Thanks so much to: laceyowens50, Bratwurst, Mippo, IcyChains7, Colin Creevey, SoGlad, Bitterglass and Uzami Kisaragi for reviewing!

Questions:

Is it fair to assume she wants to destroy all the cities first before going for the rural areas?
Actually no, usually that's how she does it but since she's more distraught now and looking for her son she's more unpredictable this time and willing to go for rural areas too

Is Hess Leebin and Molly's son?
Yes

How is Oathan pronounced? Is it like o-than, or like way-than?
Like oath-an, like the word oath

Who is your personal favorite character to write?
This is a fun question, it varies from book to book or even scene to scene and there's kind of two categories whether I enjoy writing them because I just enjoy that character a lot or whether it's because their personality and/or plotline happens to be pretty interesting like for this book one of my favorites to write has been Sly because he's just quite different to the likes of Scorpius (who obviously I write the most so I like the change of pace) and I'm looking forward to his plotline. Overall my personal favorite character is Brutus so I always look forward to his scenes but I'm tempted to give it to Varanian because he tends to get more scenes and more variety in addition to being one of my favorites. Sorry for the long answer, hope that answers your question if you're still following

"Do you think they'll listen?" Scorpius asked of Myriam after they left his home.

"I think your mother will," she answered after a moment's hesitation, "I'm not sure if she can convince the others though, or how long she'll try to. I hope she doesn't wait too long."

"Yeah," Scorpius sighed as they stopped outside the gates and she offered him her hand ready to apparate, "I feel like they'd be more inclined to listen if she did leave, I don't think my parents really want to be apart and my grandmother will probably just stay with my father."

"I hope so."

He took her hand at this and she returned them to Hogan's place, causing him to sigh heavily as he went back inside. Why did his family and his family alone have to be so stubborn? He felt like no one else had this problem, plenty of other people had family members in Gray which was even more than what he wanted from his family. He could only hope his mother could talk some sense into them.

They headed back inside where Leebin was playing Gobstones with his children, Molly was sitting a way off watching them with a strange intensity. Until she saw they'd returned and averted her eyes quickly, looking bizarrely guilty, like a child caught six feet in the air on one of the family's brooms, she then slinked back upstairs before he could say anything to her. He sighed, things were still pretty awkward between them. Before he could dwell on it further however, Lamb came into the room with his hair damp as if he'd just showered.

"Hey Ephraim, you busy?" Scorpius asked of the werewolf, moving over to him, "Feel up to taking me to see that alchemist today instead of tomorrow?"

"Um… s- sure, no pro- problem," Lamb agreed after a second of thought, "Le- Let me ju- just get my shoes a- and c- coat."

"Thanks."

Scorpius let the Leebins know he'd be going again while Lamb got ready then headed outside with him, after things had gone so poorly with his parents he didn't feel much like sitting around brooding over it or failing at apparating another fifty thousand times. Maybe talking to Rojer would get some positive to come out of today, or else he could just get all of the bad news out of the way today at least. Plus Rojer wasn't a morning person so visiting him later probably worked out better anyway.

Lamb offered one of his shaky hands and Scorpius took it, immediately feeling his body jolting as he was propelled through space. They popped back into existence and Scorpius was immediately greeted by a slap of sea spray across his face, he shuddered at the sudden sharpness of a sea breeze slinking through his skin. Blinking, he came to realize they were standing near the edge of a very short cliff, a jumbled collection of jagged rocks jutted out of the ocean beneath them which was responsible for shattering the waves and spattering them with sea spray.

"S- Sorry, d- didn't expect it t- to be so close to a cl- cl- cliff edge," Lamb said apologetically as they backed away from the edge.

"It's okay," Scorpius brushed it off, not really caring so long as they weren't in the water.

He looked around thoughtfully, seeing a small scattering of houses visible some distance away. According to the records, Rojer lived on a tiny island off the coast where there was a little fishing village. Before he could even contemplate figuring out which house would be Rojer's, he noticed even closer to them and further from the village was a tower that spiraled high above them, a lighthouse, actually, though the dark stone made it look rather grim and almost menacing for the shadow it cast across the small settlement. That one would be Rojer's, and somehow he wasn't the least bit surprised.

Scorpius approached the lighthouse with Lamb in tow, which upon closer inspection he saw had a small ramshackle house attached to it like an unwanted glob of used gum, this seemed to be the only entrance he could see though. Feeling suddenly apprehensive, Scorpius took a breath and rapped on the dull, depressed wood of the door. To his surprise, his knock started to echo inside the house and continued even after he stopped, he could hear it bouncing off the walls and only growing louder by the second.

Abruptly it stopped and the door swung open, putting him face to face with the old alchemist. Not that he looked anywhere near as old was he should by virtue of being the son of the Ashain's ancestor, Ashylos. Also because of that he had the same dark chestnut eye and extremely dark auburn hair that ran strong through the Ashain bloodline, though the hair color was more faded it was still thick and wavy.

"Greeting Scorpius…" Rojer greeted them in his accented voice, his expression sour as his sharp eyes skimmed across him then Lamb, "…and friend."

"This is Ephraim Lamb, he was apparating me here," Scorpius admitted, shameful of the fact he still couldn't do it and suddenly very conscious of the fact he didn't really want Lamb to be privy to the conversation.

"I- It's ok- okay, I kn- know you don't w- want me t- to be here," Lamb said, apparently also picking up on this, "I c- can jus- just leave and c- come back in a f- few hours if y- you want?"

"That'd be perfect," Scorpius offered with relief, "Thank you, Ephraim, I'll see you later."

"S- S- See you," Lamb offered stepping back and disapparating on the spot, Scorpius turned back to Rojer.

"I have a lot I need to talk to you about."

"You are always have a lot you need to talk to me about," Rojer complained with a roll of his eyes as he stepped aside to allow Scorpius entry, "I don't suppose one of them is that finally are ready to have relinquish the soul?"

"Um… no," Scorpius admitted as he went inside, "I mean I would like to talk about it but I'm still going to save him."

"You're mad, Scorpius."

Rojer's statement was punctuated by the slam of the door behind him, though Scorpius' eyes had already started traveling over the interior of Rojer's house. To his right there was just a large open plan kitchen and dining area featuring a very chunky dining table that could handle far more than the four spindly chairs scattered around it, both that and the withered looking kitchen cabinets gave the impression of having been there before Rojer moved in. Ahead was the spiral staircase leading up into the lighthouse and to the left was an alcove with a built in shelf, upon which was an empty gift basket and a handful of thank you cards.

"What did you do?" Scorpius wondered curiously as Rojer started limping across the flagged stone steps towards the stairs, gesturing for him to follow.

"Just help the village people," Rojer shrugged, "Since the reveal of magic they ask if I am a wizard so I say I am and have done some errands for them, usually cure ailments that are minor. I tell them it is not necessary but some are still do give me thanks, they have nice people. Be ready."

Rojer stopped on the steps after only going a few up, causing Scorpius to also stop. He opened his mouth to ask what he meant but the alchemist had snapped his fingers, causing the spiral staircase to come to life. Scorpius barely managed to maintain his balance as the staircase started moving, swiveling upwards far faster than the headmaster's one in Hogwarts and it stopped almost as unexpectedly on the first floor of the light house though the stairs continued up.

Somewhat unsurprisingly, it was an alchemist laboratory. The brick walls were lined with shelves filled with vials and tubs labeled with non-English words, buckets bursting with potion ingredients and spare cauldrons. Several tables were scattered across the room, bubbling cauldrons and more pots of ingredients strewn across them. There was also a large cushy couch nestled by the wall, smaller end tables were on either end with an elaborate playing card palace on one and a half-done structure made of toothpicks on the other. Opposite the couch was a tapestry depicting some kind of phoenix rising into an elaborate decorative sun, there were also two arched windows perpendicular to that. The floor was surprisingly covered by a thick, dark shag carpet and as Rojer moved into the room, Scorpius realized the ceiling was charmed rather beautifully to look like a night sky filled with stars.

Pretty

"So what is it you want, Scorpius?" Rojer asked disinterestedly, pulling Scorpius' mind away from admiring the ceiling stars. Looking back, he saw Rojer waving his wand lazily at one of the cauldrons to take it off heat as he approached another one.

"You just want to get right to it?" Scorpius wondered as Rojer threw some of the ingredients into the pot still bubbling and stirred it with another twirl of his wand.

"Yes, I do not have all of the day. Well, I do but I do not want to waste all of the day with you unless you have want to see sense about the soul," Rojer told him bluntly, abandoning the cauldron to hobble over to the couch, "Go bug Rayan if you want a nice chat and a cup of tea, he and his wife is in one of those shelters by the ministry and knows most of what I know, I do not have this tea."

"I don't need tea," Scorpius admitted, going over and pulling out a stool at one of the tables to sit on, "Why haven't you gone to the shelters?"

"Are you jesting me? I would go mental being trapped in the one place by the government," Rojer snorted irritably, slumping down on the couch and carefully throwing his legs up, one of which was badly crippled reminding Scorpius sharply of Antonius, "If I die I die, I don't mind so much, I need to have things to do. Besides, lots of the village people are fishering as a food supply line so I have use to be here to look out for them."

"This is kind of unrelated to anything I was going to talk about but do you remember my friend, Antonius?" Scorpius asked, watching Rojer withdrawing a multi-colored plastic-looking cube from his worn dark-colored robes as he was talking without sparing him a glance.

"The Ashain child," Rojer stated disinterestedly as he started fiddling with the cube, he liked to keep his hands busy Scorpius recalled.

"Yeah. He was… injured recently, his leg's pretty messed up and he's upset about it, he'll need a cane I think. I just wondered if…" Scorpius hesitated slightly, concerned maybe this was a bit too personal, "… if you had any advice for him? I mean you might be able to relate."

"Is he in horrible pain?"

"Well… no, I don't think so."

"Then tell him to be grateful he is not in horrible pain."

"I don't know if that'll really help…"

"Then do not ask me these stupid questions," Rojer shrugged dismissively, his focus still on the multi-colored cube, "What was this you really wanted? Something about the soul you stupidly have refusal to relinquish because of your insanity. Just go on and get this over with then I can go back to waiting for this war to have end."

"Okay," Scorpius said and took another nervous breath, "I've been hearing his voice, Calderon's, the man whose soul is bound to me."

"I told you this," Rojer complained with a roll of his eyes, still entirely focused on twisting the colored cube in his hands, "Do you not listen to the things I say? I told you as the barrier breaks down the more effects will have for you including the voice."

"Yeah but I can't interact with him, at least I haven't been able to so far. He just comments on things occasionally and sometimes seems to recognize me but if I try to talk to him it doesn't really work, why is it like this? Obviously I'd really prefer to be able to talk to him, to explain to him what's going on," Scorpius continued, feeling more emotional the more he talked and it occurred to me he hadn't actually realized how much he did want to be able to explain it to him, he heard Rojer sigh but continued regardless, "And then I've also noticed… well it's like he has an effect on me, I accidentally called someone by a nickname only Calderon used and sometimes it's like my feelings or thoughts aren't my own, it isn't how I would feel or think but how he would and it's a bit disconcerting."

"Scorpius, this is all normal," Rojer told him with absolute bluntness, sparing him a glance for the first time in a while, "The barrier I put up is what causes this, it separated your two souls and by doing so locked Calderon away for the own protection of you both. At first he wouldn't be aware but as the barrier is breaking inevitably as the time goes he will have more of these awareness and this has probably been happening for longer than you have known of it, you are not hearing his voices though but his thoughts that he is thinking as he drifts in and out of the consciousness seeing through your eyes. It is probably quite confusing for him, your life is like fragments of half-remembering dreams and the reality for him is to feel pain in a paralyzed in a body he can't control over so the less awareness is actually better for him because the worse it will be and the worse it will get if you do not release his soul."

"Or until I save him."

"He cannot be saved, he can just die in peace or have his soul destroyed in this slow torture," Rojer snapped harshly, "In time maybe he will have consciousness for longer for you to speak to him and he would probably have agree with me, no one wants their own soul to be like this. But I have doubts you can speak to him because the more the barrier is breaking the more his soul bleeds into your soul through the breaking, this is why you feel the effects of him and it probably is having more of the effect than you can realize, his feelings bleed into you just like his thoughts bleed into you and as the blood is mixed it is harder to differentiate and tell whose is whose. This will only get worse as the barrier breaks more and you are both losing yourselves, both losing your souls as they are burning up."

"So there's no way to talk to him?"

"No."

"Is there any way to stop this?" Scorpius asked and swallowed, not sure whether he should really be pleased or not to know what he'd been experiencing was normal in this situation, "Besides the obvious."

"No, you need to release his soul and let him go. There is nothing more than can be done."

"Maybe…" Scorpius mused and decided this would be a good time to segue into his theory on Savas' journal, "I had a thought recently about how to decode Savas' journal."

"Scorpius, you have intelligence but more advanced decoders than you have tried and failed," Rojer pointed out as Scorpius got to his feet, pulling out his pocket watch to show him.

"They didn't have this though," Scorpius offered as he approached the alchemist, holding the watch out to him. Rojer peered at it for a moment curiously before gently putting down the cube to take the watch instead, "It belonged to Savas. Check out the inscription."

"Per sanguinem, et vivat in aeternum," Rojer recited, his spidery fingers brushing over the cool metal.

"Do you know what it means?" Scorpius asked and Rojer's brow furrowed, though whether it was in annoyance or in concentration – or both – he wasn't sure.

"During the blood… and live forever?"

"Close, it-"

"I hate languages," Rojer spat out irritably, offering him back the pocket watch.

"It means through blood, we live forever," Scorpius explained as he took back the watch.

"Sounds like something he would say."

"Exactly and he's so obsessed with blood that I think it could be the key to decrypting his journal-"

"This is a good thought but blood magic has already been tried," Rojer interjected, picking up his multi-colored cube again and starting to twist it, "It did not work."

"But did they try it with blood from a blood relative of Savas?" Scorpius questioned and Rojer paused mid-swivel of the cube, his dark chestnut eyes slinking to him thoughtfully, "He was very hung up on the idea of blood shaping you, to the point even his son was paranoid about bad blood because of it."

"This is… possible," Rojer admitted after a very long minute of thought, slowly going back to his cube, "It has not been tried but this does have problems for you, Scorpius."

"What do you mean?"

"Well unlike most decryptions, because of the depth of the blood magic it would not be carried onto a copy. If this does work then it would have to work on the original notes, not a copy."

"Where's the original?"

"I don't know, it was last known in the possession of his son, Enoch, whether it was destroyed or where it ended up after his death I would not know. The only person who would is your friend."

"I doubt he would know, he doesn't even know about being related to Savas," Scorpius pointed out, stepping back and settling back onto the stool as his concern for Varanian swam to the forefront of his mind.

"He doesn't necessarily have to know that, at the very least just to know what happened to the possessions of Enoch."

"Maybe but… I don't really want to bother him right now, he's kind of going through a lot."

"Scorpius," Rojer gave a derisive snort and rolled his eyes, his focus remained on the cube though, "He is the last of the blood relatives of Savas, unless you know of something I do not know, how do you expect to try unlock the code with his blood if you do not tell him?"

"I don't know," Scorpius admitted with sad sigh.

He was not keen on telling Varanian that he was related to one of the most notorious serial killers to ever live. Especially not in his current explosively grief-stricken mental state, and then it could all be for nothing. If he was wrong about unlocking the journal then he'd be upsetting Varanian for nothing, or even if he was right there was no guarantee that Savas' secret information would even be helpful for his situation. He'd have to give it some thought before he decided to cross that bridge, maybe wait until Varanian was in a better mental state?

"Was this all?" Rojer asked, snapping Scorpius back form the thoughts he hadn't realized he'd lapsed into.

"No," Scorpius confirmed, shifting on his stool and steeling himself up because this was one was probably going to require some explanation, "Have you ever heard of Tethering?"

"Tethering? The Celtic thing?" Rojer repeated, looking up from his cube as his brow furrowed from scouring his memories. Scorpius nodded, remembering what Brutus had said about it, "What about this?"

"So, it's kind of a long story…"

Ephraim Lamb left Scorpius with the alchemist and nervously disapparated, as tempted as he was to just go back to Hogan's place to kill a few hours there was something he had to do first. This was why he popped up on the outskirts of a small town in Devon, the one where his in-laws lived… with his daughter. He could've just gone straight there of course but he was nervous, he could use a stroll through town to psyche himself up. Assuming they were still here, it'd be great if he didn't even have to talk to them and they were already in the shelters.

It was actually a very pleasant day he noticed as he began to walk, the sky was a brilliant shade of blue and the sun's warm rays were beating down on him, figures the one time the UK had a good summer the world was ending. He sighed and let his eyes drift idly around the pleasant town, it seemed both unchanged but also… emptier? There seemed to be less cars and fewer people, though still enough to catch a few curious looks. His wrist was twirling unhelpfully so he shoved his hands into his pockets, he could still feel it twitching but he should hopefully draw less attention now. He'd been spoiled by Gray, they didn't give him strange looks.

He'd been spoiled by them in a lot of ways actually, clothing, showers, food, shelter… he just hoped his nightmares didn't disturb the others too much. It was very different to life as a transient drunk lowlife and all he had to do in exchange was apparate Scorpius around without asking too many questions, it hardly seem like enough and he was sure once Scorpius learned to apparate he'd be kicked out of Gray for outliving his usefulness. He was dreading that day, he was trying to find other ways to be useful but he wasn't very smart and he was inconsistently mediocre with magic depending on how much his nerves felt like functioning at that particular moment, Defense Against the Dark Arts – especially dueling - had hardly been one of his best subjects anyway because he never really wanted to hurt anyone. Still he was keen to help no matter what it took, if he couldn't see his daughter then he could at least fight for her to actually have a world to grow up in.

Ding, dong

Lamb's ears twitched at the sound of church bells, very close sounding church bells at that and looking around he quickly spotted the bell tower peeping out above the normal rooves. He found his feet meandering towards it as the sound soaked into his mind, he'd used to find the sound comforting as a reminder that no matter what happened, God was the one constant. That had changed after his transformation when hearing it just gave him pangs of guilt for forsaking church, not because he stopped believing but just because he didn't feel worthy, he half expected to burst into flames just for trying to set his unholy feet on hallowed ground. He knew it was irrational and likely unequivocally false, after all it surely would've been taught in school if churches were safe havens against werewolves but… he couldn't stop feeling like he didn't deserve to be there. And now?

He stopped outside the church, just an old quaint small town one not nearly as grand as the Cathedrals he'd grown up with but that didn't matter. As a child going to church was pretty much the only time his adoptive parents let him leave the house so he had treasured it dearly, his displays of magic had made think he was possessed and as such they'd sequestered him away from the rest of the world save for the priests hired to exorcise him. He'd been so relieved the day the Hogwarts representative had come and explained that he was a wizard, that his magic was normal and not demonic or evil but his adoptive parents… they'd just taken it as a sign he was beyond salvation, requesting he be taken away and never brought back. And so he never saw them again, though ironically that wasn't even the only parental rejection he'd faced.

When he came of age he'd been allowed to send a letter to his birth mother through the ministry, he'd agonized over exactly what to put in it for months and desperately tried to convince Eileen to write it for him because she was so much better with words and had beautiful handwriting, he'd just wanted to make a good first impression but Eileen had insisted it was something he needed to do himself. After finally sending it, he received only a very short reply back politely requesting he never contact her again and briefly explaining he was a child of rape when she was a teenager so she had no desire to know him. He understood her position and obviously respected her wishes but… that didn't mean it didn't hurt. He regretted ever contacting her, she had already given him once at birth and to his understanding his birth father had been a Death Eater so it had probably been foolish to expect anything good to come of it anyway.

Still, he bore no will towards any of his parents – except maybe his birth father, screw that guy – he hoped his adoptive parents could overcome their prejudice enough to stay safe in a shelter and that his whoever his birth mother was she was also smart enough to go to one, assuming they were still in the country… and that they were still alive, he could only pray that none of them had fallen victim to the Shadows. He could pray for a lot of people right now actually, the whole world needed it.

His eyes twitched to the church again, maybe now was the time he could finally go in. He was sober now and he was actually doing something worthwhile with his life for once, he was helping and he had faith in Scorpius even if he didn't like telling him much, so what if he was a werewolf? There were plenty of werewolves who were still good people, Gray had loads. His fear was irrational, irrational.

He swallowed and nervously started approaching the church, his legs wobbling uncertainly as he slowly climbed the steps with the echoes of the bells reverberating in his mind. The door stood tall before him, an arched door with old grainy wood peeling away and thick iron rings hung as ancient handles standing guard for centuries. He pulled his hands from his pockets, balled into determined fists and unclenched them. Steeling himself, he raised his right hand and reached for the door, he watching his trembling hand slowly getting closer and…

He froze as he caught sight of the scars on his hand, scars he'd inflicted on himself during his transformations. It confused the healers, werewolves didn't tend hurt themselves as much on Wolfsbane but he'd consistently turned the ferocity he felt as a werewolf into trying to tear himself apart. He stared at the ugly scars, coiling around his flesh like maggots as his memories shifted to times as the wolf, the feel of the crimson liquid dripping off his fingers and the coppery taste of his wife's blood thick in his throat. He jolted his hand away as if the iron had burned him, breathing heavily.

No, he still was unworthy to go in there.

Lamb backed away, returning his hands to his pockets as he skittered away from the church with his head hung low. It had been stupid to even consider going inside, so what if he was helping Gray now? It didn't change anything, it didn't change what he'd done or what he was: a monster.

He kept walking and picked his eyes up, trying to look around at the town and focus on the heat from the sun on his face, letting the memories recede into his mind where they couldn't hurt him anymore. He had gotten better at avoiding the nightmares when he was awake, trying to focus on real life helped in stopping them from swallowing him and they'd gotten less frequent, he wasn't sure if it was because of this or from time or because of the alcohol.

Speaking of alcohol, he was coming upon a pub bearing a faded flapping sign reading 'The Coach and Horses' with a painted picture of a horse and cart. It was actually busier than most of the town had been, he could hear the thrum of conversation overflowing out the door and a couple of people were actually seated at tables outside. He supposed he shouldn't really be surprised, of course there were going to be people just wanting to drown in a beer glass to get away from the world burning down around them. He was one of them, or at least he used to be.

His feet were continuing to walk past it, not letting his mind dwell too much on the temptation. As nice as it would be to wash the taste of Eileen's blood out of his mouth for a while and bleach his mind of his troubles, he also found that… well, he didn't want that. He wanted to help, he wanted to be as reliable and useful to Gray as he could be, fighting the Shadows was only the most important thing ever. Even outside of that he just… he just didn't want to be that person anymore, he hadn't for a while but Gray had given him the perfect purpose to finally pull himself away from that so he was going to cling to that with both of his worthless shaky hands as hard as he could and not let go.

He let out a relieved breath that he hadn't realized he'd been holding after he had passed successfully by the pub, he was still kinda afraid of relapsing though rejecting Michael's offer recently had made him feel more confident in himself and now he'd avoided it once again. That was good, he would need to muster all the confidence he could before speaking to his in-laws.

Lamb found his way more briskly to his in-laws' house to try hold onto that determination while he had it, less than five minutes later he was facing the picturesque thatched roof cottage, ivy lacing the right wall. He swallowed and without further hesitation, strode up to the door and knocked as hard as he could with minimal difficulty as his hand was still twitching. He bit his lip for a minute and waited, his ears twitching as the subtle sounds of movement came from inside gave way to footsteps and finally the door swung open, putting him face to face with his father-in-law.

"Lamb?" Mark Acres questioned in surprise that quickly shifted to a scowl, he didn't understand why they refused to call him by his first name. The older man hadn't changed much since he'd last seen him, he was plump with broad shoulders and balding gray hair, Lamb wouldn't necessarily describe the man as short but he was definitely shorter than him, "What are you doing here? I told you that you can't see her-"

"I'm not he- here to s- s- see her," Lamb interjected quickly, causing the puzzlement to return, "I jus- just w- wanted to talk t- to you."

"About what?"

"About what o- on E- Earth you're st- still doing h- here instead of ta- taking El- Elara t- to one of the Ministry shel- shelters," Lamb hissed, his tone far firmer than his voice was used to but for once he felt like he was right, he almost felt… angry? They were supposed to be keeping her safe, if they were going to deny him custody or even any contact then the least they could do was make sure she was protected, "I- It's not l- like you have a pro- problem with the Mi- Ministry so w- why not g- go to them?"

"And leave our home to be looted?" Mark scoffed, gesturing to the house behind him, Lamb's jaw unhinged at the incredulity.

"Y- You're worried ab- about your house? L- L- London was l- levelled t- to th- the ground!"

"Yeah but-" Mark started to say but cut himself off looking over Lamb's shoulder, he glanced back and saw some woman walking by, "Look, why don't we discuss this inside? Dorothea took Elara to the park."

Lamb nodded, seeing no reason to object and Mark stepped aside to allow him to enter into the foyer for the first time in several years. There were doors to the right and left leading to the living room and dining room, there was a narrow staircase leading upstairs sharing the hall with the corridor leading into the kitchen at the back. Mark closed the door behind him, leaving it much darker in the foyer due to the lack of windows plentiful through the rest of the house, he blinked a few times to let his eyes adjust to the gloom after being out in the bright sunshine.

They settled on a photograph sitting on an end table beside the door, he picked it up without thinking. It was the first time he'd seen a picture of his wife, Eileen, since her death, she smiled gently at him back from the frozen muggle photograph looking exactly as he remembered her. Milky skin marred by a lattice of scars on her right cheek trailing down her neck from a school fire when she was very young, barely visible in this photo from her light brown curls covering it. His heart twinged painfully and he put the photo face down, not ready to face looking at her again. Though the large vacant space behind her to the left didn't go unnoticed, he used to be in that picture.

"So you were saying?" Mark questioned and Lamb turned back around to face him.

"I w- was saying y- you need to go t- t- to the shelters," Lamb insisted, refocusing back to his point, "I- It's ch- chaos out th- there a- and Elara n- needs to b- be safe, w- worrying ab- about looting is just… i- it's just s- silly."

"Lamb, you may find this hard to understand since you're homeless and all but some of us care about our properties. And you may also not understand this either since you don't know anything about children but they need stability, you really expect us to drag Elara from her home to hide underground? She'd be terrified, she's too young for this."

"S- So c- comfort her," Lamb pointed out feeling it was obvious as he thought of the Leebin kids who were doing quite well considering everything they'd been through,, if they could be okay then surely Elara could, "The Sh- Shadows d- don't care how y- y- young she is, th- they w- won't sp- spare her, l- look at wh- what happened to Lon- London an- and-"

"Cities, Lamb!" Mark cut him off irritably, gesturing wildly, "What's happening is terrible but that's only going to affect the big cities, you may be too stupid to get this but if you want to take over a country you need to target the big cities not the small rural towns. The war's not going to reach us the way it will to the cities- you really think I can't see what your angle is here?"

"My an- angle?"

"Yes, clearly you're leeching off these shelters now which is why you're all cleaned up and you're just trying to scare us into taking Elara there so you can try to see her."

"What?" Lamb spluttered out in shock, "Th- That's wr- wrong on so m- many levels, I- I'm not tr- trying to do tha- that and I'm n- n- not even in a sh- shelter, I w- wouldn't tr- try to d- do that any- anyway."

"Oh really?" Mark questioned, his word soaking in sarcasm as he folded his arms, "Where have you been then? Why do you expect us to go to a shelter when it isn't even good enough for you?

"B- Because I ju- just want m- my d- daughter to be safe, I don't c- c- care what h- happens t- to myself," Lamb answered with sincerity as he tried to figure out an answer to the first question, he could hardly tell them he was in Gray but he struggled to think of a viable alternative, "A- As to wh- where I've b- been I- I j- just k- kinda got work, I g- get room and b- board in exchange for s- s- some errands."

"And you expect me to believe that?"

"G- Go to a shelter and s- see how m- much I'm not there i- if y- you don't b- believe me."

"No," Mark scoffed stubbornly, "Maybe we'll rethink our position if the war gets worse but for now we just see no reason to uproot Elara's life."

"An- And wh- when will y- you rethink your position? When th- the Shadows a- are on t- top o- of you?" Lamb couldn't help but bark out bitterly, "I- It'll be too l- l- late by then."

"We know what we're doing, Lamb, I'm sorry that you're too stupid to see it," Mark informed him strictly as he opened the door for him, Lamb felt his heart clench hopelessly at the thought of failing convincing Mark to get his daughter to safety, "And I think this conversation has gone on long enough, I'd invite you to leave."

"C- Can I a- at least p- p- put up an ench- enchantment?" Lamb asked as one last final effort, "T- To al- alert me i- if this h- house g- gets under attack? Th- That way at l- least I can get h- help if s- s- something happens?"

"If it'll get to go then fine," Mark said with an irritated roll of his eyes, his voice still sharp and his eyes still disapproving but Lamb felt his heart unclench a little, "Just be quick about it, they should be back soon."

"Th- Thank you, M- Mark."

"So what do you think?" Scorpius asked of Rojer when he was finished explaining about his return from the dead, what Brutus had told him about Tethering and his suspicions about the immortality as well as providing some more detail on his experience with the Blood Runes and his revival of the Shadow Master when prompted by Rojer. The alchemist's face had been as unreadable as ever as his solemn eyes drifted between him and the cube, which he put away once all the faces were all the same color.

"I think you have maybe to give me more than three seconds to think about it," Rojer complained sharply, rubbing at this temple.

"Sorry," Scorpius muttered guiltily.

"But I do think this Brutus is walking on the right path with the immortality being the combination of magics, which is unfortunately much more tricky to have figure out and will probably have to rely a lot on guesswork. The rune glowing in death is not without meaning and runes themselves are not without power, I believe this to be possible that the Tethering tapped into this power especially when both of the magics seek blood. How exactly this is I do not know but this is complicated magics so I suspect there has to be more to it, magical connections run deep. However this is not hopeless, Brutus has given up too quickly to say this."

"You really think so?" Scorpius wondered, a bubble of hope rising in his chest.

"Well yes, how can you have decide this is hopeless when we don't even have a full understanding of what this even is? What is done can often be undone, lots of old magic just seems permanence because we have forgotten how it was, my father would say this and he actually lived through all this history so I am inclined to have belief in him. It is a shame is he not here," Rojer continued seriously, his gaze still not focused on him as he stared off with brows knitted in thought, "Of course it is possible also that Brutus is correct and this is one of what cannot be undone but we need to have more research to know of this one way or the other, I have awareness of these things but not the expertise."

"Well research isn't going to be easy right now," Scorpius pointed out, thinking of the fact Hogwarts - with its extensive library – was in Shadow hands now, they also had taken Hogsmeade and destroyed London which were the two biggest magical communities in the country that he knew of.

"I am sure I have reference of them in my library upstairs about Blood Runes and I know I do have about Tethering, places with books still exist in this darker times."

"Could I read them?"

"Not unless you can read languages besides this English," Rojer said with a derisive snort, actually sparing him an almost amused glance as Scorpius deflated, "I thought not, most of my books are not of English so I will see what I can find out and get this back to you. Was this all now?"

"One last thing," Scorpius admitted, his mind having to shift gears quickly at the change in topic which had Rojer roll his eyes, "There's a Specter merged with a muggle human, they would like to be separate entities or they will not help us, the Specter part wants its own body. We're struggling to think of how to do this though so I thought you might know."

"Now this I can have actually help you with."

"Really?"

"Even you should know to do this yourself," Rojer insisted, leaning comfortably back in his chair and Scorpius frowned as he thought for a moment.

"You think the Resurrection spell could be adapted for this to give the Specter a body?"

"Yes, I could do this."

"But…" Scorpius hesitated, thinking of Lucy dying after Molly separated her, "What about the human? Won't he die without the Specter?"

"Of course he will die," Rojer confirmed readily and Scorpius felt his heart sinking again, "It is already too late for this man, it was always too late for this man. Souls are not to be trifled with light, we all have known this, and this is worse for muggles because they lack the natural resilience that our magic gives to us. He will die without this Specter, as soon as he bound to it this was already over for him."

"So it's hopeless then?"

"Why do you think death is hopeless, Scorpius?" Rojer asked him seriously and Scorpius looked up, feeling like the question was too stupid to answer, "He will die but he will die as he was as a man, without the shadow of darkness tainting his mind or his heart. His soul may be irreparably damaged but with this way at least he would still have some of a soul left, this is the best he can have hope for. Death is not the best of things but it also not the worst of things, you have got to learn of this and to learn when is the time to let go."

"I'll think about it," Scorpius muttered begrudgingly.