Icedragon925 – you have ESP, how did you guess?
Lady Sermik – oh thank you for offering! That would be wonderful!
Alathon – thank you for the thoughtful review
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Chapter 29
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"Two hundred! In one night!" Silas said, "three weeks and there won't be a single young vampire left on the entire continent!"
"Not a bad thing - it makes room for us." Someone else commented.
"I'm just going to guess you're talking about the Master of London's gathering?" Rahkesh asked from the doorway. A half dozen of the vampires were gathered in Daray's rooms, sharing information. Being vampires the fact that it was well past midnight didn't bother them a bit. They only needed a few hours of sleep a night.
"Yes. There's been little word getting out about what's going on, but it's hard to not notice a sudden disappearance of two hundred vampires. Voldemort's lackeys of course." Rianae said.
Rahkesh smiled and twisted his head sideways to read the label on the glittery neon green wine bottle on the coffee table. Mao Zedong, someone had very expensive tastes in blood. One of Daray's relatives had probably snatched it from one of their victims. Vampires collected good blood, or famous blood. He'd seena bottle labeled Jesus in Namach's display case where he showed off a few of his more interesting blood collections.
"What will the mortals say about that?" One of the vampires Rahkesh didn't know asked him.
"They don't read vampire newspapers, they probably don't know. If they did they'd probably call it some diabolical plot. Well many of them would. This isn't going to change what they think any, especially the ones in power." Rahkesh said slowly. Some Ministry members would take note, and it seemed likely that the aurors and unspeakables read vampire newspapers, especially the last few months.
"Figures. Ignorant fools." Someone muttered.
"There's been some speculation that the reason for the gathering was to find a way to cut deal with the mortals." Rahkesh said in reply to the insult.
"What?"
"Never!"
"Who the hell told you that?"
"Did you just call the vampires elders cowards?"
The resulting uproar was exactly what he had hoped for. Shacklebolt wanted an opinion on the likelihood of that scenario.
"Better not let any of the elders hear you said that." Daray warned. "I think Namach might personally skin anyone who suggested it." Which was probably true. The ancient was looking forward to the war between the elders and the younger vampires and the human vampire conflicts. He seemed to think the current likelihood of a positive outcome was excellent. Privately Rahkesh agreed. If only Voldemort could be removed, and he and his allies were making some progress there.
The vampires had gone back to discussing the numbers of vampires the elders had killed off, Lord Hadrian had apparently kept his best agents following the best of Voldemort's vampires and had killed them all off in one go, as the initial feast of the gathering. Rahkesh left when they started on some of the more intricate politics and who was likely to do what, half the time he didn't understand it and the rest of the time it wasn't stuff he really wanted to hear. He'd heard enough about vampire get togethers from Moody to know he didn't want any details.
A few serpents with the right venom and there wouldn't be a vampire problem. Sygra suggested sleepily, the snake was coiled up on his pillow.
What snake's venom works on what is already dead? Rahkesh asked, even his Basilisk's gaze only gave them a dull headache, unless he really tried in which case he might manage to petrify one of the weaker vampires. A Basilsik's gaze didn't have any effect at all on any magical vampire over five centuries, unless they were ridiculously weak, in which case they wouldn't live that long.
I should think you could answer that question. Sygra reminded him gently; Rahkesh had yet to get around to working with his parselmagic. However he had started work on a book of snake species, identification methods, and anti-venoms, pulling the information from what was stored in the magics that gave him parseltongue. Rahkesh sank into one of his armchairs and called the parselmagic and began a search.
I don't think there are any. Rahkesh said finally, at least, none that would kill a vampire. Make them ill and weak maybe, and Basilisk venom would send them into a coma, but nothing that would kill them.
Pity. Sygra hissed, anything about me?
No. Rahkesh said, he had looked to his parselmagic for information on what species Sygra might be, but had found nothing. No matter how deep into a meditative trance he went, or where he searched in the parselmagic he found nothing relating to Sygra. Perhaps she was more wyvern than serpent, there wasn't anything on wyverns in the magic, despite their close relation to snakes.
A faint whistling sound caught Rahkesh's attention and he flipped open the top drawer of his desk and drew out a square sheet of woven hippocampus hair stretched onto a wooden frame. He'd waited up until almost one, despite having an early exam the next day, waiting for this. He cast a few glamour spells to make him appear more like Harry Potter and tilted the sheet to face him. Pricking his little finger on the tiny needle sticking from one corner he dabbed a drop of blood onto the center of the sheet.
A blue ripple grew outwards from the droplet and the hippocampus hair became a visual and audio two way communication device. It was one of the better methods he'd found for communicating and it utilized bloodmagic that required very fresh blood, so it would be hard for anyone to steal it and use it.
A blurry image that was probably Shacklebolt's face appeared on the hippocampus sheet, his copy was hidden on the backside of a painting in his office, and only someone who knew a little bit about bloodmagic could possibly recognize it. Bloodmagic being "dark" Rahkesh was sure no one in the Ministry would have the faintest clue what it was even if they did notice it was unusual.
Shacklebolt's face came into focus and Rahkesh examined the background behind the auror for anything unusual or any sign of distress on Shacklebolt's face, he found nothing out of the ordinary.
"Hey Harry, we were getting worried its been over two weeks." Shacklebolt said.
Rahkesh smiled, Shacklebolt and Moody had appointed themselves his unofficial guardians and checked in every few weeks. How much of their concern was for the boy-who-could-kill-Voldemort and how much was for him as a person Rahkesh hadn't asked. He suspected Moody didn't care all that much about his role in the war – merely assuming Rahkesh would do his part because Voldemort would never leave him alone, and Shacklebolt probably wouldn't know how to answer. Mostly they talked about the rapid pace of events, mostly bad, and Rahkesh sent over information his got from the vampires about their opinions and their parents opinions. Since most the Akren vampire students had parents critically involved in the vampiric community they usually knew what was going to happen and why.
Of course the Ministry never listened to Shacklebolt much, too absorbed with themselves the politicians took whatever he said and used it for their own ends, often inaccurately. But it was all on record. And a copy of every one of the records, and all other Ministry documents resided in a Gringotts vault that the goblins would never destroy. Left over from a time when the Ministry held itself accountable for everything and wouldn't allow anyone to get away with much. And that would matter in the end; they could never say they hadn't been warned.
"I was having some issues. Nothing bad, very good actually. Animagus training has been difficult." He explained quickly. Shacklebolt nodded and didn't inquire further, Rahkesh liked that about Shacklebolt and Moody, they didn't stick their noses into his life and accepted whatever he felt like telling them. If he couldn't contact them for a few weeks he had no obligation to give a reason and they wouldn't try to make him. Moody knew what Akren was like and Shacklebolt, while he might not know its name or location, had probably a good idea by now about what Harry's new school was like.
"The vampires offered us a way out with the Azkaban raid, didn't they?" Shacklebolt said.
"Yes, the only one they're going to give. It all could have stopped then. It won't now, not until it's finished." Rahkesh replied. The conversation was being recorded on his end only; Shacklebolt would put this down in the records in his own words, mostly, with the source as a well trusted informant, with a codename Rahkesh didn't know, who had never been wrong. The fact that everything this informant had said had been proven to be true would be noticed by whoever went over the records after the war. Which would certainly give Shacklebolt's career a jump, if he was still alive.
"The Ministry won't take it. They're not going to back down. Someone proposed it and other people, Umbridge and her crowd, attacked him for being a coward. They think to go back would be cowardly and weak and that we can only go forward."
"Which makes them desperate to win, they'll do anything now to avoid being wrong and losing. That makes them very dangerous." Rahkesh said, "be sure you don't advise too loudly."
"They're already angry at me for saying the intelligent thing to do would be to reconsider." Shacklebolt said with a shrug. "I'll be keeping quiet for the next few weeks."
"So they think they're stuck and the only way they can see to get out is to go to war and win at any cost. Great. Do you think Voldemort planned that?"
"What do you think?" Shacklebolt asked back with a growl. "Higher tensions, the "light" side desperate and willing to sacrifice anything, including the rights of their citizens. The ministry will become so oppressive a lot of people will welcome him and when he takes over they won't lose anything they haven't already lost. Of course he planned it. Damn good move too."
"Well he didn't get to where he is by being stupid." Rahkesh said. No, he'd done it by being very clever…but after many years as a mostly disembodied spirit exactly how much of the original brilliance and sanity remained? "Have you contacted other magical schools?"
"Yeah, they'll help. Very enthusiastic about it. There won't be a single muggleborn going to any school in Europe next year. And most of the magical students will be gone too."
"And exposed to a different way of life. There's a good chance the parents will follow their children once things get a bit worse at home. We could see a mass exodus from Europe." Moody said, coming into view behind Shacklebolt. "But we're going to need some inside help, people who know the countries involved and can speak the language."
"Working on it. Know Hermione Granger?"
"Of course, bright young witch." Moody said.
"She'll get a group together and start working in the UK, she'll contact you for help later, she's busy with her NEWTs right now."
"You got the letter she sent to you." Moody said.
"I got it." Rahkesh said, Hermione, being her usual methodical and intelligent self, had done some research and made her decision. She wanted to be in charge of working with other schools to send their students to talk to muggleborns. Organizing the whole program. Rahkesh had already recommended her to a few schools to help them get organized. She had already recruited Seamus and a handful of other students a year or two older to help. Ron however was still being an imbecile; Rahkesh would have to find time to talk with him at some point.
"Fleur and her sister send their best; they'll be working in France with some friends." Moody told him, which was what Rahkesh had been hoping for.
"I'll talk to Victor Krum, get him to get some of his Durmstrang friends involved. They're not all dark you know. Going to Durmstrang they got to see all sides and make a choice, many of them don't side with Voldemort and I know Victor doesn't."
"If you trust him." Shacklebolt said, sounding dubious about the famous seeker.
"I do." Rahkesh said, he'd only seen Victor a few times, meetings carefully arrange by Rahkesh, but they'd talked a lot and next time they met Rahkesh would run the idea past him. The team usually went out to eat at least three times wherever they were playing and Rahkesh had arranged his two previous meeting with Krum by trailing them to whatever restaurant they had chosen and signaling Krum that he was there. Better than anyone Krum understood why Harry was so careful about no one finding him and avoiding any publicity. "The Weasely twins also have friends from Durmstrang, met them during the TriWizard Tournament, they say they're reliable, from Bulgaria, Romania, Poland and Hungary."
"I've got Germany and Denmark covered. And possibly a few other places, I've called up some old friends from school and they really getting into this. Bringing in their relatives and anyone they know and trust. A couple of them have children too so the muggleborns will have younger people to vouch for places outside their homeland schools." Moody said.
"How about sending students from other schools over here, a language spell and potion combination would work well enough for a few days." Rahkesh suggested.
"We suggested that. The American and Australian schools jumped on the idea like a lion on a cripple gazelle. They're pissed off over the anti vampire and werewolf thing. And when I say pissed I mean really angry. They'll do almost anything to screw the Ministries that allowed such laws. They're making it a required part of the curriculum for the last year of schooling their students have to do. Exposure to foreign cultures class or something. An assignment in place of summer homework." Shacklebolt said, "we sent Remus to the werewolf packs and he's been an excellent middle man between the schools and us."
"Charlie Weasely is in New Zealand, he's organizing something with their schools and a few of the Indonesian ones." Moody added, "I think we've got that covered well enough." Rahkesh nodded, one less thing for him to worry about, he'd talk to Victor and hopefully there wouldn't be any crises to work out. "We should get McGonagal-"
"Way ahead of you lad, got her in on it three months ago." Moody said with a twisted grin. Rahkesh nodded with a sheepish smile, he should have guessed Moody would have thought of that a long time ago.
"Oh and I have some good news." Shacklebolt said, "my counterparts in Spain and Portugal let me know that they're Ministry's are getting ready to place official protests with the EU and the UN in a few months over the anti dark creature/magic laws. The Ministry will hopefully be too distracted by that to do much of anything. Should stall everyone."
"Excellent. How is Regulus?"
"Very well. He's got us the location of Voldemort's hide out, all the entrances and exits, and the two foundation stones the wards are attached too. He also got information from a death eater – apparently Voldemort has the cup in his rooms. Gotta love Vertisarum, truth spells and babbling potions." Moody said with a smirk. Rahkesh guessed he and Regulus were getting along very well, which was surprising since Regulus had, for a very short time, been a death eater.
"I'll leave that to you then, I'm working on a method for safely destroying the horcruxes. It is possible to destroy a soul with bloodmagic, it's way ahead of where I am but there're some good books in the library. If necessary I can bring one of the professors here in on this to help." Rahkesh said, what had happened to Saul had inspired him to try the same thing with the horcruxes, they were just pieces of a soul after all. And whatever Namach had done with Saul had completely destroyed his soul. He thought Namach would be willing to help, but he wasn't ready to talk to the ancient about it yet. If Voldemort's existence was useful to Namach then the ancient would stop him. Better to wait. "The only drawback would be that we'd need a little of Voldemort's blood."
"Which would be almost impossible to get. I'll have Regulus start thinking up ways to manage that. Perhaps we can come up with something." Moody said.
"Have you had any word from the vampire gathering?" Rahkesh asked.
"A little. They invited me to a revel but I declined, I've never been into vampiric sex parties." Moody said, drawing a disgusted look from Shacklebolt and a laugh from Rahkesh. "Lord Hadrian has his minions bringing in young muggle vampires by the score. There aren't that many vampires among the elders, but the turnout for this was better than any other gathering in the last thousand years. And they all prefer to feed from other vampires." Moody said. "Oh and Lord Hadrian served the last remaining blood from Gilgamesh." Shacklebolt, who didn't know a whole lot about vampires, turned to stare at the ex-auror in a sort of horrified disbelief.
"The reason for the high turnout no doubt." Rahkesh said dryly. Moody gave him a twisted grin. "I didn't hear about that from my friends."
"It hasn't hit the vampire newspapers, probably won't, the historians would be upset." Moody explained.
"There's speculation that all the young vampires in Europe could be wiped out within a few weeks." Rahkesh said.
"Not likely, Andrew Farov said there were several hundred vampires in England alone that don't have permission to be here and shouldn't exist. And England is pretty small. But they'll make a sizeable dent. However I can confirm that the master of Japan is going to rid the islands of every vampire whose presence he didn't approve, all of them. And the mast of South Korea is following as are the three masters of Australia." Moody said. "Anything from your end?"
"The Ateres assassins have been called to deal with every person who pushed that anti-vampire legislation through. All of them. In all of the countries, the entire clan is converging on Europe." Rahkesh said. Daray and Silas were very excited. They were hoping to join their family that summer killing off the politicians who had outlawed their kind. Rahkesh's blood went cold every time he thought of his two friends possibly ending up in his home. The less contact they had with his homeland the safer he was from being found out.
"I'll tell the coffin makers." Moody said, "you know I don't approve of killing, but if there's no other option, and the world will be better off for it, and safer…"
"You can't change all their minds. And don't say you wouldn't want to see Umbridge go."
"So long as I don't have to watch. I always wish there was some other way."
"I think the vampires are calling the shots right now, best to go along and try to calm them later. At some point they'll have to safe the public and change their opinions." Rahkesh pointed out.
"I think I'll put all this down as coming from the same source okay?" Shacklebolt said.
"Just remember no names or places or recognizable speech patterns." Moody growled. "It is true that we might just get most of the dark creature/magic laws repealed once things heat up and the assassins have finished."
"I'm working on that myself. Starting with bloodmagic and Parseltongue. Never thought I'd be glad I'm famous, but I can use my name to get attention drawn to this." Rahkesh said.
"What are you going to do?"
"Write a book. Talk to the Prophet. Did you know that the greatest healer ever, Aesculapius, was a Parselmouth? Actually as far as anyone knows he was one of the first. Most Parselmouth's have an extreme talent with healing. I'm afraid mine may have been destroyed by taking that killing curse, but the others seem to be naturally skilled."
"I didn't know that, how do you know?" Shacklebolt asked.
"There is a reason why the Greek symbol for medicine has a snake on it. That badge the mediwizards wear with a staff and serpent. One serpent is a healer, two serpents is a parselmouth healer, originally. The meaning of the symbol has been lost a long time now." Rahkesh said, "I've looked up Parselmouth alumni and talked to two of them. I'll be contacting Mungo's soon. Their two best are Parselmouths."
"You're joking." Shacklebolt said.
"Nope. And there are four other world known healers who are also Parselmouths. And the two I've spoken to are very old vampires who remember a time when Parselmouths were revered for their healing skills. There is also a memory, preserved in the vampiric records, from one of the first Parselmouths, who was also the greatest healer to ever live. Think the Prophet will go for it? I think they will, especially if I remind them that Merlin was a Parselmouth."
"Are you kidding? They'd pay for that story." Moody said, smirking, "I must remember to put a camera in Umbridge's office."
"What about the bloodmagic?" Shacklebolt asked.
"I'll just point out that many "incurable" diseases can be cured with bloodmagic as can most deformities and genetic defects including blindness and minor retardation. It can also bring people out of comas and in some cases stop the insanity caused by over exposure to the cruciatus curse. Think of all the people who know people whose lives would be better if bloodmagic had been used to save them? And that's bloodmagic using the blood of the person being helped, no human sacrifices involved." Rahkesh said. It was a mystery how such knowledge had gotten lost; one would think that people would remember something so useful. But dark wizards using sacrificial bloodmagic had turned society against all of it. It was time to change that.
"Starts off with bloodmagic and Parseltongue, goes on to other areas like using necromancy to solve murders." Moody said softly, "that's a lot like what they did in Australia and New Zealand a few decades ago, worked well there, and the British ministry condemned them for it without actually listening."
"How long will that take?" Shacklebolt asked.
"A While. I'm awfully busy and the two vampires I want to help me with the book are incommunicado at Lord Hadrian's gathering. Next year maybe." Rahkesh said. The vampires had been enthusiastic about helping to break down the phobia of anything considered "dark" by showing people that it wasn't actually evil. Once people started thinking instead of just listening to what the frightened weaklings at the Ministry told them they might reconsider vampires as well.
"Any chance it could backfire by helping Voldemort?" Shacklebolt asked.
"So long as we make it clear he uses necromancy and bloodmagic and other dark magics that do harm and require death and mass murder, make a clear distinction, it shouldn't be a problem. It should be possible to word all the newspaper articles so that it sounds like it's his and other evil wizards fault for causing so many people to miss out on the curative powers of bloodmagic. And make the Ministry seem like a truck load of idiots for not catching on." Moody said with a gleefulness that made Rahkesh snicker. The old auror seemed very enthusiastic about ruining the Ministry.
"Anything else happening?" Rahkesh asked.
"Not really. A lot of people praying for your return actually." Moody said, knowing Rahkesh hated that.
"Maybe I should just kill myself, then they'll grow their own backbone." Rahkesh muttered.
"Suicide is a cowards way out." Shacklebolt said disapprovingly.
"Usually I'd agree. However suicide is also a way of telling god "I don't like my destiny so I quit."" Rahkesh said, "and I didn't mean that. My death would make Voldemort happy, which is bad, and anyway I haven't gotten a chance to attempt the Reverse Cruelty curse on his soul yet." Shacklebolt gave him a confused look.
"The what?"
"An ingenious piece of soul magic that causes the person, once dead, to experience everything they have every done to harm, physically or emotionally, anyone else, ever. It goes through it all several times, the number of times decided by the amount of power and skill behind the curse, then lets the soul go." Rahkesh explained. It was an extremely advanced piece of magic, but he had been studying it for a few weeks and was beginning to understand the working of it a little bit. It was horribly complex but by the time all the horcruxes were destroyed he might manage to figure it all out. Soul magic that advanced required the caster to know everything about the spell they were casting from their own reasons for casting, to the origins of the magics, to the source of the information the spell used.
"Still going into soul magic eh?" Moody said.
"Yeah." Rahkesh said shortly, and didn't continue. It had occurred to him that his experience with the killing curse left him a very unique connection with death, one that would be revealed when he truly began his training. He could pass it off as his near death experience with the dragon's blood and Amadan's curse for a time, but he hadn't actually died then. The killing curse had established the connection, and such connections took time to grow. And the dragon's blood had given life as much as it had nearly taken it, which left him with only the Amadan's curse as a cover.
"Alright we'll talk later. Be careful if you decide to visit, the Ministry is looking for you." Shacklebolt said.
"Wants their little poster boy back on a leash and in a kennel." Moody muttered.
"This dog likes to bite. Send me Regulus's list of death eaters in the Ministry and I'll see what I can do. My cover won't last more than another year anyway and when it goes I'll come out in favor of the vampires. After I start publishing the stuff about Parselmouths." Rahkesh replied. "Give the Ministry something to really get upset about."
"Be careful about that, the public doesn't like vampires any more than the Ministry does." Shacklebolt said.
"I think the public would be shocked to learn that vampires give more to charity, and other good causes such as medical research, in the UK every year than the magicalhuman and werewolf populations combined. And vampires don't even need medical research themselves." Rahkesh replied. He was right, they were shocked. He had been shocked too when he found out, but then Rianae had explained that every vampire killed their victims when they were younger, before they learned to feed without killing, and many still killed accidentally. And most of them felt a little guilty about that. If putting muggle orphans through college made them feel better, they certainly had the resources. A vampire who put a few gold bricks into a bank five hundred years ago would have a substantial amount of interest built up.
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"I've got a headache starting." Silas said, looking away from the basilisk's emerald eyes. Rianae clicked the stopwatch.
"Eight minutes. You're getting better." She told the basilisk, and received a pleased hiss in reply from the green, gold, and black snake.
"Or I'm getting tired." Silas replied, "we've been at this for hours."
They were testing Rahkesh's killing gaze on the vampires. It was something basilisk's did naturally but in order to kill quickly with it he needed to practice. The vampires also got practice at brushing off the effects of the basilisk's gaze so everyone benefited. He could petrify the vampires, but that took actual conscious effort, more than the regular killing gaze did because he had to overpower their healing abilities. Rahkesh was starting to get the hang of using his gaze to kill ordinary creatures, but he hadn't attempted to petrify the vampires yet. There were mandrakes in one of the greenhouses but the potion took a few weeks to brew so they were waiting until it was almost complete before Rahkesh attempted to petrify them.
"Perhaps that's enough for today then?" Daray asked. Rahkesh hissed and began to transform. It was uncomfortable, for all that the basilisk was supposed to be his serpent reflection. The shifting hurt and his bones ached, especially his limbs as they grew back. The magical changes in his eyes and skin pulled at his strength, draining him quickly. When he was finally human again Rahkesh collapsed onto one of the transfigured couches set up in the cavern. His vision darkened and for a moment he couldn't see or hear right. Then slowly everything came back, Rahkesh pulled out a knife and drew it along the lines of some of his bloodmagic runes. The runes burned gold and magic flowed around him, slowly his head stopped spinning. Rahkesh pushed the bloodmagic back beneath the surface and the glowing lines faded.
"Well you didn't pass out this time. That's a first." Daray said.
"Only a matter of time, I'm exhausted." Rahkesh replied.
"Well you did just go from having several hundred ribs to twenty-four, and regenerated four limbs." Rianae said. "Namach said it took months of practice for the other parseltongues he knows to manage a transformation without being horribly exhausted, and none of them were basilisks."
"Two of them were, but they're both dead now." Rahkesh replied, "took them most of a year."
"They were also adults; therefore their basilisk forms were larger than yours. It shouldn't take you that long." Daray pointed out.
"Well I've had all I can handle for one day and you all have headaches so I think that's enough." Rahkesh said. "Besides I hear Tyler and Ally coming." Minutes later the two girls showed up, to find the vampires and Rahkesh working on bloodmagic homework.
Ally knew what Rahkesh's snake form was, but Tyler did not and Rahkesh had avoided telling her. No one had actually told her he was a parseltmouth; all she knew was that he had a snake animagus. And Rahkesh hoped she wouldn't guess. He might not be able to keep Harry Potter and Rahkesh Asmodaeus separate forever, but he was going to try. The vampires he had talked to about writing a book on parselmouths knew Harry Potter, not Rahkesh. He'd even faked the magical signature of his former self, quite convincingly too if the way the Ministry had gone after it the last time he'd set foot in his homeland had been any indication.
"You're going to cut your throat." Ally stated as she looked over Rahkesh's shoulder at the chronological list of what he needed to do. "Do you have a death wish?"
"It's necessary. This set is used to filter your blood and remove things like poisons." Daray said.
"It works well enough with only establishing exit points for the contaminants at the wrists but if it's a neurotoxin then it won't do you any good to have the exit points at the wrists. The blood may get to the brain before it gets to the wrists. There are an awful lot of poisons and potions that impact the brain. Therefore it is a good idea to establish exits points at the shoulder/neck junction and one on the throat, which is only used for real emergencies." Rahkesh explained. He wasn't looking forward to any of this but it was a required piece of bloodmagic.
"There aren't all that many rituals bloodmagic/necromancy students are required to complete, this is one of them." Silas said.
"Why?" Tyler asked.
"Because some necromancy summonings or other magics require you to nearly kill yourself with certain poisons, you need to be able to remove those poisons quickly. But losing a lot of blood could send you into shock when your mind is at the boundary between death and life. This filters the blood and removes only the poisons." Daray said. "It can also be used to remove blood damaged by bloodmagic mistakes, giving you a better chance of survival if you ever mess up."
"I thought you died if you messed up." Ally said.
"You usually do. This can save your life, if you don't die trying to do it." Rahkesh said. "This particular piece of bloodmagic has one of the highest death rates of any because many people vomit, faint, or drop the knife when trying to slit their wrists. If any of that happens you die. A lot of people just can't do it."
"And you think you can?" Tyler asked dubiously.
"It's easier for vampires." Daray replied.
"It'll be very difficult, but I think I can manage it." Rahkesh said.
"Can I have the invisibility cloak when you die?" Ally asked, as if he hadn't spoken.
"I charmed it to grow teeth and eat people who try to steal it…but I haven't managed to get it to let me use it yet, or anyone else. It's decided to just eat everyone." Rahkesh said, ducking his head when they all started laughing. He'd been trying to keep it safe, but the charms hadn't worked quite right and now it attacked every time he tried to use it. After being chased around his room by an invisible piece of fabric with fangs Rahkesh had locked it in his trunk and hadn't found the time to try to fix it yet. Partially because if anyone ever saw him being chased down the hall by a cloak with teeth he'd never live it down.
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Rahkesh stared down at the knife he was holding juts over his wrist, delicate swirling runes dripping a little blood from shallow cuts covered his body, along the lines of the major veins and arteries. He had to at least puncture one of the major veins, and while it had been easy to figure out which and how to minimize actually damage staring down at his wrist Rahkesh wasn't sure if he could.
He wasn't normally squeamish about anything, and he'd done bloodmagic that required some fairly nasty cuts before. It had taken him weeks to get up the nerve to do the rituals that enhanced his night vision, setting cuts to the inside of his eyelids. He'd had nightmares about it for days beforehand and afterward. This was different; this was slicing his arm open. Cuts that weren't much more than skin deep he could do with little concern or worry, they didn't bother him. This was making feel nauseous just thinking about it. He'd done his ankles; those had not been so difficult, even though he had had to cut deep to hit the vein that his instincts told him was the one he should use. Which veins exactly and where were a little different person to person.
Apart from the first bloodmagic ritual a person performed this was one of the most deadly pieces. It had to be done in a certain time span and if you moved too fast or too slow it fell apart. People often vomited or fainted, both of which meant death. Dropping the knife meant death. People usually wound up shaking form this ritual and removing the knife from your blood and flesh meant death. Cuts could not be made at an angle but had to be made perpendicular to the skin's surface, missing that meant death. The bloodmagic runes on the chamber floor were in a series of tight celtic-looking knots and circles, moving outside of them meant death, which left very little room. Rahkesh, like most bloodmagic users, diligently kept up his yoga and other flexibility exercises for rituals like this one where they had little room to move and had to remain balanced, least they fall over and die while adjusting their position to reach the veins on the back of the knees.
He would have taken a mild calming draught but this was to filter blood. His blood needed to be at its best when he did this piece. He'd been eating carefully to avoid any synthetic chemicals and not taking any sort of potion for two weeks in preparation. The healers had agreed that his blood was as good as it was going to get.
Rahkesh took a slow breath and cut as he breathed out, Namach had suggested that. It was surprisingly easy.
Rahkesh drew the knife back and slid it into the next set, tracing back up his arm and over his chest to the other side. He'd cut too deep on that one. He called on his healing bloodmagics and the wound, glowing with the magic coating him, healed quickly to the point where it was barely bleeding. He finished the left hand and went up to his shoulders. Those cuts were also easy; blood ran well from wounds to the shoulder/neck area. Then he continued to his throat.
The throat was another problem. Rahkesh had studied carefully the exact area he needed to cut and which vein he needed to hit. But that didn't make it any easier to actually do it. He was starting to feel sick again and Rahkesh realized he was shaking a little; he probably had been for some time. A mirror would have helped, but that wasn't possible, it would interfere with his connection to the bloodmagic he was weaving into himself. Finding the correct spot Rahkesh breathed out and pressed the knife it.
From then on it was easy, once his healing magics had closed the throat wound enough so that he was in no danger Rahkesh hurried through the rest of it. He went a little too fast, but he was starting to feel lightheaded from the stress and the reek of blood was beginning to awaken both the basilisk and the thunderbird. He didn't want either trying to force a transformation in the middle of a bloodmagic ritual. Rahkesh pushed them both aside, and got two waves of killing instinct, brought about the scent of so much blood, for trying. He firmly out his animagus and parsel forms aside and concentrated on not getting himself killed.
Finished the ritual Rahkesh undid the rings and patterns of bloodmagic on the floor with shaking hands. He swayed as he tried to stand, and it was only the knowledge that if he fell he would snap the remaining magic that kept him upright. Trembling and dizzy Rahkesh left the room and cleaned it quickly before sinking down onto the bench.
The door opened a few moments later and Namach walked in. Rahkesh just nodded his head to the ancient and began casting healing spells. He felt awful. His body ached and he couldn't seem to stop rubbing at his wrists and throat, just to assure themselves they were intact. All of the new runes healed he took the robe Namach handed him and managed to stand up, before nausea washed over him again, leaving him feeling weak.
"Try this." Namach said, handing him a small pill, "muggle anti-seas sickness medicine, works great for most bloodmagic rituals and doesn't interfere." Rahkesh accepted it and the cup of water.
"That only took three hours." He said finally as they walked out the door.
"It's not a time consuming one, just extraordinarily difficult, mentally. Every instinct starts screaming at you not to do it." Namach said. "Ordinarily I would suggest a dreamless sleep potion but you can't take anything even remotely magical until after you've used those runes once." Rahkesh nodded and checked the time on the clock above the door. Twenty-four hours from now he'd do the last part, drinking poison and then actually filtering it out. "Wash the blood off and get some sleep Rahkesh." Namach told him. Rahkesh nodded and changed direction. He felt awful and didn't feel like he could remain upright through a shower. Namach walked with him back to his rooms, Rahkesh probably would have been safe alone – attacking someone who had just completed a bloodmagic ritual was too dangerous, the magic tended to be uncontrolled, unsettled, and violent. No one wanted a massive combustion of out of control bloodmagic when they were in the vicinity of the person whose magic had just slipped. But there were always those willing to try anything and catching Rahkesh at a weak moment might have been a strong enough incentive for someone to risk the bloodmagic backlash. With Namach there no one was going to try anything.
"You have until two thirty tomorrow, try to get it exact Rahkesh. Missing the correct time makes it more difficult." Namach advised. Rahkesh nodded his thanks to the retreating vampire and moved quickly into his bathroom, where he had transfigured the tub into sizeable hot tub. There was no way he was going to be able to eat for a while and classes were out of the question. He spent the next four hours soaking until the residual ache from the healed veins faded away.
Filtering his blood and excreting the poisons through the portals he'd created proved to be very difficult. Once he found the substance in his blood Rahkesh had to get it to the nearest portal, but speeding up the flow of his blood was deadly so he had to work with its speed. He also couldn't make the substance change direction while his blood flowed one way. While figuring out where it was going and which portal to open he also had to magically force the poison into a "lump" rather than allowing it to spread out trough his blood.
The bloodmagic he had done the day before guided him through it, working with his healing bloodmagic to block the poison from doing any damage while pulling it into a tight bunch and directing it, eventually, out his left wrist in a stream of pure scorpion venom. Rahkesh collected it into a jar to add to the poisons he kept, and closed the portal. The bloodmagics faded away, leaving once again dizzy and exhausted.
"Was that fast enough?" He asked his one eyed albino professor.
Professor Vaeryes, who'd been observing the final part – all parts of this piece were observed because it was required – seemed very surprised that Rahkesh had managed it. He nodded and made a quick note on the form he had to fill out saying he'd seen Rahkesh use the bloodmagic system he had set up.
"Yes, very fast. The average is twenty minutes you did it in half that time." He finally admitted. Rahkesh grinned, Vaeryes had trouble saying that to his youngest upstart student. The professor gave him a curious glance and shook his head. "Namach said you were a natural. Have you had any near death experiences?"
Rahkesh blinked. Oh no. It was starting already.
"Erm, well yes. Haedil, the Amadan in our class, used that curse on me, and it didn't work." Rahkesh said finally. Vaeryes knew about that – how could he not? But Rahkesh didn't think he was in on the dragon's blood so he wasn't going to elaborate.
"Your connection to death is very strong, for you to be able to avoid it so well." Vaeryes said, "it must have been established by that curse not working properly. You'll find that very useful."
"Yeah." Rahkesh muttered, wishing he'd leave. Fortunately he wasn't the only one attempting this particular piece of bloodmagic that weekend and Vaeryes had to go observe the others as well. As soon as Vaeryes had left Daray came in, having finished his own set a few hours earlier.
"Still alive." He observed.
"Yes. Silas?"
"He's not trying that yet. He's having some difficulty decided which knife to use." Daray explained. Silas often had to work a lot harder than they did at finding the correct knife to use for his bloodmagic. It wasn't as intuitive for him as it was for them.
"He should try the old bronze one with the glass handle, the one with the scorpion encased in glass for a grip and the glass wings out along the blade." Rahkesh decided. "I think it suits him for this piece."
"I was thinking more the wooden knife myself." Daray said, referring to the only wooden bloodmagic knife in the school's possession, a relic that must have come from the late Stone Age.
"Or both. It is a symmetrical piece, use one for one side one for the other, and maybe a third knife for the throat. The wyvern wing talon one maybe." Rahkesh thought. "What poisons did they make you use?"
"Taipan venom." Daray replied, "most deadly muggle snake. I think Vaeryes may have purposefully given me too much."
"Of course he did. Expect the unexpected – isn't that the motto on his office door?" Rahkesh said, he'd been given more than he had been led to expect as well. "Anyone going to fail you think?"
"Well no one is forcing us to do this. So anyone who doesn't feel ready doesn't do it yet. It isn't required for anything this year. It's just that only people who have it can start the necromancy classes." Daray reminded him. "The werewolf, the one who attacked you and you poisoned with wolfsbane, I don't think he'll make it."
"He's trying this? He's almost failing the class." Rahkesh asked incredulously.
"Wants to prove he can I guess." Daray said with a shrug.
"I suppose we'll all be getting another lecture Monday about not trying a ritual until we're certain we're ready for it." Rahkesh said with a tired sigh. "Ten minutes really is too long to take to remove a poison. Are you going to attempt the second part someday to make it work faster?"
"Yes. Namach won't allow it until after we've taken a healing class and one necromancy class. And gotten good enough grades and proved we understand how it works." Daray said grumpily.
"That's because the last person who tried it without doing that blew up one of the bloodmagic chambers." Rahkesh reminded him, that incident had occurred a decade earlier. Namach was very protective of his bloodmagic chambers; hence the bells to call for backup should someone seem to be failing. With the older students and professors creating wards the person would still die, but the chamber would remain intact.
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Rahkesh poured the growth potions, mixed with his blood, onto the ground around the roots of the small blood tree. He had moved it to one of the Potter family estates. This one was only a small cottage in Scotland, but it was all he needed. And it had greenhouses.
Fed on growth potions and magically powerful blood the Dyalnos tree had grown very rapidly. Concerned over it being stolen, or him being killed if professor Xanthius found out he own a Dyalnos tree, Rahkesh had moved it here for safe keeping. Its bark was becoming marbled black and white, like a black and white tye-dyed shirt without any grey. The leaves were a shiny healthy blood red. Soon it would be large enough to extract some wood from it to create a new wand. A wand that was uniquely his and very powerful.
Allow no one onto the property, and if anyone should manage to get in protect the tree. He hissed softly to the four serpents at his feet. He received an acknowledgement and watched as they slipped off amongst the plants. The tree boa up into one of the huge trees, of a species he didn't know, while the rattlesnake settled on the front porch. The other two went to find places around the greenhouse or surrounding gardens. He had rescued them from a hideous muggle pet shop and given them a home here, on the condition that they protect the property. Injected with his blood they could ignore any orders from Voldemort, even if he used the parselmagic against them.
Finished with the snakes Rahkesh left the greenhouse and checked on the thestrals. They were the guardians of the property and as such there were always several on guard duty. They nodded to him and went back to their watches around the small stone cottage and fields. It was spring and the new green grasses had drawn in the entire herd to feed, along with a handful of unicorns. As he watched the thestral and unicorns Rahkesh glimpsed what he thought was a winged cat flying into the thick forest. He wished he had the time to explore all of the family properties, but at the moment he had more important things to be doing.
Rahkesh went back inside, to the workroom in the basement, and opened a bag he had brought with him. He pulled out a basilisk fang, a thunderbird feather, one of Enireth's scales, a small phial of unicorn blood –willingly given of course – a few tail hairs from unicorns, thestrals, hippogriffs, fire horses, and pegasi. Veela hair, werewolf hair, a vampire fang, an Amadan fae's hair, a baku hair, fire salamander blood, Enireth's blood, basilisk blood and venom, the thunderbird's blood, yeck fur, sygra's blood and some blood from her wyvern form, demon blood and demon scales, a tiny bit of phoenix ashes from one of the wild phoenixes, and albino eagle feather, animus bacca leaves – leaves, pearls, roots, and sap, and some phoenix tears. It was a good start. Somewhere amongst this was what he would use to create his wand, eventually.
He knew from his two forms, the thunderbird and the basilisk, that it would have at least two cores, and possibly more. Dyalnos wood wands could mix magics better than anything else, so he would probably soak the cores and the wood in several potions, what exactly he didn't know.
With the possible wand parts on a shelf Rahkesh went to work on his other project. Voldemort's hideout was in a cave. There were very deadly creatures that liked caves. And he had no more difficulty killing death eaters than he had killing the Inca who had attacked the Chachapoyaro cities. Other than creatures some of what he had learned there could be useful. Surely the death eaters didn't apparate into the underground fortress, they probably apparated to a place outside and walked in a short distance. And caves had poor ventilation, poisonous gases could kill many people beforeanyone thought to use a wind charm.
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Longer than usual chapter. Hope you like it. Please review.
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Now that I've established where the world is you can expect some real battles soon. Though most of the really good stuff, and the answers to the questions every has been asking – where's draco? When's he going to fight voldemort? When do they find out who he is? Will have to wait until Akren's summer break to be fully answered.
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You can also expect confrontations with other parselmouths soon, and maybe a few Prophet interviews.
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