Chap 5.3

I felt a fuzz of magical static run over my carapace and set my already bushy hair to flying as I entered the fortress. Suddenly I could hear all sorts of guttural voices speaking and shouting. A word here and there seemed vaguely familiar despite never having heard the language before. The gist I got though was that they were celebrating something.

Already pungent smells had grown stronger, mixed now with the scent of campfires and alcohol. It was obvious I'd passed through some sort of magical veil. It wasn't perfect and lacked some of the redirection power seen in many such wards in my world but if it covered the entire fortress it was truly vast. Not an undertaking for any single witch or wizard unless they had more magical power and skill than the creature in the field had shown. I couldn't discount the possibility I was in danger here though. The elfs had already shown surprising agility and building skill and there was no telling what other surprises this world might hold.

But that was why I was here. That was why I'd gone to Hogwarts instead of shooting for a doctorate by age twenty-two like I'd originally planned. Because I didn't particularly like where I lived or the life I was living and I was desperate to find something else, something more. The wizarding world had disappointed me with its backwardness and misplaced pride but I still had high hopes here.

I continued down a winding path between walls and fallen rubble, keen hearing checking to see if the coast was clear before I turned each corner. The moon and stars seemed darker here, though I wasn't sure if that was due to the veil or the glow of dozens of campfires. Without knowing all that dwelled here I wasn't confident I'd be overlooked by whatever I might come across though. I wished I was better with smells. My sense of smell was plenty strong these days but I was complete garbage about picking out what they all meant. At least I had my wand and a big wooden staff to hit stuff with if I ran into something unfriendly. And eight legs with extendable claws and more strength by far than an average human girl. Shame that my soul-sight didn't work well through walls though.

I found my answer to what lived in this fortress through a window that was once a solid wall. Whether for good or for ill they looked nothing like the magic-wielding creature I'd met in the field. At least I could hold onto the hope that he was a transfigured troll incapable of human speech a while longer. But that wasn't to say the denizens of this place were any more pleasant looking. Frankly between the ritual and non-ritual scarring, excessive piercings, battle paint and dirt, they were perhaps the ugliest humanoids she'd seen - and that was saying something. Their wolf-like companions were quite fugly as well.

I didn't stare long. My caramel-colored skin stuck out in the night less than my old pale shade of white had but I was far from invisible. It was enough time though to note that there were no females amongst the crowd. Not unless the females of their race were significantly different than I was used to seeing in humanoids anyways. I was tempted to go and see if their womenfolk were having their own party somewhere else but I had good reason to believe they weren't anywhere nearby. Judging by all the weapons and primitive armor they were wearing it was far more likely this was some sort of war band. Given the run-down appearance of the fortress it was unlikely they were the original builders but instead just camping for protection for the night before hitting their true objective.

I was a bit disappointed to find war here in Arda but not completely surprised. Even in another dimension some things stayed the same. It would be best to clear out before they misplaced their directions my way, I felt. I wasn't sure what their attitudes were as a species or society but I had enough common sense to know that trying to make first contact with a bunch of young, drunk males with no women or seniors to temper them was a terrible idea. Wasn't a huge fan of getting attacked by fugly wolves a few dozen (hundred?) generations from proper domestication either.

I backtracked towards the entrance but soon realized I must have made a wrong turn. I'd gotten rather laissez faire about getting lost when I had a time turner to make up any delays. I'd have to correct that habit that now that I no longer had that treasured device.

A glimmer drew me out of longing for the hourglass. A glimmer that swiftly became a flame as I approached. I halted as I realized that it wasn't a physical flame but an immensely powerful soul. I had yet to see what a human (magical or not) looked like with this sight thanks to my use of polyjuice but I could say with certainty that it was brighter and larger than any creature I'd seen in Arda. The only thing similar was the manlike creature that attacked me in the field.

My curiosity and guilt forbade me from leaving without investigating the owner of the soul. Fear kept me from approaching. Would I respond as I had with the other? Even through a foot-thick wall I felt tempted to eat it, stomach utterly unconcerned that it was inside a living being. 'I can control this,' I told myself. It was different than before. I'd been hungry then, injured and confused by the sudden attack and unused to the delicious sight of souls. I was confident I wouldn't eat this one… at least if I didn't get too close.

I kept to the shadows, wary of being immediately attacked again. When I laid eyes upon him he wasn't at all what I expected. There was a fair degree of filth upon him like the other strong-souled creature and a degree of madness if the way he was talking to that moth meant anything but in terms of stature the difference was night and day. He was tall, grey-haired, and all too human in appearance. Only the fact that he was in a cage gave me some hope that he and his kind were all terrible criminals.

If he was in fact human it said things about the nature of this planet. It seemed unlikely that humans would develop on two random worlds. The possibility that Arda was in a parallel reality or some point in this distant past was a strong one.

'Do the souls of all magic users - or humans for that matter - look like this?' It was a frightening thought. Learning to cloak my darker skin would avail me little if I was surrounded by temptation. I'd have to use polyjuice unceasingly to keep myself and everyone around myself safe, no matter how uncomfortable it was to be stuck in a body too small for me.

I drifted closer, eight legs stepping carefully through the rubble. For all that his physical body was dirty and worn-down, the sight of his soul burning in the night was a fantastic sight. They seemed so powerful that his skin could scarce contain his soul's majesty. But it did not go unchallenged. There was a dark fog in these ruins that seemed to try and smother his flames, but they held back against the darkness. It was an interesting balance of counterpoints, each force made more visible by the presence of the other. But I knew it wouldn't last. Fires did not burn forever and the dark would take him in the end. Sooner, I suspected, rather than later.

At least… unless I did something about it. I didn't know him, didn't know if he deserved to be in that cage, but it felt like an opportunity to assuage at least a modicum of my guilt. Even if it had largely been in self defense I'd killed one of his kind and so the least I could do was free this one. Or, perhaps, give him the way to free himself. I still wasn't sure he was human, appearances aside, but I was pretty sure he could use magic. Might as well see what his kind could do when it wasn't aimed at me.