Inception: Rise of the Heir
After the murder of Hepzibah Smith, Tom Riddle disappeared for ten long years. He sank deeper into the Dark Arts & pursued knowledge that others could only dream of, consorting with the darkest members of wizarding society. With his eyes set on North America, he has no idea that the magic he so desperately seeks will shape his life & his inevitable future for years to come. TomxOC
DISCLAIMER: I own nothing except for my o/c's and my own storyline.
The air around them was unnaturally still, save for the occasional drops of water that leaked from the cavern roof to the floor, the sound echoing off the walls in the distance like cannon fire. The two dark figures faced each other, wands poised and ready, each waiting for the other to make their move.
"None of this matters anyway, once the task is complete, I'll have everything I worked so hard to attain." Cassian said as he inched towards him slowly, his voice quivering with excitement.
Tom eyed the man before him carefully, tilting his head to the side like a curious child and grinned in amusement, knowing that the gesture would provoke him. "And what exactly have you worked so hard to obtain?"
"Everything I was denied."
"You mean everything you were too foolish to let go of?"
Silence permeated through the air as he watched Cassian purse his lips, refusing to answer the question.
"So you would risk her life for a chance at what?" Tom furrowed his eyebrows and struggled to spit the next words out from his lips. "A ridiculous obsession?"
"No. For love." Cassian spit, his voice cracking as it strained, small beads of sweat rolling down his face as he wiped them away with his bloody hand. Tom scoffed and shook his head in response, repulsed by his words.
Angered by the reaction, the handsome man before him narrowed his eyes and spoke viciously, beating his chest in frustration, the lines of hatred and madness etched in his face. "I would do whatever I needed in order to help her...Once this is finished Lyra will be fine and she will finally know happiness, as well as contentment. All the things I am more than willing to give her...All the things she could not recognize that were missing from her life-"
"So you would force yourself upon her then? Disgrace her with your own weakness?" Tom said coldly, losing patience with the wizard before him, his feelings of animosity slowly turning towards disgust once more. "You're even less of a man than I thought you were."
"I would give her the chance to be someone different, someone better!" Cassian's eyes, although still the deepest hue of blue had now changed and instead of the wild anger they had held earlier, there was now a strange hysteria, his irises glossed over and distant, as if he were lost in a dream.
"She is already who she should be." Tom whispered softly. "You've let your infatuation delude you. Once Lyra finds out who was responsible for all of this, do you really think she'll be sympathetic? It won't end well for you-"
"-She'll never know!" Cassian cut him off abruptly, his face turning red with anger as he raised his wand. "And once I've dealt with you, no one will ever be able to tell her."
Tom let out a soft laugh and shook his head. "I think you overestimate your power."
The man before him whispered spitefully, the conceit rising in his voice. "I've made her forget before. I'll just do it again."
"Ah." He replied softly, trying to restrain his delight at how easy it had been to get his first answer, finally able to pinpoint the reason why Lyra's recollection of certain events had been muddled, unclear. "How many times have you used the memory charm on her? Once? Three times?"
The tall blond wizard remained silent and instead glared at him dangerously, his wand still poised and following his every move, like a needle on a compass.
"You've done quite a bit of damage, you know. It wasn't easy sorting through those memories."
He watched the color drain from the handsome face of the figure before him, his deep cerulean eyes narrowing venomously in response, an icy hatred behind them. "So that's how you found this place. She's let you inside her head-"
"Amongst other places." Tom replied softly, watching in amusement as a red blush of anger crept up Cassian's face. Enjoying the reaction he had hoped his words would provoke, he felt his lips tug up into a wry grin.
"It doesn't matter." Cassian spat at him, trying to disregard Tom's last comment. "Memory charms are the one thing I'm exceptionally good at." His jaw flexed anxiously, the anger and fear still etched across his face. "I will use them again and again if I have to-"
Tom let out a soft laugh, shaking his head in jest at the man before him. "-There's nothing exceptional about your skill..." He ran his fingers over his wand slowly and continued, his voice derisive and cold. "It's such a pity. Lyra told me you were woefully inadequate with magic…and now looking at the evidence, I'm inclined to agree with her."
Tom moved aside lazily and flicked his wand as Cassian suddenly flung a curse in his direction, brushing it away with ease. He began to pace as he continued to speak, ignoring the frustration that radiated off the man before him.
"If you're going to change someone's memories, it's best to make sure you do a thorough job...and not ignore even the smallest of details..." He smirked, his cruel stare focused on the wizard opposite him as he reached down into his pocket and pulled out the small bracelet, dangling it into the air before him. Cassian's eyes widened and lowered his wand slightly, caught off guard by the small piece of jewelry.
Tom watched the infuriated expression in the man's face suddenly change, fear now spreading like wildfire across his features and at once, he felt a small leap of victory skip through his heart knowing he had caught him by surprise. "I thought it was odd when I first saw it. But I didn't think to pay it any mind...Lyra claimed it was her mothers, that she had never taken it off...why should I question it? But as I glanced through her memories, I noticed it's absence...a small detail that under normal circumstances even myself might have overlooked. But…as I began to think about it more, the idea started to bother me..."
Cassian stood there quietly as he continued, his eyes following Tom's every move, flitting back and forth from his face, to his wand, to the bracelet.
"Eventually I acquired it for myself and I finally found the opportunity to inspect it further...and when I did, I saw a small letter etched into the stone…'B'. Tom waved his wand lazily in the air as he began to pace once more, murmuring a spell silently in his head, circling the area before him, like a lion hunting his prey. "And I knew at once it did not belong to Lyra...or her mother as she so claimed because this particular letter would not have been of any consequence. So I thought...and I thought...and I remembered your last name…Barrett was it?"
Cassian maintained his silence and glowered at him from a distance, his face still visibly distraught.
"You see, when people think they're being clever, they tend to become proud...arrogant-" Tom continued, narrowing his eyes at the disgruntled man before him. "-sloppy. Although I must give credit where it is due...your idea of hiding a tracking spell inside an object was quite ingenious...but using something that belonged to you?" He smiled and waved the bracelet towards the man. "That was a mistake."
"Was it your grandmother's I wonder?" Tom asked, his dark eyes dancing in amusement as he stared at the wizard intently, waiting for the answer. At Cassian's continued silence he pursed his lips carefully and willed his mind to reach out as he had done so many times before to others, preparing himself for the torrent of voices and thoughts that would assault his senses. It was an uncomfortable business, being inside the minds of others, but over time he had grown used to it and had learned to revel in the chaos he could inflict upon the unsuspecting without even raising a finger. As the answer he sought finally revealed itself to him, he watched in delight as a look of horror spread across Cassian's face, his terror when he finally realized what Tom had done.
"Ah. Your mothers." Tom smiled wickedly. "How sentimental."
The tall frame of the wizard before him began to shake as he opened his mouth to reply, his voice, although growing louder, began to crack in fear, betraying his false courage. "You don't intimidate me-"
"-But I should." He replied softly, his voice barely above a whisper. "You might have been able to fool others with your trickery...but unfortunately for you, I am not like most wizards."
Cassian opened his mouth to reply and pulled back his wand in retaliation to the words, a curse seemingly on the tip of his tongue, when suddenly a surprised expression spread across his face. Confused and disoriented, he glanced down towards his feet which, from out of nowhere, appeared to be cemented to the dark floor underneath them. Grunting angrily he bent down and lowered his arms, trying to pry himself from the spot in which he stood, his dark blonde hair sticking to his face as he shouted angrily, the spells sparking from his wand bouncing off the ground in vain. As Cassian continued to struggle, shards and piles of rock began to rise up from the ground, dragging him down towards the cavern floor, his body completely weighed down by the earth, rendering him immobile.
"What have you done-"
"Nothing yet compared to what I'm going to do." Tom flicked his own hand lazily as he quickly disarmed the wizard before him, starting to close the distance between them, catching the wand with his free hand. He watched as Cassian tried to avoid his gaze, looking away from him defiantly.
"Haven't you realized yet that you aren't any match for me?" Raising his hand, he murmured a spell silently and twisted his hand in conjunction with it, watching as the man's head was forcibly moved towards his own.
"Now that's better. It's rude to not look at someone when they're talking to you." Tom replied, smirking as he looked into panicked eyes, relishing the moment. "-As I said before, I'm not like most wizards. And I'm not one to waste time...or opportunity." He grinned as he looked into the man's eyes before him. "Before I fix the little mess you've made...there are answers I need."
Cassian's eyes widened in fear and before he could respond, he let out a scream of pain, the small beads of sweat running down his forehead.
With the smallest of ease Tom found himself swimming through memories that were not his own, small whispers and voices assaulting his senses as he carefully sorted through the man's mind before him, each passing thought clearer than the next. Aggravated by the feelings of fear and apprehension that radiated from Cassian's thoughts, he suddenly steered his mind to focus on Lyra and, as if on command, he felt himself involuntarily pulled into a series of memories, most of them older than what he sought.
The grey swirls of smoke around him settled and he found himself standing in a familiar setting, the dimly lit hall of Sani's small adobe house unmistakable. From behind him he could hear the sound of small footsteps running and had barely turned around when a small blonde haired boy of no more than nine ran through him towards a nearby doorway, one he recognized all too well.
"Lyra! Lyra! Come outside and play, it's snowing!"
Tom watched as the young boy stood outside the doorway, waiting patiently for a response.
As the hallway remained quiet, void of any sound or sign of life, he watched the child suck his teeth and reach for the door knob in frustration, swinging the door open quickly, tired of waiting for an answer.
"Lyra, you know it only snows like two days a year here, we never get a chance to see any, come on!"
Tom walked over to where the small golden haired child stood, who took no notice of his presence and peered over him. Inside the room, unchanged and still decorated the same as he had seen in last, was a small dark haired girl, surrounded by parchment and sitting at a small wooden desk. Her face was immersed in an old leather book, the quill in her hands scribbling fastidiously against the paper before her as she responded to the intrusion.
"Go away Cassian." She said softly without looking up, still completely buried in her task.
"You're always in here reading those stupid books. You're so boring!" He whined, walking towards her, an angry look upon his face as he picked up the nearest book and opened it in disgust, dangling it above the floor by it's frayed cover. "I don't see what's so great about them."
"I'm not boring. I'm preparing."
"Preparing for what?"
"School, you idiot. You know we're going to Ilvermorny next year. I want to get as much of a head start as I can."
"A head start? But this is all you ever do! It's so stupid!"
"I do it because it's important!" Lyra retorted, finally looking up from her book and glancing at him in annoyance. " And it's not stupid. If you knew any better, you'd be doing the same thing. Unless you want to be stuck here your whole life."
"What's so bad about here? Sani's here...I'm here…" He said, his voice filled with hurt at her words.
"Exactly." She said dryly, looking down towards the page once more.
Tom watched the wounded expression spread across the boy's face, followed by an angry grunt and before the young girl could react, he snatched the book out from her hands and quickly ran out of the room towards the front door, ripping the pages out from the binding.
"Cassian! No!" Lyra screamed furiously as she ran after him, tears springing from her eyes as she pushed past Tom and down the hallway. In their wake, he watched the small scraps of parchment float gently onto the floor around him before quickly being whisked away from that memory and into another.
As his feet touched what felt like solid ground once more, he could not help but stare at the scenery around him, grey stone walls and high vaulted ceilings made up of large logs of timber, stained glass windows shining large rays of light into the floors reminding him of the corridors at Hogwarts - only this place felt different, unfamiliar; A cheap replica of a place he had once considered to be his home.
"I don't understand how you can put up with her."
A small group of teenagers walked past him, their long robes billowing behind them, the colors and crest of Ilvermonry emblazoned upon their chests. In the middle of the group, he recognized the unmistakable figure of Cassian, tall and masculine, hulking above the others; his face handsome and young, accompanied by the usual arrogant grin which lay pasted across his face. Tom watched as he laughed and ran his hands through his perfect golden hair, leading the others through a large archway down the hall and into a nearby room.
He followed them quietly and found himself in a large classroom, filled with students, and he observed carefully as Cassian's group settled down into their seats, pulling their wands and parchment out from their packs, whispering and laughing to each other heartily. From the corner of his eye, he spotted a familiar face as the other students continued to assemble their books and parchment before them. The lone figure sat by themselves in the center of the sea of desks, already prepared, reading studiously, ignoring the bustle of the room around her.
"Does she ever do anything else but read?" Tom heard a mocking voice whisper as he looked down towards Cassian, his head eagerly leaning in towards one of his companions that had sat down beside him. The culprit, a young girl of about sixteen, giggled as she continued to stare at him shamelessly, twirling a long red braid around her finger. "I mean seriously, does she have any other interests besides schoolwork?"
"Yeah, if being a bitch is considered a hobby. She's honestly the worst." Another boy next to them chimed in, joining the conversation. "I can't believe you have to actually live with her."
Tom watched as Cassian turned to look towards Lyra and for a moment he thought he could see a familiar look cross his face, one of desire of longing, before it quickly disappeared. He let out a soft chuckle before shrugging his shoulders. "You don't even know the half of it. At least we aren't related...I don't think I could take it."
"Did you hear that Jack Dempsey is actually going to try and ask her to the Winter Formal?" The redhead said, her voice full of bitter resent. "I don't understand why, he's two years older than her and there are plenty of other girls-"
"Where did you hear that?" Cassian spun around quickly, looking at the girl through narrowed eyes.
"It's been all over the school the past two days...You don't need to bite my head off. Why do you care anyway?" She looked at him, a look of confusion and hurt spread across her face.
"I don't." He muttered, a look of displeasure crossing his face.
"I can't blame him for trying." The dark haired boy next to him responded as he stretched his arms over his head.
"Why? She's not even that pretty." The girl said sourly, rolling her eyes as she placed her inkwell onto her desk.
"Don't be stupid Alice, You're just jealous. You know half of the guys here have tried at one point or another, until they all learned how much of a drag she really is..." The boy yawned and shrugged his shoulders. "Whatever. She'll only embarrass him and say no. She's done it to us all. Maybe Jack thinks he has more of a chance now that the Sweetwater All-Stars have been scouting him."
Cassian looked towards his friend and let out a hollow laugh, staring at Lyra through dark eyes until a mischievous smile began to tug at his lips. "Perhaps I'll do Jack a favor and save him from embarrassment."
"What do you mean?" Alice asked excitedly, edging closer to him.
"Remember last week when I had detention with Professor Ainsworth? She had me there for hours helping her clear out her potion stores and I nabbed this funny little one for myself." Cassian reached into his pack and pulled out a small brown vial, holding it up for the others to see.
"What is it?" The dark haired boy asked, his eyes dancing in anticipation.
"Fungiface Potion. I looked it up and apparently just a few drops and it'll cause awful clusters of mushrooms to grow on whoever ingests it. I took it to get back at Professor Quimby for making me clean the owlery, but this seems like a way better use for it. Maybe it'll knock her down a few pegs."
The three of them laughed as they looked towards Lyra and Tom felt himself pulled out from the memory and into another, this time it was one he had already witnessed, albeit by accident.
He was back in a familiar corridor, watching as Lyra ran past him, clutching her books tightly. He could not see her face, but judging by the last recollection he had witnessed, he already knew why she was running. A small group of students, led by a Cassian, joined him in taunting her as they followed her down the hallway, Tom could hear their japes and jokes as she disappeared from sight, trying hard to escape them and disguise her marred face.
"None of these are what I seek." He thought to himself in annoyance as he continued to dig deeper into Cassian's mind, hearing the man whimper in pain as he continued.
Latching onto the next memory he could find, he entered it quickly, a small dark room coming into focus, the dark tile lining the walls giving it a harsh and cold feeling. At the center there was a small desk, a singular light hanging above it, it's rays shining down onto a figure who was bent over the table, scribbling furiously against a sheet of parchment, the sound of the quill hitting the page echoing against the walls. Walking slowly towards the light, he recognized the person at once, she was no longer a child or a teenager, but the grown woman he had come to know, soft dark waves of hair framing her porcelain face, her red lips pursing in annoyance as a soft knock could be heard from the doorway.
"Come in."
He watched as she placed her quill back into the well, pushing herself from the desk carefully as she crossed her legs, staring indifferently at the man who appeared before her.
"Take a seat." She gestured slowly to the chair before her, her dark eyes watching his every move with an unreadable expression.
"Her eyes…" Tom noted that it must have not been a recent memory, as her eyes were both brown and deep, unlike the two strange and mismatched ones he often found himself looking into.
Cassian ignored the gesture and instead moved to the side of the desk, leaning against it lazily. Lyra rolled her eyes and stood up from her chair, waving her hand carefully over the piles of parchments upon her desk which began to sort themselves.
"Hughes said you wanted to speak with me?"
"Yes."
"About?"
Lyra pointed her hand to a neatly organized stack of parchment and waved it elegantly as it quickly zipped off her desk and towards one of the black tiles on the wall, which opened into a small drawer, the pages carefully floating inside, her hand closing it calmly behind them.
"I'm placing you on suspension-"
"What?" Cassian jumped up from the desk, his demeanor no longer arrogant, but alarmed, a look of anger spreading over his face. "Why? I've done everything you've asked me to do, I even offered to help Hughes with his back logged paperwork."
Lyra sucked her teeth impatiently, placing her hands on her hips. "It is not a matter of what you've done. But how you've done it."
"I don't understand, I-"
"Cassian. Sit." She let out a soft sigh as she took a seat in her chair and gestured once more, unphased by his outburst. Tom could tell that her request was not a suggestion, but a demand.
Reluctantly he plopped down into the chair and raked his hand through his golden blonde hair.
"Cassian...I can see how -" The expression on her face looked strained as if she was trying to disguise her words.. "- hard- you've been working...but the quality of the work...it's simply not where it should be."
"I-"
Lyra held up a hand to silence him and continued. "I've had to work overtime to correct your mistakes and go over everything you've done with a fine tooth comb just to make sure it's been done properly. I couldn't submit any of this to the President the way it was."
"If I'm suspended this will ruin me, it'll be on my permanent record-" Cassian retorted desperately, his face growing red with anger. "I'll be a laughing stock -"
"Cassian." She said softly, waiting for him to look at her once more. "It isn't my intention to ruin you. Which is why on paper, it won't be documented. I have standards for this department myself and a poor opinion of you is a reflection on me. That I can't have."
The flush from his face began to disappear as she continued. "But I won't be sending you out to any more sites until I feel that you're ready."
"What do I need to do? I'll do anything."
"You will get here early tomorrow before your office hours and every single day after that and I will teach you everything you need to know until I feel that you're competent enough to resume your duties."
Cassian stared at her for a moment, ignoring her backhanded insult as a soft grin tugged at his lips. "Just the two of us?"
"Yes."
"I'm looking forward to it."
"I'm sure." She responded dryly as she waved her wand and swished it carefully, two old, very large, dusty books quickly shooting out from another cabinet that suddenly appeared from the wall. They landed with a loud thump onto the desk in front of Cassian, who looked at them apprehensively.
"What are these?"
"Your reading for the next few nights. One is a detailed copy of every ancient rune known to wizard-kind, the next is a detailed dictionary of important curses and hexes that you should know and how to understand what their makeup is...their variations, how they were derived, their meaning..."
"You can't seriously expect me to read all of these in a few nights?!"
Lyra smiled at him wryly as she placed them into his arms, quickly escorting him from her office. "Oh but I do. Besides, I thought you were looking forward to this?"
Tom growled as he separated himself from the inconsequential memory and started to violently sort through Cassian's mind, unwilling to witness anymore of his useless past experiences. The images and thoughts of Lyra in his psyche appeared to be endless, carefully preserved, as if nothing else had mattered and the task before him had proven to be more frustrating than anticipated. He focused harder on the images than he had seen in her own mind and felt his heart skip with excitement as he came across something that looked familiar.
"There we are…" He thought smugly to himself as he entered the familiar memory, noticing the backdrop of the desert sky and the cave that lay ahead.
"Are you sure you want to do this Lyra? MACUSA has already called us back, perhaps we should-"
"Don't be ridiculous Cassian. We've encountered far worse things than an empty cave...besides who else is more qualified to investigate this than us? I'm sure it won't take longer than an hour at most. We'll be on the next train home before nightfall."
"If MACUSA finds out…"
"What is there to be worried about? If we find nothing, MACUSA will be relieved to hear it and if we find something and rectify the situation, they'll be hard pressed to do anything other than pat us on the back for the excellent job we've done. Either way it's a win win situation…what do you say Albert?"
The older wizard at her side looked at her and let out a soft chuckle, nodding towards Cassian. "I agree with you although I wouldn't blame Cassian one bit if he wanted to sit this once out...he's still a little green when it comes to field work."
Cassian turned towards the man sharply. "I'm not afraid, I simply don't want MACUSA punishing us for defying orders…"
Tom listened carefully at what he said next, knowing that everything from this point on would be more accurate than what Lyra had been able to show him.
"...besides who knows what the hell is down there. Fred from the Auror Department said that the no-maj they found kept talking nonsense about demons and voices, going on and on like a mad-man. Lucky for him they were able to actually wipe his memory...give him a bit of peace-"
Lyra rolled her eyes and started walking off towards the cave, her wand held out before her as she interrupted him. "-Are you finished?"
Cassian's cheeks exploded into a fierce blush as he closed his mouth and followed quietly behind them, only stopping when Lyra paused by the entrance.
"Why would he erase this?." Tom thought to himself curiously as he watched the scene unfold before him.
"That's strange." Lyra said suspiciously, bending down towards the ground.
"What?"
"There's dried blood on the ground…here and...here."
"Perhaps Cassian was right, perhaps we should alert MACUSA to what we've found and leave." The man to her right said, his voice full of uncertainty. "If there's blood on the ground, perhaps this is something more suited to the Auror Division or Magical Beast Regulation."
"-And risk not being able to find it again?" Lyra said sharply, turning towards him. "No, I think it's best we check it out." She peered into the dark cave and hesitated for a moment, murmuring softly. "It is odd though…"
"Everything about this entire case is odd." Cassian said sarcastically, peering into the darkness alongside her and carefully rested his hand on her shoulder.
Lyra frowned as she looked at his hand and quickly shrugged it away, shaking her head. "Why would any no-maj come this way? There's nothing here...it makes absolutely no sense. The nearest town is miles away."
"Do no-maj's do anything that makes sense?" Albert chuckled next to her, shaking his head. "Probably up to no good. From what I heard at MACUSA, many of them use this route to export things across the country. Traffickers I believe they're called…"
Lyra frowned as she took a step into the cave, her wand held out carefully before her. "This place feels strange to me. Wands out. Stay on your guard and stick together. I have no idea what might be waiting for us in the darkness ahead."
The memory quickly faded in and out as they began to make their narrow descent down the cave, it's narrative becoming cloudy and blurred. Finding himself suddenly outside the man's mind and back in the dark cavern, he furrowed his brow and let out a soft growl, mentally reaching out to him once more. This time Tom focused his attention harder, his tactics less gentle as he thrust himself deep into the wizard's subconscious and back into the coveted memory, appearing at once inside the tunnels of dark cave, at the very crossroads he himself had arrived at not longer before.
The only light that could be seen were those emanating from the tips of their wands, eerily casting a glow onto the paths before them.
"Which way should we go?" Albert asked warily, the light from his wand illuminating his unsettled face, each line and wrinkle upon his skin crossed with worry.
Lyra paused for a moment, looking at each pathway and nodded towards the right, taking a step forward. "This way. Stay close."
Tom watched as the two of them continued down the right pathway and Cassian, although motioning to follow them, suddenly stopped. Looking down the pathway to the left, a soft breeze seemed to appear from out of nowhere, blowing against his hair softly as he peered down into its depths.
"Not that way...this way."
Tom could hear a soft voice calling out to him, it's tone strange and distant as if they were in a dream. He watched as Cassian paused for a moment, hesitantly looking towards the right and quickly diverted, deciding to follow the voice in the opposite direction.
He pursued him silently down the familiar tunnel, knowing what waited ahead and watched as the calm, beckoning voice led them straight into the belly of the enormous cavern. Cassian stumbled around in the darkness, raising his wand up to the giant rock formations that lay around him and slowly stopped, seemingly wary of his surroundings as the voice called out to him once more, urging him to continue.
"Only a little further."
"Who are you?" Confused and unsettled he called out to it, waiting patiently until a small red orb of light suddenly appeared before him, hovering in mid-air, waiting for him to follow.
Over piles of rubble and rocks, he chased the glowing phenomena, recklessly stumbling into the large open chamber while he squinted through the darkness, shining the dim light over what appeared to be a large stone sarcophagus stretched out before him. As Cassian continued to inspect it, he noticed that the lid was slightly ajar and approaching it carefully, he gasped as the small ball of vermillion light flew into the opening. He watched it curiously for a few moments, his interest piqued as the inside of the strange stone gleamed eerily for a few moments before finally extinguishing completely, leaving him in darkness.
"What do you want from me?" He whispered softly, his voice shaking as he ran his hands against the heavy stone cover, shining his wand warily over the grey slab once more.
"I wish for you to set me free."
"Set you free from what? I don't understand."
"I've been trapped here for far too long. I'm weak...and tired."
Tom watched as a look of curiosity came over the man's face as he suddenly reached for the slab of earth and waved his wand. Without warning, the lid began to slowly slide from off it's base, the noise it made echoing around the chamber like thunder as it fell to the flood with a loud thud. As Cassian bent toward the strange hollow monument, he held his shaking hand over it carefully, a look of pure horror spreading across his face like wildfire as he discovered it's grisly contents.
With a loud scream he pushed himself backwards onto the stone floor, covering his mouth in disgust, putting distance between him and his newfound discovery. For a moment, covered in dirt and earth, he lay there, his chest heaving heavily until the voice spoke once more.
"Do not be afraid. I can help you."
His face twisted in revulsion, Cassian quickly picked himself off the ground and stood a few feet before what had proven to be a crude coffin, his wand pointed steadily towards it.
"Help me? I don't need any help-"
Familiar voices could be heard in the distance and he turned towards their direction, opening his mouth to respond to them. The voice cut him off, its tone now soft and seductive.
"If you set me free now, everything you desire will be yours."
"Everything I desire?" He responded curiously, a confused look spreading across his face. "What do you mean?"
"Cassian?!" Lyra's voice could be heard echoing around the chamber, it's tone full of concern and annoyance.
His companions had finally realized his presence was missing.
"Is there not something...someone perhaps that you yearn for? A dream? An ambition?"
He turned around to face the sarcophagus once more and paused before he responded, his voice full of reluctance. "Yes...but I don't see how I can help you-"
"All you need to do is say my name." The voice spoke calmly, but behind it's soft and soothing tone Tom could hear the deceit, the lust and the greed behind it's facade.
"Your name?" Cassian shook his head in confusion, not understanding the request. "If it's that simple why don't you do it yourself."
"I cannot. It must be someone else...someone powerful...like yourself."
Tom watched as Cassian's overzealous pride lit up his face, his eyes narrowing in interest.
"Everything I desire?"
"Yes."
"Then tell me your name and I'll do it."
"That, I cannot tell you-" It said cryptically
"Well then how am I supposed to-" Cassian interjected impatiently, his voice now sounding unsure and wary of the situation.
"-But I can show you."
Tom watched as the small runes on the front of the coffin began to glow, the characters, slowly rearranging themselves, the lines carved into the rock, slowly changing and morphing into a different language, one he could understand.
"Cassian!" Lyra's voice could be heard once more, only this time louder, signaling that she and Albert had found the cavern, the sounds of their footsteps echoing off the walls around them. "I told you to stay close!"
The letters glimmered brightly before him as they finally fell into place, the glow from their presence dancing across Cassian's face as he hesitated, looking behind him once more, Lyra's shadow starting to come into view.
"Speak my name now or all will be lost." The voice spoke provocatively, urging him to concede.
As Lyra and Albert entered the dark cavern, he turned his head quickly back to the sarcophagus, his eyes falling upon the letters spelled out before him. Opening his lips he took one last breath and started to speak, the only thing that could be heard before the darkness overtook them all was a single word.
"Manaba."
Sorry for the delayed update, I had a bit of writer's block! At first I had 0 idea where I wanted this chapter to go, I knew kind of an outline of what I wanted, but no idea on how to actually go about writing it and after sitting on it for a bit it came to me. Phew. This chapter is pretty long, by the time I read it over to review it's progress, I realized I had to stop at some point, otherwise I think it would literally be too much to read. But anyway enough about that! Lots of stuff going on in this particular part of the story. Cassian's clearly not in his right mind (we knew that though. Duh) and is willing to do anything to make Lyra "love" him. Despite truly hating his character, I really needed to give him a bit more depth and a little more insight into their relationship…so that's where the flashbacks come in. I also wanted Tom to interact with him more, but I couldn't necessarily just have it be in a duel, because obviously he would win and…I already have a different duel I'd like to explore in mind. I liked the idea of Tom using his Legilimacy bc we've always heard how great he was at that, that his skill for causing pain without even lifting a finger was unrivalled...so maybe we'll see a bit more of that. It also provided a much needed detailed insight of how things went down...because throughout the story, Lyra has proven to be an unreliable narrator due to her memory loss. I also really wanted to show more of the relationship between Cassian and Lyra, to really showcase their relationship and I hope everyone enjoyed that.
And…we finally got our villain's name! How about that? Perhaps we'll get more into that in the next chapter?
Anyway hopefully it won't take a month for me to update again, but between work and life, it's just getting harder to do it every week! Thank you so much for reading and I hope you guys enjoyed it!
Don't forget to follow and review if you enjoyed it! I always look forward to feedback!
Already working on the next chapter, so hopefully it'll post soon! :3