Chapter 5
The sky was a clear bright blue, not a cloud to be seen. The air was heavy with humidity and nearly one hundred degrees out. The calls and cries of various exotic birds and animals mingled with screeches of sea birds and the crash of the waves. The small semi-tropical isle with its thick trees and white sandy beaches surrounded with bright blue water looked like a jewel. Or one of those picture perfect settings one sees so often on television commercials. The only sign of human habitation was the large pale gray fortress, Vairlock, the fortress of the vampires. Traditionally lived in by the oldest of them, now Nasiji; there were no other resident humans on the island. However there were plenty of smugglers to prey upon, and the occasional shipwrecked mortal to enslave or a sea tossed, half- sunk, luxuriously outfitted, privately owned, boat of full of rich mortals, the kind that always end up vanishing in even some of the more mild tropical storms.
It was midday so all the vampires, twelve of them, were inside in the two stories below ground, each in their own room, with their own coffin, sleeping. Once night fell however they'd be up and about.
Knowing he wouldn't get any rest at night, Harry had spent the morning asleep and was taking the rest of the day for some much needed relaxing, he'd been working too hard lately. Stretched out on his stomach on a towel on the beach, reading a book on the certain wizards who had gone rogue and used their powers to create the religions of today. It was very interesting, from the War Mage's library, and very detailed.
Tonight was the last night of the gathering, and at midnight the vampires would depart for their own homes. Harry had enjoyed a few days of relaxing during the day and talking with the vampires at night. They had all gone to help Kylar clear a dozen or so younger vampires out of his city, questioning them on whether or not they were loyal to Voldemort, the ones that were had been taken prisoner. Harry had had a long and interesting interrogation session with those five the night before, and had gotten some valuable information on Voldemort. Afterwards they were taken down to a large oval stone room one the lowest level, twenty feet long and sixteen wide, twenty feet high, here Kylar fought them all at once, as was the custom when younger vampires were hunted down by the older ones in a pack. The one whose city they had occupied fought them after all had questioned them. He had destroyed them without much trouble; of the other seven vampires two had been Voldemort's and had been killed, one of the others had attacked Nasiji, and been killed, two others had been killed and the remaining two had fled.
Harry's keen ears picked up the distant incoming cry of one of the white falcons, a distinctive sound. He rolled over and marked his page, shading his eyes he looked up and watched the large white bird plummet out of the blue sky. It came to land on his shoulder with a rustle and flapping of snow white feathers, Harry ignored its needle sharp talons digging into his bare shoulder and took the envelope from its beak. Petting it as he read the letter from Albus.
Lord Phoenix,
In the new school year we will be having a new student, entering in the sixth year, a transfer from America, who is mute. She lost the ability to speak at age four in an attack on her home by death eaters wanting revenge on her parents, who were and still are aurors. Her twin brother and grandmother were killed in the attack. She'll be arriving this evening, two days early, to help her adjust to Hogwarts and for us to prepare for any special teaching method she may need. I was wondering if there was anything you had in mind to help her, there's a staff meeting this afternoon at 4:00 to discuss schedules etc.
In the event Voldemort attacks Hogwarts we will need defenses, I know that the ones currently in place are not working; do you have any alternate ideas if we are attacked?
The Board of Directors has agreed upon the trips to the elven kingdom.I won't ask how you got Mr. Malfoy to agree, probably an extensive blackmail? We'll also be working that out at the staff meeting.
See you there, Albus
Harry reread the letter once then burned it. He stood and went inside to his room, the white falcon flying to perch on a nearby tree. Harry packed quickly and got his broom, left a note for the vampires, and flew off, the white falcon flying beside him.
** "Good afternoon Heron," Heron nodded to Albus as he walked into a staff lounge where they were meeting that afternoon. The others were already inside waiting, along with a medium height girl with very long auburn/brown hair and dark green eyes.
"Harry this is Arya Decilim (dec-il-Em) our transfer, Arya this is Harry Potter who teaches our Dueling Class, he's in sixth year as well." Albus introduced them.
Arya's eyes performed the familiar flick to the scar; visible over his right eye as she shook his hand.
"Arya, Harry is the Keeper of the Ways and he knows a few enchantments and such which could, if they work, allow you to speak again, if not out loud them perhaps telepathically, depending on exactly what has been done to you. Would you allow him to run some magical tests on you to see if he can help?" Arya's eyes had gone very wide at this, she thought for a moment then nodded. "Great, we won't start that immediately though, first Sir Nicholas here will give you a tour of the castle, so hopefully you won't get too lost. Term starts in three days, we'll sort you then. Until then you'll stay in one of the guest rooms, he'll show you where those are." Arya nodded again, watching with interest as Sir Nicholas floated through the wall.
"Hello there Arya, welcome to Hogwarts, do they have ghosts at the Salem Witch Academy?" Arya shook her head at this, Sir Nicholas chuckled and floated out the door, Arya following.
"Harry really, what chances are there of your being able to repair whatever damage was done to her voice?" Albus asked after the door shut. Harry sat down with the rest of them and though for a moment.
"Chances are about 100 to 1, but I do not yet know what caused the voice loss. If any sort of healing cannot cure it, enchantment, or potion, then there is telepathy. Mutes often take to it pretty well, especially if they've been mute since a young age. But it all depends on the person, she may well be completely null of telepathic ability, or she may be excellent at it with the right training."
"Are you a telepath?" Harry gave Albus a surprised look.
"Of course, all War Mages are at some level, all of the strongest telepaths have been War Mages, and empaths. I have large amounts of regular telepathy, touch telepathy, and empathy. I am capable of teaching telepathy, but not of giving someone the ability, that is impossible. And yes before you ask, when I truly wish to I can, with a lot of effort, read minds. Though I always get a sense of a persons thoughts and feelings when I touch them, that is true for all War Mages, though not often so for Elementals, and the reason I often wear gloves and don't like to shake hands." He said, holding up a hand, he had on the black gloves with the razor sharp chain mail/scales. Albus nodded, then turned to the rest of the staff.
"Okay, as I'm sure you all know this year we'll be sending students to visit the elves, two groups, the first of twelve, and we're not sure on the second, it will be smaller probably. The first group will have things a bit easier; it will be warmer, probably safer, and not as rigorous. The second will be only for those who can withstand a rigorous training with the elven warriors, fighting probably, and more learning and being a larger part of elf/human relations. These groups will be made of our best students, some from each house, chosen by the professors, though Harry can exclude someone if they are not physically capable of the trip. And all who go must be part of the Dueling class. They'll be traveling on foot over land the whole time, and most likely ending up doing a bit of fighting, though it will probably be in a tournament or practicing with the elves, especially in the second group. Only those who can defend themselves somewhat will be allowed to go." The others all agreed to this.
"To make sure that they do not miss too much and fall behind I'll need a list of what you will be teaching here at the castle while we're away. Please try to make it something that can be easily learned on an overland journey through such areas as we'll be traveling. We won't have much time for learning but I have set aside two days in different elven cities to try and catch up a bit. Only students 5th year and above, with good grades, can go." Harry said next, the staff agreed to this.
"Harry has given me an outline of defensive plans for the castle incase we get attacked, we'll be working on them on and off all year and he'll be setting up some enchantments between now and when school starts. Do you have any idea of why the enchantments are not working?" Albus asked Harry, Harry nearly growled with frustration, those damn enchantments were really bugging him.
"Yes I do. Sir when you were initiated as headmaster were any enchantments put on you to tie you to the castle's defenses?" Albus looked quite surprised at this.
"No, no there weren't any."
"That would be the problem then, Somehow in the past the castle's defenses were tied to the headmaster, who could bring them up and fully activated whenever needed. It may have been an enchantment that made this possible, a potion, or some object, I haven't figured it out yet but you should be able to control them, and only the headmaster or deputy headmaster, or 2/3 of the other professors working together can activate them. There's a bunch of enchantments or objects that makes this possible, that have apparently been lost over time. I'll have to recreate them all from scratch, which could take years. I'll search the enchantments and see if I can't figure out what it was." Harry said, glad that he could finally provide some answer, if not a solution.
** Harry knelt in the middle of a large circular room, in the center of a ring of metal sunk into the floor, blood metal, made from the blood of necromancers. This was the IGD, Intelligence Gathering Division, of the War Mages. Necromancy had been invented and developed by the War Mages, and most Grand Masters had the ability, and a few regular War Mages specialized in it. For their ability to talk to the dead they were part of the IGD, getting information to blackmail with, or getting information for trials. Times had been when any government with a very difficult murder case could call upon the War Mage Necromancers of the IGD to speak with the deceased to find the truth.
The IGD's other purpose was to put spies in the ranks of the followers of all dark wizards and keep huge files of information on current suspect government officials of every country up to date.
The War mages had many such divisions, the AD, Ambassadors Division, was composed of good negotiators, talks, quick thinks, and good listeners. They kept up to date in all current politics, to help decide where the War Mages might need to step in, and they were relied upon to give advice to the governments, though there were strict regulations on what they could and couldn't say, they also headed up a small recruiting division in whatever land they were ambassador to, they tended to not be as good fighters as other War Mages but to have a gift for picking out potential assassins or Elemental Warriors and War Mages.
Each of the four elements was in a way its own division as well. A 1st Class of the element, one of the best ones and usually one of the oldest, was the leader. They organized those of their element, including the training of new elementals, and gave the Council advice on where the elementals of their kind could best be used.
The grand Master War Mages were another Division, they trained elementals with unusual abilities, they were sent on special missions, often secret ones, into warring countries or wherever else. These assignments were the most dangerous, requiring the full abilities of a Grand Master to handle. An example of these missions was when, in 1341, a small colony of basilisks, nearly thirty of them, had descended upon a small city. The Grand Masters had gone in, all 62 of them, and taken control of the situation and sorted it out. The Grand Masters also watched over the huge, world wide, meetings of governments, to make sure nothing happened.
There had been a time that, when two or three or more governments needed a impartial, very safe, place to meet and work out a treaty, an end to a war, or some new system of laws, or a joining of countries, they would come to the Palace for the War mages for it. The reasoning was that no one in his or her right mind would seek to enter the place, or could enter it, with all the War Mages guarding them.
The regular War Mages, the largest group, were just that, War Mages. Many spent their lives simply going about the planet, wherever they were sent, and helping in any way they could. Others stayed at the Palace and developed new forms of magic, new spells, potions, and enchantments. Others studied magical creatures; others worked in the area of divination. But wherever they were or what they did they tried to keep the peace, and dispense justice everywhere. They were often asked for by the worlds' governments to be present at all functions where people were afraid of an attack and/or assassination attempts. And lastly they were the first teachers of magic. Starting with small schools of only a few dozen students and growing to places like Hogwarts.
Harry was currently in deep meditation, readying the magic he was going to try to use. He was not that great of a necromancer, but certainly better than most Grand Masters, nonetheless this magic was difficult and unsteady at its best, and he didn't want to mess this up.
Finally he stood up and walked over to a huge gold caldron, which he levitated. The contents of the caldron shifted and bubbled at the movement, releasing many small dark aqua bubbles that popped before they got out of the caldron. Harry walked to the ring of blood metal, which was about a foot wide and a foot deep. The large circle of metal was sunk into the floor, and the ring had a deep groove, almost a half-foot deep, in it, into this Harry slowly began to pour the contents of the caldron.
Once the groove in the ring of blood metal was filled, all the way around, with the potion Harry replaced the caldron, and went to the center of the circle again. Inscribed on the floor in the center ring was the outline of a skull, drawn in demons blood mixed with black unicorn saliva. To its right was a water drop, surrounded by flames, with a human hand inside it; the hand had the fingers halfway between the transformation from fingers to claws. And the half-claws were red. This was done in gemstones. There was a handprint under the skull, a right hand, the finger tips each had a drop of gold on them. On the skulls other side was a long curved fang, jagged on one edge, coated in black blood. Elsewhere inside the metal circle was the rune of Necromancy, actually there were four of those inside the circle in different places, two different runes for death one for spirit, one for reincarnation, one for healing, two for power, one for fire, one for water, one for earth, one for air, two for blood, one for sight, a summoning pattern in dark blue, three runes for the underworld, one for the living dead, two for ghosts, a shade summoning pattern, the image of a Grim, and lastly the symbol of the Hell Hound (dog-like ferocious, rare beasts who were supposedly the familiars of black angles and Satan. But were in truth nothing of the sort.)
Observing his from the other side of one of the walls were his apprentices. The wall was charmed so it was see through, one way. This way someone always kept watch over the Necromancers using the chamber. If anything should go wrong he had given them all two days of training (over their summer training) of what to do.
"Istafar." The dark aqua liquid burst into dark red and gold flames, the color of dried blood, black, and gold. Harry held out his right hand and concentrated, as if cut by a knife a wound opened on the tip on each finger, Harry closed his eyes and went deep inside himself, searching, finding what he was searching for he pulled, calling, and opened his eyes. Now the drop of blood on each fingertip was gold. War Mage lifeblood. He placed his right hand on the outline of a right hand, the lifeblood steaming when it touched the gold on the fingertips of the handprint.
On the other side of the wall his thirteen apprentices watched, entranced by the flickering see through flames and the way certain runes on the floor had started glowing, even if they did not know what the runes meant.
Harry let the flames warm the room as he sank deeper inside, centering himself in this world, in this place, in this time, in this state a horse could have run into him and he wouldn't budge, nor would he have noticed someone coming in to decapitate him. Deep in concentration Harry began to call, quietly at first, to the spirits, sending power through his hand into the floor, and out with his mind to the glowing runes and sending out that same call deep into his own soul, so that the shades would have something to follow to him, and by the time they reached him they would know him about as well as he knew himself.
"Povarilas eru aril ivelus seharulo, calusun aril sol, hozfol jahar erya melit itemeshas eru resla delshamai versahaer." (Shades of my fallen brethren, hear my call, come to me now spirits of the Gold Forest.) He paused for a few seconds, then repeated the chant, concentrating, and pulling at the presence and power in thr room with everything he had. Again he repeated it, the flames leaped and danced, he was beginning to perspire heavily, and not form the heat of the fire, the effort involved in calling up these shades tremendous.
The four runes for Necromancy was glowing dark red, had he touched them he would have felt them vibrating slightly. One of the runes for death, the more complicated one, was glowing bright blue, the two runes for power were blazing green and the shade summoning pattern was glittering white/silver. The hand print began to smoke as Harry sent slow drop of life blood out of his finger tips, the rune on his palm for Phoenix began to bleed, below it the hand print drank in the red blood and an identical rune began to glow in the hand print, shining so brightly that it was visible through Harry's hand.
Harry repeated the summoning again, and again, his voice rising, thundering with power and echoing about the room, sweat was running down his face and dripping to the floor, his eyes tightly closed, brow furrowed in intense concentration. The light in the room dimmed and brightened by turns, plunging the room into darkness, illuminated only by a faint glow from the dark red and black and gold flames, then the torches leaped up again. Harry continued to repeat the summoning, the sweat dripping from his face now was blood red, and the floor hissed and steamed where it hit.
Then the circle of flames about him turned gold and leaped, Harry went silent, the rune for shade summoning blazed white, and ten shades emerged slowly from it. Ten shades, five Elementals, three War Mages, and two Grand Masters, ten shades, a huge number for someone who was not only under trained in Necromancy, but had also only done it twice before. And while muggle and regular wizards shades were much easier in general drawing up Grand Masters was impossible unless they wanted to come.
As one the ten shades bowed to the man kneeling before them.
"Jaqrahtesh Heron Rah Xa'hazik, belor sol." (Lord Phoenix Heron Rah Xa'hazik, you called.)
I'm evil, sorry for the cliffy, I couldn't resist. Actually I have to go now so I couldn't write more. Please review!
The sky was a clear bright blue, not a cloud to be seen. The air was heavy with humidity and nearly one hundred degrees out. The calls and cries of various exotic birds and animals mingled with screeches of sea birds and the crash of the waves. The small semi-tropical isle with its thick trees and white sandy beaches surrounded with bright blue water looked like a jewel. Or one of those picture perfect settings one sees so often on television commercials. The only sign of human habitation was the large pale gray fortress, Vairlock, the fortress of the vampires. Traditionally lived in by the oldest of them, now Nasiji; there were no other resident humans on the island. However there were plenty of smugglers to prey upon, and the occasional shipwrecked mortal to enslave or a sea tossed, half- sunk, luxuriously outfitted, privately owned, boat of full of rich mortals, the kind that always end up vanishing in even some of the more mild tropical storms.
It was midday so all the vampires, twelve of them, were inside in the two stories below ground, each in their own room, with their own coffin, sleeping. Once night fell however they'd be up and about.
Knowing he wouldn't get any rest at night, Harry had spent the morning asleep and was taking the rest of the day for some much needed relaxing, he'd been working too hard lately. Stretched out on his stomach on a towel on the beach, reading a book on the certain wizards who had gone rogue and used their powers to create the religions of today. It was very interesting, from the War Mage's library, and very detailed.
Tonight was the last night of the gathering, and at midnight the vampires would depart for their own homes. Harry had enjoyed a few days of relaxing during the day and talking with the vampires at night. They had all gone to help Kylar clear a dozen or so younger vampires out of his city, questioning them on whether or not they were loyal to Voldemort, the ones that were had been taken prisoner. Harry had had a long and interesting interrogation session with those five the night before, and had gotten some valuable information on Voldemort. Afterwards they were taken down to a large oval stone room one the lowest level, twenty feet long and sixteen wide, twenty feet high, here Kylar fought them all at once, as was the custom when younger vampires were hunted down by the older ones in a pack. The one whose city they had occupied fought them after all had questioned them. He had destroyed them without much trouble; of the other seven vampires two had been Voldemort's and had been killed, one of the others had attacked Nasiji, and been killed, two others had been killed and the remaining two had fled.
Harry's keen ears picked up the distant incoming cry of one of the white falcons, a distinctive sound. He rolled over and marked his page, shading his eyes he looked up and watched the large white bird plummet out of the blue sky. It came to land on his shoulder with a rustle and flapping of snow white feathers, Harry ignored its needle sharp talons digging into his bare shoulder and took the envelope from its beak. Petting it as he read the letter from Albus.
Lord Phoenix,
In the new school year we will be having a new student, entering in the sixth year, a transfer from America, who is mute. She lost the ability to speak at age four in an attack on her home by death eaters wanting revenge on her parents, who were and still are aurors. Her twin brother and grandmother were killed in the attack. She'll be arriving this evening, two days early, to help her adjust to Hogwarts and for us to prepare for any special teaching method she may need. I was wondering if there was anything you had in mind to help her, there's a staff meeting this afternoon at 4:00 to discuss schedules etc.
In the event Voldemort attacks Hogwarts we will need defenses, I know that the ones currently in place are not working; do you have any alternate ideas if we are attacked?
The Board of Directors has agreed upon the trips to the elven kingdom.I won't ask how you got Mr. Malfoy to agree, probably an extensive blackmail? We'll also be working that out at the staff meeting.
See you there, Albus
Harry reread the letter once then burned it. He stood and went inside to his room, the white falcon flying to perch on a nearby tree. Harry packed quickly and got his broom, left a note for the vampires, and flew off, the white falcon flying beside him.
** "Good afternoon Heron," Heron nodded to Albus as he walked into a staff lounge where they were meeting that afternoon. The others were already inside waiting, along with a medium height girl with very long auburn/brown hair and dark green eyes.
"Harry this is Arya Decilim (dec-il-Em) our transfer, Arya this is Harry Potter who teaches our Dueling Class, he's in sixth year as well." Albus introduced them.
Arya's eyes performed the familiar flick to the scar; visible over his right eye as she shook his hand.
"Arya, Harry is the Keeper of the Ways and he knows a few enchantments and such which could, if they work, allow you to speak again, if not out loud them perhaps telepathically, depending on exactly what has been done to you. Would you allow him to run some magical tests on you to see if he can help?" Arya's eyes had gone very wide at this, she thought for a moment then nodded. "Great, we won't start that immediately though, first Sir Nicholas here will give you a tour of the castle, so hopefully you won't get too lost. Term starts in three days, we'll sort you then. Until then you'll stay in one of the guest rooms, he'll show you where those are." Arya nodded again, watching with interest as Sir Nicholas floated through the wall.
"Hello there Arya, welcome to Hogwarts, do they have ghosts at the Salem Witch Academy?" Arya shook her head at this, Sir Nicholas chuckled and floated out the door, Arya following.
"Harry really, what chances are there of your being able to repair whatever damage was done to her voice?" Albus asked after the door shut. Harry sat down with the rest of them and though for a moment.
"Chances are about 100 to 1, but I do not yet know what caused the voice loss. If any sort of healing cannot cure it, enchantment, or potion, then there is telepathy. Mutes often take to it pretty well, especially if they've been mute since a young age. But it all depends on the person, she may well be completely null of telepathic ability, or she may be excellent at it with the right training."
"Are you a telepath?" Harry gave Albus a surprised look.
"Of course, all War Mages are at some level, all of the strongest telepaths have been War Mages, and empaths. I have large amounts of regular telepathy, touch telepathy, and empathy. I am capable of teaching telepathy, but not of giving someone the ability, that is impossible. And yes before you ask, when I truly wish to I can, with a lot of effort, read minds. Though I always get a sense of a persons thoughts and feelings when I touch them, that is true for all War Mages, though not often so for Elementals, and the reason I often wear gloves and don't like to shake hands." He said, holding up a hand, he had on the black gloves with the razor sharp chain mail/scales. Albus nodded, then turned to the rest of the staff.
"Okay, as I'm sure you all know this year we'll be sending students to visit the elves, two groups, the first of twelve, and we're not sure on the second, it will be smaller probably. The first group will have things a bit easier; it will be warmer, probably safer, and not as rigorous. The second will be only for those who can withstand a rigorous training with the elven warriors, fighting probably, and more learning and being a larger part of elf/human relations. These groups will be made of our best students, some from each house, chosen by the professors, though Harry can exclude someone if they are not physically capable of the trip. And all who go must be part of the Dueling class. They'll be traveling on foot over land the whole time, and most likely ending up doing a bit of fighting, though it will probably be in a tournament or practicing with the elves, especially in the second group. Only those who can defend themselves somewhat will be allowed to go." The others all agreed to this.
"To make sure that they do not miss too much and fall behind I'll need a list of what you will be teaching here at the castle while we're away. Please try to make it something that can be easily learned on an overland journey through such areas as we'll be traveling. We won't have much time for learning but I have set aside two days in different elven cities to try and catch up a bit. Only students 5th year and above, with good grades, can go." Harry said next, the staff agreed to this.
"Harry has given me an outline of defensive plans for the castle incase we get attacked, we'll be working on them on and off all year and he'll be setting up some enchantments between now and when school starts. Do you have any idea of why the enchantments are not working?" Albus asked Harry, Harry nearly growled with frustration, those damn enchantments were really bugging him.
"Yes I do. Sir when you were initiated as headmaster were any enchantments put on you to tie you to the castle's defenses?" Albus looked quite surprised at this.
"No, no there weren't any."
"That would be the problem then, Somehow in the past the castle's defenses were tied to the headmaster, who could bring them up and fully activated whenever needed. It may have been an enchantment that made this possible, a potion, or some object, I haven't figured it out yet but you should be able to control them, and only the headmaster or deputy headmaster, or 2/3 of the other professors working together can activate them. There's a bunch of enchantments or objects that makes this possible, that have apparently been lost over time. I'll have to recreate them all from scratch, which could take years. I'll search the enchantments and see if I can't figure out what it was." Harry said, glad that he could finally provide some answer, if not a solution.
** Harry knelt in the middle of a large circular room, in the center of a ring of metal sunk into the floor, blood metal, made from the blood of necromancers. This was the IGD, Intelligence Gathering Division, of the War Mages. Necromancy had been invented and developed by the War Mages, and most Grand Masters had the ability, and a few regular War Mages specialized in it. For their ability to talk to the dead they were part of the IGD, getting information to blackmail with, or getting information for trials. Times had been when any government with a very difficult murder case could call upon the War Mage Necromancers of the IGD to speak with the deceased to find the truth.
The IGD's other purpose was to put spies in the ranks of the followers of all dark wizards and keep huge files of information on current suspect government officials of every country up to date.
The War mages had many such divisions, the AD, Ambassadors Division, was composed of good negotiators, talks, quick thinks, and good listeners. They kept up to date in all current politics, to help decide where the War Mages might need to step in, and they were relied upon to give advice to the governments, though there were strict regulations on what they could and couldn't say, they also headed up a small recruiting division in whatever land they were ambassador to, they tended to not be as good fighters as other War Mages but to have a gift for picking out potential assassins or Elemental Warriors and War Mages.
Each of the four elements was in a way its own division as well. A 1st Class of the element, one of the best ones and usually one of the oldest, was the leader. They organized those of their element, including the training of new elementals, and gave the Council advice on where the elementals of their kind could best be used.
The grand Master War Mages were another Division, they trained elementals with unusual abilities, they were sent on special missions, often secret ones, into warring countries or wherever else. These assignments were the most dangerous, requiring the full abilities of a Grand Master to handle. An example of these missions was when, in 1341, a small colony of basilisks, nearly thirty of them, had descended upon a small city. The Grand Masters had gone in, all 62 of them, and taken control of the situation and sorted it out. The Grand Masters also watched over the huge, world wide, meetings of governments, to make sure nothing happened.
There had been a time that, when two or three or more governments needed a impartial, very safe, place to meet and work out a treaty, an end to a war, or some new system of laws, or a joining of countries, they would come to the Palace for the War mages for it. The reasoning was that no one in his or her right mind would seek to enter the place, or could enter it, with all the War Mages guarding them.
The regular War Mages, the largest group, were just that, War Mages. Many spent their lives simply going about the planet, wherever they were sent, and helping in any way they could. Others stayed at the Palace and developed new forms of magic, new spells, potions, and enchantments. Others studied magical creatures; others worked in the area of divination. But wherever they were or what they did they tried to keep the peace, and dispense justice everywhere. They were often asked for by the worlds' governments to be present at all functions where people were afraid of an attack and/or assassination attempts. And lastly they were the first teachers of magic. Starting with small schools of only a few dozen students and growing to places like Hogwarts.
Harry was currently in deep meditation, readying the magic he was going to try to use. He was not that great of a necromancer, but certainly better than most Grand Masters, nonetheless this magic was difficult and unsteady at its best, and he didn't want to mess this up.
Finally he stood up and walked over to a huge gold caldron, which he levitated. The contents of the caldron shifted and bubbled at the movement, releasing many small dark aqua bubbles that popped before they got out of the caldron. Harry walked to the ring of blood metal, which was about a foot wide and a foot deep. The large circle of metal was sunk into the floor, and the ring had a deep groove, almost a half-foot deep, in it, into this Harry slowly began to pour the contents of the caldron.
Once the groove in the ring of blood metal was filled, all the way around, with the potion Harry replaced the caldron, and went to the center of the circle again. Inscribed on the floor in the center ring was the outline of a skull, drawn in demons blood mixed with black unicorn saliva. To its right was a water drop, surrounded by flames, with a human hand inside it; the hand had the fingers halfway between the transformation from fingers to claws. And the half-claws were red. This was done in gemstones. There was a handprint under the skull, a right hand, the finger tips each had a drop of gold on them. On the skulls other side was a long curved fang, jagged on one edge, coated in black blood. Elsewhere inside the metal circle was the rune of Necromancy, actually there were four of those inside the circle in different places, two different runes for death one for spirit, one for reincarnation, one for healing, two for power, one for fire, one for water, one for earth, one for air, two for blood, one for sight, a summoning pattern in dark blue, three runes for the underworld, one for the living dead, two for ghosts, a shade summoning pattern, the image of a Grim, and lastly the symbol of the Hell Hound (dog-like ferocious, rare beasts who were supposedly the familiars of black angles and Satan. But were in truth nothing of the sort.)
Observing his from the other side of one of the walls were his apprentices. The wall was charmed so it was see through, one way. This way someone always kept watch over the Necromancers using the chamber. If anything should go wrong he had given them all two days of training (over their summer training) of what to do.
"Istafar." The dark aqua liquid burst into dark red and gold flames, the color of dried blood, black, and gold. Harry held out his right hand and concentrated, as if cut by a knife a wound opened on the tip on each finger, Harry closed his eyes and went deep inside himself, searching, finding what he was searching for he pulled, calling, and opened his eyes. Now the drop of blood on each fingertip was gold. War Mage lifeblood. He placed his right hand on the outline of a right hand, the lifeblood steaming when it touched the gold on the fingertips of the handprint.
On the other side of the wall his thirteen apprentices watched, entranced by the flickering see through flames and the way certain runes on the floor had started glowing, even if they did not know what the runes meant.
Harry let the flames warm the room as he sank deeper inside, centering himself in this world, in this place, in this time, in this state a horse could have run into him and he wouldn't budge, nor would he have noticed someone coming in to decapitate him. Deep in concentration Harry began to call, quietly at first, to the spirits, sending power through his hand into the floor, and out with his mind to the glowing runes and sending out that same call deep into his own soul, so that the shades would have something to follow to him, and by the time they reached him they would know him about as well as he knew himself.
"Povarilas eru aril ivelus seharulo, calusun aril sol, hozfol jahar erya melit itemeshas eru resla delshamai versahaer." (Shades of my fallen brethren, hear my call, come to me now spirits of the Gold Forest.) He paused for a few seconds, then repeated the chant, concentrating, and pulling at the presence and power in thr room with everything he had. Again he repeated it, the flames leaped and danced, he was beginning to perspire heavily, and not form the heat of the fire, the effort involved in calling up these shades tremendous.
The four runes for Necromancy was glowing dark red, had he touched them he would have felt them vibrating slightly. One of the runes for death, the more complicated one, was glowing bright blue, the two runes for power were blazing green and the shade summoning pattern was glittering white/silver. The hand print began to smoke as Harry sent slow drop of life blood out of his finger tips, the rune on his palm for Phoenix began to bleed, below it the hand print drank in the red blood and an identical rune began to glow in the hand print, shining so brightly that it was visible through Harry's hand.
Harry repeated the summoning again, and again, his voice rising, thundering with power and echoing about the room, sweat was running down his face and dripping to the floor, his eyes tightly closed, brow furrowed in intense concentration. The light in the room dimmed and brightened by turns, plunging the room into darkness, illuminated only by a faint glow from the dark red and black and gold flames, then the torches leaped up again. Harry continued to repeat the summoning, the sweat dripping from his face now was blood red, and the floor hissed and steamed where it hit.
Then the circle of flames about him turned gold and leaped, Harry went silent, the rune for shade summoning blazed white, and ten shades emerged slowly from it. Ten shades, five Elementals, three War Mages, and two Grand Masters, ten shades, a huge number for someone who was not only under trained in Necromancy, but had also only done it twice before. And while muggle and regular wizards shades were much easier in general drawing up Grand Masters was impossible unless they wanted to come.
As one the ten shades bowed to the man kneeling before them.
"Jaqrahtesh Heron Rah Xa'hazik, belor sol." (Lord Phoenix Heron Rah Xa'hazik, you called.)
I'm evil, sorry for the cliffy, I couldn't resist. Actually I have to go now so I couldn't write more. Please review!