." Rose said, shyly before Iris took over. "Why don't you give me a kiss."
Pushing aside his still nerves, Dante gulped, wrapped his arms around his blushing girlfriend in a light hug and pulled her towards him. Their lips met in a light kiss. Little more than a peck really, as befit a couple wholly inexperienced with such things. Nevertheless for Dante, the kiss was absolutely fantastic! It was the best thing that he had ever experienced. It was heavenly!
Flashback end
"Fourth Lord, Sixth Lord," Madam Bones greeted as she entered her office. "Sorry to have kept you waiting."
"It's fine," Rose Iris said as she stood and shook the witch's hand in greeting. A sharp jerk that she pulled away from as quickly as if she'd been scalded. Just touching a member of the Wizarding World made her feel unclean.
"We weren't waiting long." Dante added as he exchanged a more normal handshake with the older woman.
"Yes, well, I apologize regardless." The woman said, sounding troubled as she took her seat behind her desk and gestured for her guests to do the same.
Considering the witch is known for her unflappability. Something she used to great effect and allowed her to be one of the few of her kind that has maintained her position of authority after Wizarding Britain was conquered by the proper British government and it installed a new regime… What in the world could unsettle her?
It was a very valid question. Besides Dumbledore who remained Headmaster of a reformed Hogwarts, she was as far as Rose Iris knew, the only high ranking member of the old Wizarding regime that still retained any semblance of political power. That was not a feat an easily rattled person could achieve.
Nor the favourable comparison with Dumbledore.
Much as she personally hated the man for his part in what had been done to her as a child, she could not deny that the man was a powerful wizard and a skilled politician. Any favourable comparison to him was thus high praise.
"I take it that whatever has you looking so upset was what caused your delay?" Dante asked whilst Rose Iris had been taking a measure of their host.
"Yes," Madam Bones said with a nod. "Just as you two came in for your appointment, a report of an attack by the cult the two of you are here to investigate came in. I was getting briefed on the situation."
"And its nature unsettled you?" Rose asked cautiously.
"It did," the witch admitted. "This was the first major terrorist incident since the 'restructuring' and it brings back unsettling memories as well as worries of a return to troubled times."
"We won't let that happen," Dante assured her and Rose Iris nodded in agreement.
"And I appreciate your efforts, but that's not all." Madam Bones said, shooting Rose Iris a worried look.
"Is something the matter?" Iris asked pointedly.
"Well, yes." Madam Bones said with a sigh. "I'll be honest Lady Potter, I am worried about how you will take this."
"Just spit it out." Iris demanded.
"If you insist," the witch said after a moment of consideration. "The attack took place in Hogsmeade."
Rose Iris sucked in a breath. Hogsmeade? That was the wizarding village just outside Hogwarts wasn't it? That meant that if she and Dante went there to investigate the scene…
We'd be a stone's throw away from Hogwarts.
"Ri," Dante said in a quiet whisper as he squatted beside his girlfriend as they examined the burned down remains of a tavern, the Hog's Head, if he remembers the name given to him by the crime scene investigators correctly, in the wizarding village of Hogsmeade. "Are you alright?"
"I'm fine," Iris shot back tersely as she continued waving Ivory over the burnt wood before her, allowing her diagnostic spells to scan it for information.
Rose Iris was incredibly tense and Dante couldn't blame her. Considering her history with Hogwarts, being so close to the school must be trying. More so because standing next to them was its Headmaster, a man she had even more bad blood with.
She was a professional though and managed to set aside her feelings enough to turn to the man for his opinions as her spells like his own earlier offered nothing useful.
"Any insights?" Iris asked him as she stood and Dante followed her lead.
Though the fact that it seemed Rose Iris was letting her more abrasive Iris personality take the lead today was not a good sign. Dante really hoped his girlfriend kept her cool.
"Indeed I do," the ancient wizard said with a nod. "It was why I asked to come down to assist in the investigation."
"You didn't use your connections to get in on the investigation?" Iris asked snidely. "This is your brother's Inn is it not?"
"That has nothing to do with it."
"Of course it didn't." A tall and thin, with a great deal of long, stringy grey hair and a voluminous beard scoffed as he walked over escorted by a police officer. "You jolly well know that they attacked my Inn because I'm your bloody brother."
Rose Iris smirked in amusement at seeing Dumbledore being talked down to. Dante would've been worried about her enjoying his misery if he wasn't doing the same. From everything he'd learned about the man, he was a real piece of work so seeing him getting taken down a peg was just plain karmic. Especially as the two brothers descended into a thinly veiled trading of barbs.
That said they had a cult to hunt down.
"And why Professor Dumbledore," Dante cut into the brotherly argument. "Would this cult be targeting you?"
"I honestly cannot say for certain." The Hogwarts Headmaster admitted. "I have many enemies and any one of them could be responsible for sending the deranged cultists to do this."
"So you don't have anything to offer this investigation after all?" Rose asked sharply. Well, as sharply as the more soft spoken of his girlfriend's two personalities ever got.
At least she spoke up. That means Rose Iris is still on an even keel.
"Whilst I wouldn't put it so bluntly, I must agree with my colleague." Dante added. "What exactly were those insights you mentioned earlier?"
"At the moment? Only that it appears that I am being targeted." Dumbledore told them. "Whilst the burning down of Aberforth's tavern is the most egregious of these attacks, it has not been the only one. Several harmful packages have been sent to Hogwarts over the past month."
"And you did not report that?" Iris demanded.
"Unfortunately not," Dumbledore said with a shake of his head. "We at Hogwarts receive such with some regularity for any number of reasons. Often just the result of petty disagreements between students escalating too far. We tend to handle such incidents internally. The frequency this month was abnormal but we had taken it as just an unexpected upswing. However, in light of this attack-"
"You think it's a pattern and since it's directed at your school and your brother's pub-"
"You think it's targeting you." Rose concluded for Dante.
"'Cos it's always about you ain't it." Aberforth Dumbledore scoffed but everyone ignored him.
"Exactly," Dumbledore agreed with the two Lords of Thirteen. "It's plausible and a lead that is worth at least following up on. Which is why I am offering to reach out to some of my contacts and start piecing things together."
Dante exchanged a look with Rose Iris. Dumbledore's assistance would be invaluable regardless of if he was truly the target of the cult as he hypothesized. He was a widely respected figure in Wizarding Britain and was highly influential, having access to his network of contacts would be a great help in their hunt for the cult.
But will Rose Iris be able to stomach working with him enough to agree to letting him help.
"Very well," his girlfriend said cooly. "We welcome your help."
Dante couldn't help the proud grin that spread across his face at her show of professionalism.
Deciding to work with Dumbledore might have the right thing to do but it was most definitely not an easy choice for Rose Iris, Dante realised as they both sat in Dumbledore's office inside Hogwarts a week later and he clutched one of her hands reassuringly. He could literally feel her agitation at being there. Her body was trembling slightly and her magic was churning angrily. Even the wizard's phoenix familiar had taken to crooning softly in a bid to help calm her down. He was honestly surprised that the office's owner himself didn't notice or more likely, chose not to comment on it.
"Might I ask why you're the one briefing us, Headmaster." Dante asked the man through narrowed eyes. "I believe Madam Bones was our point of contact whilst in Wizarding Britain?"
"And why must we do it here," Rose Iris hissed in agitation.
"I apologize on both counts," Dumbledore said, looking genuine. "But the situation is sensitive. We have discovered the cult's base of operations but-"
"They are too well connected politically for the Ministry to formally move against them without potentially sparking chaos," Rose Iris concluded, sounding disgusted. "So you're informing us informally so we can deal with it whilst the Ministry keeps its hands clean."
Ok, how the hell did she get that so quickly? Oh! Right, she knows how the Wizarding World works.
"Typical wizarding corruption." His girlfriend continued. "Seems the restructuring wasn't anywhere near thorough enough if things are still so bad."
"No system is entirely free of corruption," Dante offered, playing Devil's Advocate.
Rose Iris shot him an annoyed look for it but didn't disagree. Since she didn't continue ranting either, he counted it as a win. She was still in a foul mood though so he decided to take the lead.
"It's surprising you've found the base so quickly. Despite our best efforts, we've not made any progress."
And that's largely because Rose Iris insists on working separately from the wizards.
A fact entirely because of Dumbledore's involvement. He understood her hatred for the man but neither of them were detectives. How had she expected them to make any headway without the help of the professionals? Then again, Dumbledore wasn't an investigator either…
"You have the Investigators at the Ministry to thank for that," the ancient wizard said with a smile. "They did most of the work. As a civilian I was simply serving as their messenger to the people who can properly act on their discovery."
"Isn't plausible deniability grand?" Rose Iris said with a dark chuckle. "But enough political games. Where is our target, Dumbledore?"
Nodding, Dumbledore grew serious and told them everything they needed to know.
An hour later, Dante and Rose Iris stood on a hill overlooking their target. Before them were the expansive grounds of Malfoy Manor within which the cult they were in the country to destroy was based.
It was clear that the place had seen better days. The large hedge curving around the wide manor house wasn't as well trimmed as it could be and the gravel driveway needed some maintenance but overall it still exuded opulence. It was thus a fair reflection of its owners' fates since the Wizarding restructuring. Whilst the Malfoy family had survived the tumultuous event with a sizable portion of their wealth, and with it their influence, intact, they had suffered significant losses in the process and the times since then had not been kind to them. If rumors were to be believed, they were near penniless and were spending what little coin they had left trying to hold on to their faded grandeur in a bid to leverage it into a genuine return to good fortune. A desperate if not uncommon tactic amongst those who had lost great wealth.
Something they were doing with some success as they became the leaders of what remained of the Purebloods in Wizarding Britain. It was this fact that made the Ministry moving against them directly a political landmine. The government did not want yet another Pureblood uprising. Two in the last half century was more than enough.
"Are you done admiring the view, Dante?" Iris teased.
"Yes, I have finished checking the manor's layout." He informed her with a roll of his eyes. "As far as I can tell from the outside, it looks like the floor plans we got from Dumbledore should be correct."
"Yes," Rose began. "But expect-"
"-the unexpected." Martin finished the saying with a grin. "Just like Master reminds us all the time."
"Good. Since you remember that, let's get this show on the road." Rose Iris said as she drew Ebony and Ivory.
"Let's," Dante agreed as he unholstered Anna and Maria.
"Shadow Bolt," Iris incanted as she pointed Ebony down the hallway of Malfoy Manor they were fighting in and sending dozens of bolts of shadow streaming down it and into the ranks of the wizards trying to waylay her and Dante.
"Ether Shot," her boyfriend cast, sending hundreds of ethereal bullets flying from both the barrels of Anna and Maria and around his body, adding to her own barrage.
All whilst they were both kept safe by Rose's Light Screen barriers from the returning spellfire of the wizards. Yes, even the occasional Killing Curse. Though those were slightly more troublesome than the other spells as it took at least three barriers to block those where one was more than enough for practically everything else. The spontaneous spells like the Exploding Charm and the Cruciatus Curse were in fact more problematic and necessitated that both of them maintain their auras flared at full burn throughout to negate their effect whenever they were cast at them.
"Told you this would happen and we should've just teleported straight in." Rose Iris told her boyfriend as their combined barrage overwhelmed the half dozen wizards facing them, leaving behind a bunch of lifeless corpses.
"Well, how was I to know that they'd be expecting us and on alert?" Dante said with a frown as they cautiously began advancing down the hall once more. "Or that they'd fill the place with sentries and patrols?"
"Because it's standard practice?" Rose said with a sigh. "We're not Master, Dante. We're not assassins who could sneak pass all that and just head straight for our target."
"Yeah," Iris agreed. "We should've come in guns ablazin' from the get go."
"In hindsight, you're right." Dante conceded. "But you agreed to try stealth first too. So it's as much your fault as mine."
Only 'cos in exchange you agreed to let us decide what we do the next time we have sex. Rose Iris thought but did not say. Now was not the time. Besides, considering the fact that Dante's plan had blown up in their faces she was thinking of leveraging that fact into another favour.
Maybe it'll be enough to finally get him to try taking our anal virginity? Iris thought, giddy at the idea.
A girl can hope. Rose thought wistfully.
Despite the fact that Rose Iris loved shoving things up her ass, the contents of her sex toys collection with its plethora of butt plugs and anal beads could attest to that, her conservative boyfriend had been leery to take her up the ass and it had been an ongoing challenge to convince him to finally do so.
Hopefully, this will finally be enough. Rose Iris thought as her mind conjured images of how wonderful the experience would be like.
"Enemies of the White Queen die!" A group of wizard cultists shouted as she and Dante turned a corner, pulling her from her erotic imaginings.
A barrage of spells shot towards them and blew apart the illusions Rose had created as decoys, startling the wizards and left them open for the two Lords of the Thirteen to counterattack.
"Dark Rift!" Iris cast, creating a whirlpool of darkness in the heart of the enemy's ranks and tearing anything caught within its reach into pieces. Any who survived were quickly finished off by a brace of Dante's Ether Shot which phased through the walls to strike their foes.
"Based on what that guy shouted and the iconography splattered all over the place, I think it's safe to assume this is either a reborn version or the very same cult that Eriol had previously crushed back during the restructuring." Dante reasoned, gesturing to the elaborate snowflake symbol that seemed plastered everywhere by the cultists whilst they advanced towards the manor's ballroom.
"Probably," Rose Iris agreed as they reached the ballroom doors. "Think this is the place their leader is holed up?"
"Considering the alien magic emanating from inside? Definitely."
The two lovers exchanged a look before nodding.
"Elegant Wrath!" Rose Iris shouted as she finally called her summon to her side, the ballgown and masquerade mask wearing monochrome humanoid shimmering into being floating above her and with its skirts spread around her protectively.
"Explosive shot!" Dante cast at the same time, unleashing twin explosive bolts from Anna and Maria that blasted the doors to the ballroom right off their hinges and sent them crashing into the room beyond.
A room that had been converted into a throne room, complete with a macabre throne made out of fused human bones and ice. Atop this monstrous chair sat a wraith that looked like a gaseous caricature of a man, shrouded in a white cloak and the same snowflake emblem printed on the tattered fabric.
"A Schnee Wraithlord!?" Dante shouted in alarm at the sight of the Outsider made monster.
This was the creature behind the cult? If so, we're in real trouble. Rose Iris thought as she readied herself for a deadly fight. An Outsider's pet creations, no matter what they were, were never to be trifled with.
Next to her she saw Dante do the same, but contrary to both their expectations, the Wraithlord did not attack.
"Greetings Fourth Lord, Sixth Lord of the Thirteen." The undead creature said as he stood and greeted them with a courtly bow. "I, Voldemort, welcome you both to my humble abode."
Rose Iris and Dante shot each other looks out of the corners of their eyes. Neither were willing to take their eyes off the Wraithlord but they were both too perturbed by its behavior not to share the confused glance.
"And give us one good reason why we shouldn't just banish you to whence you came?" Rose Iris asked. "Your master and her allies have wrought immense misery in our world for decades now. What makes you different?"
Even as she said it… If they could avoid a fight with an Outsider creation then she'd be happy to do so. Whilst they weren't unbeatable by any stretch of the imagination. They were tough opponents. And if possible, Rose Iris would prefer not have to fight this Wraithlord.
Wishful thinking I know. She thought to herself. But nothing ventured, nothing gained.
"Well, for one, I unlike most of my peers in service to my master and her allies am of this world. I was born right here in England. London to be exact." Voldemort said with an elegant shrug. "I know how this world works. Enough that I know that we need not be enemies."
"You serve one of the Sapphic Circle and they've made it abundantly clear that they are the Council's enemy." Dante shot back.
"Oh, how wrong you are." Voldemort said with a shake of his vaporous head. "They are hardly your enemies. In fact all the Circle truly wants is to be the Thirteen's friends."
"By sowing mayhem in our world?" Rose Iris accused. "That's one funny way to make friends."
"As the saying goes, 'you can't make an omelet without breaking some eggs.'"
Breaking eggs!? Was all the death and misery the Circle had caused in recent years just that to them? They and their cultists had been instigating conflicts across the world for years, costing countless lives and ruining even more. Just look at the massacre in the Ministry of Magic that the Wraithlord's own master had been responsible for!
"Why don't I break you instead!" Dante said, losing his cool and firing off a spell. "Exorcism Bullet!"
His anti-undead bullet shot from Anna's barrel and streaked through the air like a bright white bolt with unerring accuracy. However, it seemed that Voldemort was not so easily banished as he summoned a wandsword, there was nothing else that better described the hybrid weapon, that seemed to be made out of a human femur and a blade of ice to casually deflect the spell.
A feat he followed up by giving his wandsword another annoyingly casual wave and summoning a wall of ice that deflected the mixed barrage of Shadow Bolts and Brilliance Arrows that Rose Iris sent his way.
"You know you and I are not too different Fourth Lord," Voldemort said as he thrust his Mystic Code forward, causing the ice wall to shatter and shoot forward towards the two Lords of the Thirteen in a rain of deadly icicles. "We were both born of Wizarding descent and had our true magic bound by Dumbledore and were over time driven mad by being deprived of it. He sealed away your summoning magic and control over the light and dark, and he took away my way with the dead. Not that I knew that until my Mistress revealed it to me."
"We're nothing alike," Rose Iris spat even as she had Elegant Wrath wave its left hand and send a wave of scorching light forward that sublimated the incoming ice even as Dante opened up on the monster with a varied mix of spells, testing its defenses.
Waving its free hand, the Wraithlord conjured a complex set of spinning magic circles around itself that acted as a barrier that easily blocked every spell of Dante's probing barrage. All whilst, it kept talking.
"Yes, there are indeed some differences." Voldemort acknowledged as he stabbed his Mystic Code into the ground and caused a fissure to rip the marble of the ballroom apart and allow a pack of ravenous ghouls to crawl out of the gap in the earth. "You were saved by being a Lord of the Thirteen, whilst I had to sell my soul to an Outsider to gain the power to enact my revenge."
"Must you talk so much?" Dante said, sounding peeved even as he blasted the emaciated, half rotted animated corpses that were the ghouls into their constituent atoms with a salvo of Disintegration Bullets. He wasn't anywhere near as good at matter deconstruction as Yuki but she'd taught him enough for him to formulate this spell at least, something that Rose Iris was grateful for. It had proven useful on more than one occasion like this one.
"I am merely trying to offer polite conversation," the Outsider's servant said with a smarmy smile even as he waved his wandsword and sent a pack of white spectres howling towards the two lovers in what Rose Iris recognised was an analogue to Omer's Death Coil. "This fight would be oh so thoroughly boring without it, would it not?"
"That's not what you're doing," Rose Iris retorted as she intercepted the howling spirits with Brilliance Arrows of her own even as she shot a Ebon Blaster at the abomination. "You're trying to sway me to your cause."
"Why I'd never!" Voldemort said, pretending to sound scandalised even as he let his still present array of barriers absorb the beam of darkness Rose Iris' Ebon Blaster had sent his way whilst he slashed his Mystic Code in Dante's direction and sent a wave of ice at him and forcing the Sixth Lord to break off charging his own beam to evade.
Ignoring his indignation, Rose Iris continued. "Well, you can stop trying to play salesman, I'm not buying. Opposing Forces."
Her incantation had Elegant Wrath gather small spheres of darkness and light into its right and left hands respectively before it clapped, slamming the collected opposing forces together in the process and firing a beam of mixed light and dark energy shooting at Voldemort. Unfazed the Wraithlord just pointed its own Mystic Code at the beam and fired his own beam of white energy at it. The two beams clashed and fought against each other for supremacy for a moment before being unable to overwhelm the other, they both detonated in a powerful explosion that blinded everyone for a moment.
Wary of her opponent capitalising on her monetary blindness and the inevitable smokescreen created by the explosion, Rose Iris conjured around herself a fortress' worth of Light Screens and the writhing shadows of her Umbral Barriers to shield against any possible attack. Though as she did so, she noticed with dismay that she'd lost track of Dante!
As the beam from Rose Iris' Opposing Forces spell clashed with that of the Wraithlord's own unknown spell, Dante knew his chance had come.
Loathe as he was to admit it at times, he knew he wasn't as powerful as his girlfriend. Able to command the forces of darkness and light with her mere thoughts, and with a summon that only amplified this control by a factor of ten at the minimum, Rose Iris was a powerhouse up there with the other monsters of the Council such as Master and the First Lord. In comparison, Dante was mediocre when it came to combat magic. As the Tool User Lord and due to his own temperament, he was more a craftsman than a fighter. A support class rather than a frontliner. So he knew if their opponent was matching Rose Iris in raw power, he couldn't really help much there. So if he wanted to be of any help in this fight he'd have to be sneaky.
Thus even as the clash of the two beams ended in an explosion, Dante seized the opportunity and broke for a run towards the Wraithlord. He was tempted to begin peppering the Outsider creation with spellfire but held back, instead focusing all his gathering magic into one spell. He would need all of it to pull off something powerful enough to breach the barriers that the creature used to protect itself. And he'd need to get close to it when he unleashed it, to give it less chance to somehow deflect it.
As he burst out of the smokescreen thrown up by the explosion, he smirked as he saw the Wraithlord blinking in disorientation and more importantly, completely unaware of his close proximity.
"Giga Cannon!" Dante cast, firing beams of raw magical power from Anna and Maria's barrels. Beams that snaked around each other as they merged into a single spiraling lance of destruction.
I've got you now. The Sixth Lord thought with a victorious grin as his spell streaked across the short distance towards its target.
A grin that vanished just like the Wraithlord did as it teleported out of the path of his Giga Cannon.
"Wha- Argh!" He began only to cut himself off with a grunt of pain as the abomination's wandsword impaled him through the chest from behind, piercing through his armor wards like they weren't even there.
"Did you really think a mere lightshow and some smoke would disorientate an undead like me, Sixth Lord?" Voldemort said tauntingly as he pulled his sword out of his body.
"Dante!" The Sixth Lord heard his lover shot in alarm as the smoke began to clear and he spun to face his opponent despite his wounds, raising Anna and Maria to unleash a point blank barrage at the monster.
"Too slow!" The spectre hissed as he brought his wandsword down in a slash before Dante could probably sight his guns.
Again the blade of the Mystic Code ignored his armor wards entirely but this time just as it was about to cut him in twain, a Light Screen wrapped around him and deflected most it. But not before the leading edge of the blade had struck him in his left eye, cutting it and part of his face open.
He did not cry out however. This time he'd been expecting the pain. So he worked through it, through the blindness caused by the loss of his left eye and finished bringing Anna and Maria to bear.
"Giga Cannon!" He cast for a second time.
This time the spiral beam slammed into Voldemort without fail. His barriers flared into visibility revealing they'd been there the whole time but they only held for a second before they shattered like so much glass and the beam drilled through the Wraithlord's body, leaving a massive hole in its wake.
"Devouring Shadow!" Dante heard Iris cast in follow up even as he leapt back, giving him a nice view as a maw of darkness formed around the wounded spectre and swallowed him whole before detonating in a burst of dark energy.
Amazingly, this still didn't manage to exorcise the undead abomination and though its chest now sported a gaping hole and it was littered in cuts that leaked the gases that made up its body, it still managed to defiantly raise its wandsword in Dante's direction.
"Avada Kedavra!" Voldemort cast, his voice full of vindictive spite.
The blinding green light of the dreaded wizarding Killing Curse streaked towards him faster than any iteration of the spell he'd ever seen and radiated more malice and power than he'd ever seen it imbued with too. And as it closed with him, Dante saw his life, short though it was, flash before his life. His happy childhood with his mother, his gruelling but fulfilling training with Master, and most importantly his passionate but loving romance with Rose Iris.
It was enough. Dante thought as a smile began to spread across his face.
His lover however very adamantly disagreed.
"Walls of Light and Dark!" She screamed, conjuring a wall of an indescribable mix of light and dark that the Killing Curse slammed into. For a moment that was at once an instant and an eternity, the two titanic forces clashed. The desperate love of a Lord of the Thirteen and the malice of a vengeful Outsider servant. Ultimately though love prevailed and the Killing Curse sputtered out against the unyielding barrier that Rose Iris had thrown up to protect him.
"Thanks Ri," he whispered under his breath as he raised Anna and Maria once more.
It is time to finish this. He thought as he readied his spell.
"Die already!" He told the flabbergasted Voldemort as Rose Iris' barrier parted to allow him to take the shot. "Exorcism Bullet!"
Two bullets of cleansing energy shot from his Mystic Codes and slammed into the Wraithlord and their effect was immediate. Cracks began to spiderweb all over his body and the gas that made it up leaked out of it at a rapid rate alongside rays of the cleansing energy that was killing him. At an accelerating rate, the cracks began to grow into outright rends in its body.
"No, no! Not yet!' Voldemort howled as he grabbed at his body trying desperately to pull the tears in it close. "Dumbledore still lives! I haven't had my vengenan-"
It was with this strangled cry that the being that was the Schnee Wraithlord exploded in a burst of cleansing light, banishing it from their world entirely.
It was only when Dante saw the creature was truly gone. When he could no longer sense its presence with his magic that he finally allowed himself to collapse to his knees.
"Dante!" Rose Iris shouted as she teleported to Dante's side and carefully helped him to lay down on the ground.
"Here let me heal you." She said, playing her powerful healing magic over him.
"It won't be so easy." Dom said as she suddenly teleported in with Shadow Step, looking singed. That alone told Rose Iris why she hadn't turned up sooner despite the difficulty of their fight against Voldemort. The Circle had waylaid her with opponents of her own. Again.
It wasn't the first time the damnable Outsiders used the tactic to isolate them.
"That thing's Mystic Code was cursed."
"Yeah, guessed as much." Dante said with a smirk. "It cut through my armor wards like they weren't there."
"Is that why they aren't healing properly?" Iris asked as Rose focused all her attention on healing her lover. "The injuries are-"
"Going to scar," Dom said with a frown as her own diagnostic spell swept over Dante. "Part of the curse seems to make injuries resistant to healing. Thankfully it's not unbreakable but it is powerful enough that unless we began healing the moment the injury was taken, it's unlikely it can be fully healed."
"It's only scars," Dante said with a panied cough as Rose fixed the damage to his chest. "Right?"
"Yes," Dom said with a relieved sigh. "Rose Iris started healing you quickly enough to avoid anything more serious than that, except-"
"You're not going to get your left eye back." Rose told him miserably. "Sorry, I'm trying but I don't think-"
"Hey, none of that." Dante said, bringing up his right hand to caress her face. "It's 'cos of you that I'm alive. Besides, so what if I get a few scars and lose an eye? I've heard that injuries like that just make a man more ruggedly handsome. Aren't I right?"
"Y-Yeah," Rose Iris choked out over a sob. "You'll be so devilishly handsome that I'll have to beat off the competition with a stick."
"They'll just have to find someone else. I've already got my Venus." Dante said, offering her a smile and causing Rose Iris to start sobbing in earnest.
I don't deserve him. It's 'cos I was too slow with my barriers that he lost an eye and now he's comforting me and saying I'm the love of his life? Rose Iris thought as she cried harder. He's too good for me.
"Hey don't say that.." Dante told her, revealing that in her grief she'd said at least some of what she'd been thinking out loud. "It's not true, you hear me. I'm the one who isn't worthy of you. You're perfect Ri."
"That's-"
"Sorry to interrupt you two lovebirds," Dom cut in, sounding truly pained as they both gave her their attention. "But there appears to still be cultists in this place. I've sent my hounds to hunt them but I'm going to go help them just in case the Wraithlord here wasn't the only trump card the Circle has hidden here. I'll leave a couple of my hounds here but will you be okay with just that?"
"We'll be fine Master," Dante reassured her before Rose Iris could even finish processing what her foster mother had just said.
Dom looked torn and shot Rose Iris a questioning look. Rose Iris pushed her rampaging emotions - fear for Dante, her overflowing love for him and her guilt for not saving him from injury or being able to completely heal him - and thought on the matter logically. Did she need her foster mother to stay? Objectively, the answer was clear. No, she didn't. She was still perfectly able to fight and scar and missing an eye or not, so would Dante in a minute or so once her healing spells finished their work. And if there were more hostiles in this place, then clearing them out would be the safest thing to do.
"We'll be okay," Rose Iris told her foster mother confidently.
Dom looked ready to ask again but firm looks from both Rose Iris and Dante stopped her. So instead with a guilty little smile she used Shadow Step to teleport away to help her familiars finish clearing the cultist base.
"So, um, now that we're alone, Ri, can I ask you to promise me something?" Dante asked suddenly, catching Rose Iris off guard.
"Promise you something?" Rose asked, confused before Iris continued. "What exactly?"
He waited till we were alone? Why? Is it something he wants to do for him in the bedroom? No, that doesn't make sense, he's not like that. But then what!?
"Just promise me you'll do it?" Dante pressed. "In payback for letting me get injured, not that you did mind, but since you insist-"
"I promise," Rose Iris said, cutting her boyfriend's rambling off.
"No taking that back." Dante told her. "You promise to do anything I ask you to?"
"Anything," Rose Iris said easily. She knew her lover. He wouldn't ask for anything unreasonable.
Except he did.
"Must I do this?" Rose Iris asked for the umpteenth time that day as she looked uneasily at her childhood home in Godric's Hollow from inside the car she shared with Dante and Dom.
It seemed little had changed from what she remembered of the quaint little cottage where she'd spent the first eleven years of her life. Her birth parents, the Potters, still lived in it. They had even managed to stay together despite her expectations after what had happened to her and the strain it put on their marriage. Largely because of their shared grief over it if Legion's investigations into the matter were to be believed, and had even managed to have a second child, a boy named Harry, a couple years back.
"No, but it's better that you do." Dom told her gently from the driver's seat. "It's been ten years. The sooner you settle matters with your parents the better."
"They are not my parents!" Iris hissed angrily.
"You, Felicia and Shirayuki are more my parents than the Potters ever were!" Rose added vehemently.
"I appreciate the sentiment Rose Iris," Dom said with a happy smile. "But I don't think you should disown your birth parents so easily. As much as I love Sakura-sama and Tomoyo-sama and as monstrous as my father was, I can't help but, at least sometimes, think about what could've been."
"Master is right, Ri." Dante added with a sad look in his eyes. "Losing a parent is painful. Your parents are still alive. Don't squander the opportunity that gives you."
Rose Iris crossed her arms mutinously and refused to move.
"Ri, you promised. Remember?" Dante pressed, twisting the knife. "You've been tense the whole time we've been in Britain and it's 'cos of your unfinished business with your parents. It wasn't wizards in general, it wasn't Hogwarts, and it wasn't Dumbledore. You managed to work around those fine."
Dante had got her there. As much as she hated all three of those things, if need be she could work with them. She could tolerate them. But there was one other thing from her past in Britain that she hadn't faced and was the cause of her unease.
"You can't keep going on leaving it unaddressed," Dante urged. "If you keep letting it fester… It might consume you one day."
Rose Iris winced.
I should have never made that promise.
But I did. Rose reminded herself.
And I've never broken a promise to Dante. Iris added. I shouldn't start now.
He's only doing this because he thinks it's best for us. Rose Iris conceded as she reflected on Dante's words and she let out a defeated sigh.
"Okay, but I do have one question before I go in."
"What is it?" Dom asked encouragingly.
"Will you two be here when I come out?"
"Of course," Dom said as Dante nodded. "We'll be here waiting for you for as long as you need."
Smiling at their reassurance, Rose Iris took a deep breath and opened the car door.
It was time to finish confronting her past.
"Well that was a letdown." The White Queen said with a pout as she reviewed the disappointing returns of her investment in Voldemort. "An eye and some scars? That's all he managed?"
"It's still more injury than any of the rest of us have managed?" Frenda suggested as she vigorously shook the shaker of the cocktail set behind the bar in the Witch's House's billiard room, now thankfully clear of any amorous couples.
"Though, Devil's Advocate," Azathoth said, winking at her wife who as the ruler of one of the many hells could claim the title of Devil. "But we're not exactly out to actually kill the Lords of Thirteen."
"Not most of them anyways," Ellen said as she took a shot as she played a game of snooker with her wife.
"Yes, but the Fourth and Sixth Lord were fair game." Weiss said with a sigh as she pet Ruby's hair as her wife sipped happily from the drink Frenda had poured her earlier. "If we killed them, their slots on the Council of Thirteen could have been filled by people more in line with our goals."
"I think that might have been your problem, Weiss." Viola said as she frowned at the pool table and visibly contemplated her shot now that her wife had finished taking hers.
"Yes, you were too ambitious." Midori popped up from between Shiro's legs where she'd been servicing her wife who was laying atop one of the unused pool tables.
"Less talking, more eating me out." Shiro chided her wife and pushed her head back to her crotch. She let out a mewl of pleasure as Midori resumed her ministrations before unabashed by her nudity or actions, turned to continue speaking. "You should have just gone after one of them. You tried for two for one and got neither."
Weiss just sighed again.
"I guess, you're right." The undead Outsider agreed, ignoring how her conversation partner had just gasped in pleasure presumably as Midori touched a particularly sensitive spot. "I'll be more restrained going forward."
"There, there," Frenda said, pouring the drink she'd been mixing into a cup for her. "Here have a drink and don't take it too seriously. It's not like this is that important."
"True enough," Weiss said as she picked up the drink. "I just hate losing."
"Well, good news then, Weiss." Azathoth said with a smile as she took a drink of her own from her wife. "'Cos we've not lost yet. In fact, as things go- Frenda what's the saying?"
"Ruiko, what would you do without me?" Frenda said with a roll of her eyes.
"Go create and destroy a million universes until I find you again like I did the last time I lost you?" Ruiko said in all seriousness. She would too, Weiss had no doubt. That Ruiko would go to extreme lengths for those she loved was known fact. "Now tell me the phrase I was thinking about."
"You did that as much to say goodbye to Kamijou and give him a chance at happiness with your analogue but whatever," Frenda said with a shrug. "You meant 'I have not yet begun to fight!'?"
"That's the one!" Ruiko said in agreement as she took a sip of her drink. "Like I said, we have not yet begun to fight!"
Done!
Yes, I gave Rose Iris a fetish for anal sex. Strange for a woman, I know. It's more associated with men. That said, there's nothing saying a lady can't share it. So, in the name of making her kinky, especially in comparison to her much more tame lover, I gave it to her. Not much more reasoning than that. And of course because I'm a raging pervert ;). The fact that I had one of Rose Iris' wands' core be one of her pubes should've clued you in.
Did I change up Voldemort's backstory here like I did Ariana Dumbledore's earlier in the story? i.e. the bit about him having his true magic sealed by Dumbledore. Was he telling the truth for this universe i.e. events played out like he implied? Or did the White Queen lie to him? Well, that's up to you to decide.
Speaking of Voldemort! As much as this chapter was about dealing with Voldemort, the real heart of it is about Rose Iris confronting her past. First, wizards in general through her visit to the Ministry, then Dumbledore in Hogsmeade, followed by visiting Hogwarts itself. And of course climaxing in her finally visiting her birth parents. Hope you guys like it.
It might seem strange saying this now after so many chapters/'books' but it is only at this stage that I've realised that the central conflict in this story was never about the fight between the Sapphic Circle and the Council of Thirteen. Oh, it's a core plot point. It's how I'm pushing things forward but it's only now that I realise the biggest conflict in the fic is the development of my characters. I didn't set out to do this and it'll probably show when it comes to some of the characters. But I'm not going to go back and rewrite everything for the sake of it. I stand by what's already written as readable. I will instead take this lesson to heart as I write the remaining chapters and into my next project, whatever that is.
Well then that's all for now, till next time dha weles skon!