CHAPTER SIX

Everything was blank, so white you could not be sure whether the space expanded far and wide or would only allow a few steps. The vast nothingness of it all made it easy for her to see him, he was a little way from her looking around the space contemplatively.

"Hello," she murmured, startling him.

"Who are you?" He hissed, confirming that he was who she had guessed he was.

"Well Riddle," his red eyes flashed in surprised at the address, "I am you, or at least I am your host."

"But you're a girl," he informed her sounding the age he looked. "Why would I be hosted in a vessel that could easily be said to be the opposite of me." Here he sounded much less like the 11 year old he was presented to be.

"Oh but can we really be considered opposites?" She hummed, looking ahead into the never ending white. "Yes, you are male and I female but in truth we look as if we could be siblings."

She spoke truth. Both had milky pale skin that surely would make most people look sickly. Both had pitch black hair combed neatly, his short and well cut, hers plaited and put into a bun. Both had sharp features, prominent jawlines and high cheekbones. They were even the same height. The only telling sign that they weren't the same person gender swapped were their eyes. Hers were an electric green — killing curse green many would describe it — and his a bright red — much like blood, those that described her eyes as the death spell would say about his eyes.

Riddle eyed this critically, taking note of all of these details and analyzing the possibilities of reasons for this. "What is your name?"

"Malefic Addams," she replied back easily.

"Where are we, Malefic?" He asked.

Her eyes flickered to look at him. "I believe we're in my conscious."

Riddle looked around the place with new eyes. He found it to be quite unremarkable, perhaps it was a decoy space for Occulemency. "It's quite empty," he noted, voicing his thoughts aloud.

"Well of course it is." Riddle frowned, that had been Malefic's voice but her lips hadn't moved. He looked around and found nothing but the vast whiteness that he was truly starting to dislike. He looked back to Malefic who was staring at something right in front of her.

He followed her line of vision and found his eyes widening in surprise at the sight of the woman before him. She looked much like the girl beside him, as if someone had taken Malefic and added a few years of age to her appearance. She wore golden armor and held a large battle axe. Her dark hair was braided with light blue ribbons and held out of her face by a woven band of gold. To sum it all up she looked like a true warrior.

"I may be new to my job but I do know how to do it," she told Riddle, finishing her earlier statement.

"Who are you?" He questioned, echoing his earlier question to Malefic.

"I am the Protector of the Mind, the personified conscious of Malefic Addams' Mind Magick. You could call me Malefic although you understand that that may cause some confusion so I have been named Heimdall instead."

"I know little to nothing of Mind Magick," Malefic voiced, studying Heimdall critically.

Heimdall nodded knowing this. "That may be true but your magick does not need to know the theory to know how to utilize it defensively as it had to when Lord Ollivander attempted to invade your mind."*

"I don't have Mind Magick, there was no blue strand to indicate as such when I looked at my core."

"From how I understand it I was stored into your subconscious ready to be used when needed, the Mind Magick alongside me. The personified versions of Borne, Divination and Soul Magick," she looked to Riddle here, "too were stored there although their magick not with them, assumably stored in the core. We - that is to say you - do not know enough to truly know the full explanation for this, currently we await further research."*

Malefic nodded at this, understanding her(self's?) words to a good extent. Riddle didn't.

"We?" He pressed.

Heimdall hummed. "Come along, you can meet the others."

And a door, simple yet a stark contrast to the ever lasting white, appeared. Heimdall opened it, ushering the two younglings inside.

On the other side Malefic nearly breathed a sigh of relief. This was the conscious she was used to, the throne room in her mind that she had visited in her sleep since she was four.

She saw personified parts of herself that she recognized (Amun Ra who was the personification of her emotions for example) and parts of herself that she didn't (the teenager who had her face but had honey blonde hair and golden eyes for example). She noticed that there seemed to be a bit of tension in the air and she guessed that it had something to do with the new faces of Heimdall, Riddle, the blonde Malefic and a little girl who too had Malefic's features although a few years younger still having baby fat on her cheeks (of course Malefic didn't have pure white eyes and freckles that looked like stars littered over her nose but other than that she had a younger Malefic's face down to the t).

Beside her Riddle drank in the room with wide eyes. It reminded him of the stories that described the throne room of Olympus, with a golden roof painted with murals and ivory pillars with carvings of runes on them. There were eight thrones and a beanbag chair to the side (which surprisingly did not ruin the image). Each throne was painfully detailed in ways that would take Riddle much too long to describe.

"Malefic," the woman who sat on the head throne greeted. She too had Malefic's face, at least on one side. The other half of her face was that a rotting corpse, with dead skin and a pale green eye. She was what most envisioned the Norse Goddess of Death, Hel to look like. For this reason this woman was named Hel in honor of the goddess she resembled so greatly. She was one of those present that Malefic felt happy to see as Malefic was one of the oldest embodiments of her consciousness. She represented Malefic's Death Magick, a part of herself she had cherished since she was young. "You have developed new embodiments."

"Well of course she could see that," the woman that was two seats down the left of Hel snorted. This woman wore armour that was stained red, her hair was put into a knot atop her head and she held a sword in her hand as if she were to be attacked at any moment. She did not look like a soldier like Heimdall did, she looked like a predator, a true embodiment of the part of Malefic's consciousness that was always ready to taste the blood of her enemies.

"Somnus," the laurel wearing woman in the throne directly across from the predator-woman said clicking her tongue, "have some tact."

"Oh shut up Nike," Somnus spat back, "you act all high and mighty but really your just -"

"Somnus," Hel cut in her voice even but somehow threatening. Somnus bowed her head at the silent reprimand. Hel looked back to Malefic. "We shall commence with the meeting now that everyone is here."

Malefic moved to stand beside Hel's throne as she always did during the meetings and looked as the four new occupants lined up before them.

"We gather today to discuss the placement of the new embodiments," Hel started. "From what we can gather they were developed due to sudden self awareness in the case of three of the new embodiments and the need for protection in the case of the fourth. We shall discuss the placement of the embodiment that calls herself Heimdall first." Heimdall stepped toward the middle of the room. "Heimdall you embody the Magick of Mind Protection, you were brought the consciousness in sudden defense."

"We don't need another defense," Somnus piped up, sneering at Heimdall. "I am our defense."

"You are our physical defense," Hel replied patiently. "Our swordsman. Heimdall ensures that no one invades our mind and from what we can tell she can help contain Amun Ra, who still needs to learn her place it seems." Amun Ra slumped in her chair as all attention was drawn to her, she wore a simple black dress and her hair, the same shade as Malefic's, hung loose. The tears that gathered in her eyes were a true indication that she embodied Malefic's emotions.

"Mamba contains her just fine," Somnus spat back.

"Mamba has left us to take their true form," Hel responded coolly. Malefic frowned and looked to the throne beside Hel's and found that the regal woman that usually sat there was not present.

Somnus huffed and looked to the marble floor in defeat. "Anymore arguments in regards to Heimdall?" Hel asked. No one said anything. "Then she may take her place on the council."

Heimdall moved to the throne beside Somnus's and took her seat, a blue candle that was imbedded into the arms of the throne lit as she sat down.

"We move onto the embodiment of Divination Magicks, Tarot." The milky eyed girl stared up at Hel unblinkingly. "You were brought into consciousness when we saw you within the magick core."

"Odd that we never saw her before!" Everyone looked to the beanbag chair that was set just outside of the circle of thrones. The one that sat was the only female in the throne room that didn't have Malefic's face. Yes, she had some features but her features were softer and her skin more tanned. Her eyes weren't an acid green but rather an emerald colour. Her wild red hair was bullied into two braided pigtails and she wore a green dress that was spattered with what looked like paint. The was Maya Potter, the part of Malefic that could have been. "What?" She questioned seeing all eyes on her. "I'm just saying, we've never seen or done anything prophetic."

Tarot smiled, it was too fixed to be considered a genuine smile. "That is false. I have been here, working silently and weaving small beneficial decisions here and there. Should I be fully accepted the benefits will truly begin."

"The benefits can only begin if we fully educate ourselves on the topic," Hel told her. "Until then, we utilize what we have. Tarot, sit."

Tarot moved to the seat that was to the left of Somnus and directly across from Amun Ra. Once she was fully settled the candle, much like Heimdall's only it was purple, lit.

"Very good, we move onto the Horcrux, the embodiment of Soul Magick. Riddle, or as we previously knew him Mamba."*

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LAST EDITED: 01/10/2022

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* Think of this as adrenaline, in the heat of fight or flight you'll be really strong or really fast or something of the sort in order to protect yourself. Malefic felt threatened by the invasion in her mind and her body reacted accordingly. This Mind Magicks part of her was created in defense and, unlike with most adrenaline, stuck around.

* They are parts of Malefic, they can't know things that she hasn't learnt yet. They are her consciousness though so they think up theories and such, which is pushed to the forefront of her thoughts when she needs them.

* Mamba — the one that was previously mentioned as missing — is Riddle before they knew him as Riddle (he was posing as woman at the time).