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3rd of February, 1971 – Illos
His arms were behind his back, taking in the familiar magic of the Main Tower as he walked with a sedate pace, his steps near silent as he moved through the somewhat busy main walkway.
And, as he walked under the soft glow from aglow symbols intricately etched on pillars that seemed to heave the Tower to its height, the gleaming walls that shimmered like liquid silver under the heavy glare of the sun, something that made it as if he was walking through the halls of Valhalla, such was the presence of the otherworldliness that the Main Tower had begun to exude over the past half decade.
With the way the Main Tower was infused with magic, heavily aided by the tonnes of Mithril that flowed underneath it and around it, the Main Tower was almost alive with its faint presence, its faint personality that breathed and hummed with magic through its silver like pillars and walls and steps and stairs, much like Hogwarts or the Pandrosion Institute do.
Though unlike those institutions, the Main Tower was far more…purposeful in its desires by nature of what it was meant to be. Its magic, while welcoming, was more…demanding of him…of all of those who worked within it, amusingly enough.
It was built with a certain mind frame, an enablement of governance and innovation and debate, and as such it fostered such focus within all its halls and rooms and walkways almost like an eager and slightly pushy parent that wished for the best of its children in comparison to the Pandrosion or Hogwarts where it was meant to be a home and a welcoming place to be comfortable and at ease.
A commotion nearby distracted him from his appreciation of his surroundings and his musings and his gaze fell on a child that excitably chattered away to her parents who wore Rosi with markings that belonged to the Office of Environment.
He waved at the little girl – who waved back – before he twitched his fingers and a small bundle of apple blossoms made of paradoxically warm ice flew towards her.
The little girl practically snatched the small token from the air before she excitably showed it to her parents whose gratitude he could feel tinging their magic.
A similar feeling that he felt from others observing the scene, some wearing smiles.
A small act that was without personal cost that meant much to others, even to those who personally benefitted not – who he could See regaling their families about his latest act of kindness when they got home.
It was a thought that decades ago would have left him uneasy and later simply resigned to receive this affection and near devotion that many of his people held for him, affection and devotion he had always thought, within the recesses of his mind, was only there because he'd manipulated it into them.
Yet as he begun to sense more than the idle thoughts and emotions of his people, he had learned to appreciate and welcome the affection that was built over decades and reinforced with acts, great and small alike, with great humility even if undeserved…
True humility that came from his increased understanding and attunement of how life and people were linked through Living Time. And from that increased understanding, it truly dawned on him with intimate understanding of how much his choices and acts have impacted the lives of his people for the better…impacts that had spiritual, conscious consequences that were beyond mere material things.
With his increased sensitivity to the membrane of consciousness that permeated throughout the universe, he had received one of his greatest gift imaginable.
…Peace of mind
A peace of mind that stemmed from the belief of his people that echoed through the universal membrane of consciousness, an echo that he could sense, however faint it was, an echo that tied itself, that revolved around him in thousands of tangled unseen threads that vibrated with a kind of pureness that was hard to express let alone fathom.
How could he be anything but humble in the face of what he sensed from his people?
When he could see and sense how much people treasured this connection they held with him, how much they treasured this journey they were on that many were giving their lives, their time and much of their dedication to?
As much as they were given safety and prosperity, as much as they were given hope, they were given purpose that he knew many would never have manifested some form of it themselves. The unseen threads that connected him to them made that clear.
And from within themselves, whether they knew it or not, having such a meaning of existence made them vibrate and emit something akin to metaphysical strings of music that were as strong as cords of steel.
And from that understanding, he knew that he was devaluing their own choices, their own emotions by considering them to be products of his manipulations, that it wasn't their choice to believe in him, to believe they mattered to him and in that came the final release to simply…accept who he was to them.
An acceptance that made him at ease with what was to come knowing that at the end, after all that he has done and will do, it would be worth it as they close the first chapter of their journey…no matter how tumultuous and secretively monstrous it had been.
He and his guards veered off towards the restricted section of the Main Tower that was separate from the way to the Offices of Responsibility, his mind drifting towards the penultimate stage they were at as he walked into the portal entry that connected the more security intensive floors to each other before he exited at the top floor.
The fourteen years since the eradication of the Men of Symbols had been good for Illos…and for him and Emily. Now, without an enemy that could counter the future in any meaningful way, there was little that could stand against their goals.
Illos continued to develop techno-magically aided by the knowledge of the salvaged scout ship, advancements in biology, chemistry and physics has improved almost every facet of Illos, from the eradication all afflictions, magical or mundane to the creation of Magicom, a network that connected more and more of the magical world with year that passed, to the creation of new magicks like technopathy that he would See become almost as flexible a branch of magic like transfiguration with time.
Space was a frontier that his people considered merely as challenging as travelling the Seas though only a small percentage of his people knew of faster-than-light travel and had taken upon themselves to study every body within the solar system to detail.
Much of South America was aligned with Illos now after the assistance the Illosian Guards provided in dealing with their hives of dark wizards unwilling to bend to Ministry governance and laws along with the economic incentives and trade deals that Illos fostered with the Ministries of the continent.
South East Asian communities were approached and tied to Illos through different kinds of assistances, mostly in assisting them with magical means like building them well protected enclaves and offering free tuition to their children at the Pandrosion.
Mongolia, Turkmenistan and the various other small communities in central Asia also were in good standing with Illos whilst Benin and their allies in time were granted their own country-ship once they accepted a place in the Grand Alliance alongside Illos and Magical Japan.
The Dwarves accepted his offers of knowledge, equality and opportunity to rise beyond their historic heights and now they resided within Illos as the fourth sentient magical race within the Council of Magical Races.
The Grecian Centaurs that made Lonis Forest their temporary home, as prickly as they were, and would become the next magical race to join the Council once their brethren deemed the stars from Dexirus and Celestis.
There were other such achievements that inched them forward towards their destiny and it all started with their first great achievement in the creation of Avalon and reveal of Emily's hidden 'royal heritage', an act made possible by a splash of necromancy and powerful computer systems as they extracted DNA from a long dead former Dark Lady.
They infused Morgana's DNA strands, particularly the ones that belonged to the muggle Uthred Pendragon, into Emily replacing a substantial amount of the Riddle DNA with that of royalty, enough to ensure any heritage test testing her claim would come up as positive.
The claim of blood along with the sword Excalibur – with a collaborative Ministry headed by Ouroboros that were all but directly sworn to Emily – made the initial seize of the British Isles almost bloodless and politically seamless.
Of course, not everyone was happy with the dramatic change.
Most of the resistance and discontent had come from the Progressives who still held sizable presence and influence within the Ministry and within the public itself.
Charlus Potter was amongst the loudest detractors.
Of course once information of muggle culpability with the express permission by the muggle royal house was made public, culpability in their sponsorship of the violence perpetrated by the Isonomian Movement and the Order of the Phoenix, even supplying them with weapons that culminated in the decimation of the nobility in the infamous Bombing of the Wizengamot, such discontent amongst a significant proportion of the Progressives withered away.
And the rest were made silent once further evidence was made clear of the muggles' near success in the destruction of the Ministry and the plans they had with regards to subjugation of Magical Britain.
From there, it had been relatively easy to gain near universal acceptance for total secession from the muggle world under the guidance of their Pendragon Queen.
Despise and fear of muggles mixed with the lure of returning to a time of legend that had been romanticised throughout the ages and even more so in the preceding decade were the main contributing factors, though moving every magical centre and village and abodes into the Highlands of Scotland had been far less as easy but nonetheless they succeeded as power, politics and public admiration eased away opposition.
And as much as he disliked it, favours did the same as he and Emily relinquished substantial lands on Illos to Emily's followers like the Malfoys, the Lestranges and so on. Others like the McKinnons who proved to be less confrontational with the death of their deceased former Heads of Houses and keen to bury the hatchet with House Sayre, were also granted this privilege in exchange of their support of all of their initiatives.
Initiatives such as the mirroring of Illos' method of governance was adopted in piecemeal as the Ministry fell by the wayside and a Council of Representatives took its place that functioned much like its predecessors only far more streamlined.
There had also been some…unsavoury initiatives that needed to happen such as forcing families who had one foot in either world to choose, a choice that either stripped them of access to magic and the knowledge of it or the choice of severing their connections to the muggle world and become part of the magical world.
As much as he regretted it, more than a few families were cut off of their own magic, their magic bound and made to live as muggles as they refused to make the choice.
It was offensive to him, this act of sacrilege to Mother Magic but he had done and let happen worse in sacrilege of Mother Magic, this much was true.
Besides, there was little choice, not with the goals they had in mind nor the necessity of ensuring that they were serious about the intent to break away from the muggle world to the rest of Avalon…and the rest of the magical world.
Much of the acceptance of squibborns and the liberalisation of rights by the darker families and the more conservative elements of society had come from the fact that it came from one of their own advocating for it in the form of Slytherin's heir.
That alongside the banishment of muggle traditions and religious practices in favour of native traditions and practices had made centuries old reversals of opinions possible. They were, for all intents and purposes, champions of the magical world.
And everything they did and supported, even by his own words all those years ago when he'd been little more than an heir to House Sayre, would have been under risk if they did not commit to dealing out the harshest penalties available to those who could not make the choice to choose the magical world.
'If you prefer the muggle world to our own, you may go and live amongst them…as one of them'
It was a harsh penalty and it was one that many feared enough to make the right choice presented to them. And as harsh as it was, especially to families with one muggle parent, they weren't heartless.
Adolescent squibborns and their immediate family were permitted to move into the magical world where they would find their place as citizens. Children were not separated unless it was clear the child did not want to give up magic or if the child was in danger from their family.
Children who wanted to remain with their parents who refused the chance were also left with their magic bound though thankfully it was not something that happened too frequently.
Muggles married to a wizard or witch were allowed to make the migration as much as it had made some amongst the populace uncomfortable but with time, such concerns were alleviated – even if some had to be expelled – as they were hardly any different from the last generation of squibs.
As much as it was...insensitive, it was still by far the better solution to difficult sets of circumstances as a result of a flawed and weak system of secrecy.
And it was something most people – thanks to keen reporting of the muggle world by a number of papers worldwide – recognised as the muggle Cold War grew in intensity and the world stood at sixty minutes to midnight with bated breaths as nuclear war remained a likely eventuality.
That shift in understanding – along with plenty of elder squibs and muggles fairly knowledgeable in science working in tandem with graduates of SIMS or Illosians – has made Morfay the second most scientifically literate centre of the magical world almost by necessity and it was a capital as much as Illos, Asahi, Makaa and Alexandria were, with it being only smaller in size to Illos and Alexandria.
And within the next ten years, it would only grow further and it would stand as a worthy second city when the time came for their union to be completed wholly, a step that was considered by all to be too soon, too fast.
A sentiment he agreed with after having Seen what hastened integration would yield.
Time was not a concern and Avalon serving as a separate Kingdom within the union of nations had its own benefits…especially as more and more people marched across Europe escaping the brutality by the Ravenites.
A full quarter of the forty thousand wizarding population in Avalon were refugees from mainland Europe, people who had to escape for fear of their remaining families and their resistance to the regimes that sprouted under the beady eyes of the Raven.
Blood purist and fascist regimes that brook no tolerance for anything other than pure wizarding stock and even then, most people were hardly safe as feudalistic tendencies has returned in much greater force…noble Houses of dark persuasion ruling like despots in their own personal fiefs with half of the populations as little more than serfs serving at the whims of their overlords and another quarter being trained as Ravenites for their next stage of expansion.
The secretary and the guards by Emily's door bowed to him before he walked through the twin doors and he banished his thoughts away as he reached out through their bond with deep affection and he felt her pleased reciprocation through their bond as he veered into her place of work within the spatially enlarged apartment.
An unconscious smile fell upon his face as he saw her working at her desk, and she was a sight to behold.
She looked up from the holo-tablet and her beauty drew him into her much like how absolute blackness absorbed nearly all light into itself, his eyes falling onto her porcelain face that looked too perfect to mar and blemish yet the instinct within desired him to seize it with both of his hands and press his own to her blood red lips.
Her expression softened and that desire grew from within as her dark blue eyes lightened in ocean blue, as if her eyes were the physical representation of her approach towards the light.
Nothing was said between them as he walked over before leaning down and she angled her face towards him and he brushed her hair aside as he pressed a loving kiss on her blood red lips, the smell of winter roses invading his nose that blazed feelings of welcome and home within the depths of his brain.
There was nothing like being home to the one you belonged to, the one who enhanced existence in an indescribable way.
"My love." Atticus said as he leaned back and met her loving gaze on a face that split in a faint half smile. "I've missed you."
"You've only been gone a few days." She said with a hint of mild indulgence in her voice though no less pleased that she was missed as much as he was showing her.
"A few days too long." Atticus said to her as he motioned to sit down just as a chair much like her own materialised beneath him with less than a fraction of exertion of will. "Though it was quite fun, I have to admit."
"The road trip with a pretty young woman young enough to be your granddaughter was fun?" She inquired with a straight face though she raised an eyebrow.
"Yes." He said with an equally straight face "Camping in the wild lands of America, dining together in quaint restaurants and diners. We had quite the time."
She rolled her eyes before her hand swept towards him gently, her hand falling onto his cheek whilst her thumb trailed across his lips.
"Has Comanche agreed as expected?"
"He has." Atticus said with a light smile, enjoying the gentle ministration of his wife's hand and fingers. As much as the trip was to show Pandora of the anomaly, it was also meant to barter support from Comanche.
"Four of their people will join Gaius when they journey back to Celestis."
Comanche's people's ability to connection to nature was almost unparalleled in the magical world and certainly was unparalleled if you considered only sentient beings.
They could communicate with nature…with the rivers, with the earth, with the forests and even with the rocks, the voice of nature different each time yet it answered back to them all the same though not in words but through the Native Americans' senses and through magic.
They held a deep understanding of the natural world, of how life and magic entwined to create these spirits of nature, these voices that were manifested as a consequence of life and magic, and it was this special trait of their people that he coveted.
"And how did he react when you took him to Europa?" Emily asked with mild amusement and he knew why she was looking at him like that.
"Better than Dembe Habe and the Volun Triarchy." Atticus said with a smile before his eyes showed unhidden mirth "And infinitely better than the Avalonians"
Emily lips upturned in equal mirth.
"I doubt there'll be many who will have that bad of a reaction."
She had a point, he thought to himself. For all of the strength that Avalon had with its high concentration of ancient families that had chronicles of ancestors supposedly performing impressive magical feats, they were incredibly…
Unimaginative to what actually was possible. Even Abraxas Malfoy, when he and the others who could be trusted – like his former comrades Harfang and so on – with the secret of their eventual departure from Earth were told and shown of their capabilities, had succumbed to near hysterics.
Despite having been witness to the creation of Illos which was as impressive a feat as their faster than light travel capabilities.
Still, hard acceptance of what was possible and what they were going to propose once the Statute failed – another point many found hard to swallow despite knowing his prodigious Seeing abilities – had come anyway and had brought on board much needed unwavering support for their initiatives for Avalon as they now knew what the end goal was.
He nodded at her before he smiled a little ponderously "In any case, as much as Comanche was impressed, it hasn't changed anything to their future reticence."
The Native Americans along with the many other smaller enclaves of communities around the world very much had a symbiotic relationship with Earth's nature magic.
These peoples…were always going to be the hardest to convince that it was time to move. Even once Exposure happened.
So when Comanche's people foster nature magic to bloom on their worlds, to bring spirits of nature to a hastened state of existence, it served doubly to bring back experiences of these worlds to the Native Americans.
Of virgin lands that were at least twice or thrice as magical as any place within America, lands unmolested by muggles and their pollution. They'd learn of the symbiotic way his people were planning magical settlement on those worlds, ways that would leave them with an impression that would be hardwired in their minds.
And Comanche will listen to his people and Comanche will be listened to the other tribes of Native Americans and they…they would be listened to other such kinds of magical peoples around the world who know of them such as the Samoans, the Polynesian communities and so on.
That was the best future available to them that he'd Seen.
"We will adjust if need be." Emily merely said as she removed her hand from his face. "We always have the last option."
Atticus' smile fell away before he nodded slightly.
"We do." He said with acceptance.
Force was undesirable but if need be…
All traces of magic would leave Earth when the time came.
Willingly…or not. It didn't matter.
Emily smiled at him fondly whilst she squeezed his hand gently before she leaned back in her chair, a more serious but curious expression on her face
"And the…anomaly?"
"No closer to determining if our theories about the extent of the anomalies are a hundred percent correct." Atticus said to her. In their explorations of consciousness, they found certain individuals that were more than others.
And it was only because of his own meta-knowledge that he formulated a reason as to why that was…why these people had threads within the membrane of consciousness that extended beyond to what he or Emily could sense.
Emily was positively fascinated with the multi-verse theorem…that there existed other versions of themselves in worlds far beyond simple alternative timelines.
Of course, she wasn't enthused when he remarked that in some alt-Emily might have been born muggle or a reptilian but it brought interesting discussions about whether or not there was finite permutations of how one's opposites would be born.
They already begun to formulate that there was a story written within the membrane of consciousness, a rough story, a rough plan that drifted infinite choices towards a certain bandwidth of paths that culminated towards a certain end goal and they thought that each universe might have a similar but different end goal.
The universe was attempted to be made deterministic but it was so vague – perhaps done on purpose – that it appeared not to be deterministic.
In that sense, it was possible that everyone was a variation of a theme of themselves.
No matter how strange the universe might be.
Mr Lee in this universe was a conduit of all that was experienced by his alternates in universes far more…interesting than his own yet those same alternates were quite possibly in a similar realm of profession or station in life.
It was a curious theory that Emily mostly championed to be likely but it was one that he was reluctant to accept, for a single reason…his own existence in this universe.
He was far more an anomaly than Mr Lee or others like him were.
He was a breach in the code of the universe that seemed as if it should be impossible…and yet paradoxically, he could see it being as something entirely possible given the existence of infinite alternate realities and multiverses that are saturated with Gods and manifestations of certain states of being like Death or Destiny or War…and of course those like The One Above All.
Once that was understood to truly exist…being reborn in this version of the magical world wasn't really impossible…not when souls existed beyond death.
He didn't know why he was here despite knowing that Moira and her daughter facilitated the path that lead him to exist here. It should be beyond them to pull a soul from the tunnels of consciousness that existed between one universe to another and that only meant that there was a Higher Being involved in the matter.
Higher Beings like the Precursors.
After all…
The Precursors were the closest things to Gods in this universe and were beings that might well have existed since the dawn of the universe, entwined to magic and consciousness in a way that was far beyond him or Emily, possibly beyond anything his race could evolve to become.
And with the assault to his mind he endured from whatever resided in the Domain decades ago, he knew that at least there was some kind of presence of their handiwork still extant in the non-physical realities of consciousness and magic.
It was not unreasonable to think that the Precursors had not died out, not even slightly, especially considering how the Ancient Humans had considered the Precursors to be masters of neurophysical energy, of magic.
Despite all that, the why still evaded him. It was a worry troubled him deeply for he couldn't understand why they might help Moira in bringing him into existence.
Especially as both he and Emily grew in understanding about the endless cycles that the universe underwent through over the course of billions and billions of years planning to utterly wreck this perpetual and monstrous cycle of destruction and recreation at the whims of those same Higher Beings.
Neither he or Emily were going to allow their world, their people, present or future, to fall to their whims…no matter how Godlike they were.
He shook away those thoughts and met her gaze "Still, our theories about them so far seems to be likely." Emily hummed for a moment before she spoke up again
"We'll have to keep an eye out on the man and the others. It is doubtful that we'll be able to formulate much other use of this phenomena at the present time." Emily conceded though she paused for a moment.
"Still…" Emily continued "We could always pose the challenge to Walter Bishop?" she asked with a mild knowing smile and Atticus grimaced.
"He might actually break the universe." Atticus said with a deadpan. Bishop was undeniably brilliant, in some ways more than he was, but over the years…he'd developed a bit of a…lackadaisical attitude to safety and reason.
Atticus blamed Bishop's penchant to consume LSD like they were mints.
Unfortunately, they also seemed to help. The man discovered another dimension, the Astral Plane and was making significant headway in charting out how it worked, what could be done within it and what its limitations were.
He even would have achieved limited success with something that Atticus had thought only possible through the Domain…retro-cognition…had Atticus not obliterated any further attempts by the man to look into it.
At least for now. It was the ability to have knowledge of a past event that one couldn't possibly know and Atticus had no desire to allow such things to be possible.
Not now…possibly not ever.
To give that man the idea of people being in existence that were in contact in some fashion or another was a terrible one. The man would somehow figure out a way to see those universes…and perhaps even cross over into one.
Regardless of what the consequences of such actions might be.
Emily laughed melodiously and she looked at him with amusement though he could see enough in her expression that she didn't think he was that far off in his assessment. "We'll broach the topic with him at a later date then." She saw the look on his face and her smile widened in mirth "much later then." She said with a laugh in her voice.
Hopefully maybe not ever at all. He could glean enough from other possible timelines to learn whatever Bishop would come up and wrinkle out any unintended disasters that Bishop would most certainly not think of removing.
That does remind him…he should probably facilitate a meeting between Walter and Elizabeth Hawkins sooner than later. Much of Walter's penchant for chaos without care of consequences get…lessened after he gets married and has a son.
Emily's mirth fell away and began to eye him curiously. "And Pandora?" she inquired with a more serious tone despite knowing the answer he'd given ages ago.
He smiled at her before confirming "Pandora can see the connections the man holds to his alternate selfs."
Emily's eyes sharpened as a few moments passed before she nodded slowly "Good to know how far her talents lie." Emily pursed her lips. "The Agoralos bloodline is truly special. It's a shame Hypatia has no desire to have more children." Emily shook her head "Perhaps that's for the best anyway if you have Seen will come to pass."
She was referring to her granddaughter who prove to be as powerful a Seer as he was…with a little training. Hypatia and Pandora were both prodigious Seers but Pandora's daughter…He was looking forward to seeing her to come to her own in about three decades.
Still, at this point in time, it was probably best there be as few as truly talented Seers such as those from the Agoralos bloodline. The Men of Symbols' purge of many such bloodlines worked in their favour as grim as it was.
It left them the opportunity to cement the Office of Far-Sight as the authority of visions and prophecy for the entire magical world and to ensure that a schism like that happened to spawn the Men of Symbols was left no chance to happen.
And with Hypatia setting the tone as the first Overseer of the department with her excellence, compassion, duty and loyalty, it was on course to establish exactly what he wished the organisation to become.
Emily's hand drifted towards his crotch bringing his mind to a screeching halt as he refocused onto her "We have a few hours before our briefing meeting." She said, her eyelids drooping low. Atticus' expression broke into a half smile as he grabbed her hand and he pulled her up as he stood up.
His hands drifted towards her soft curves that lay beneath the layers of clothing, curves that were as hard as muscle could get underneath the surface of lavender soft skin that he wanted to feel tremble under his teeth.
He brushed her silky black hair away from her face as he cupped her face lovingly "I could think of no greater way to spend time" he murmured softly before he brought his face down and captured her irresistible lips.
Hours Later…
"Took the League long enough to bend to our demands." Emily mused as she looked over the copy of the proposal that Malfoy brought back.
"There has been increased activity by the Ottoman border, your Grace." Parelius explained in his monotone voice before he expanded "Thrace has seen no less than fourteen excursions." He said before he looked to Atticus and he inclined his head.
"In some futures it is a prelude to an incident that the Ravenites will use as justification for a campaign against the Ottomans. A campaign that would expand to most of North Africa and the fall of Alexandria only two years later." Atticus said calmly to the people in the briefing room.
Silence fell for a short few moments before he spoke up again "A future that is doubtlessly undone when we agree to this proposal." Atticus said.
Eldric Carson spoke up "The terms of the proposal are less than what we have demanded from the Benelux nations, sir." He stated curiously.
"Yes it is." Emily stated as she leaned in, her eyes set on Carson. "However the League is a different opponent than the Benelux nations which are weaker and less populated. The League represents just under half of the total magical population of Asia with significant influence over the rest of the Asian communities."
"It does set a precedent away from how we have dealt with other communities." Silas Merek commented. Atticus nodded to the former Director of State who now worked as an advisor to him and Emily.
He was referring to the friendship treaties they had signed with most Ministries around the world that they worked into their sphere of influence.
Treaties that more or less made them dependent on Illos as they 'uplifted' communities and nations with generous gifts, magical advancements and economic incentives…to the point that their economies were reliant on Illos and the other two country-ships.
This proposal was more or less a defensive treaty with international political alignment when it came to positions against the Ravenites though the wording left for…room for greater cooperation. It was far from ideal especially as he wanted to tie them closer economically and politically but they have been quite standoffish with them through the years so it wasn't unexpected.
Still, they were on good terms overall especially since the Ottomans and Persians did in fact do more to integrate 'new bloods' into their society along with adopting a more liberal viewpoint on muggle ideas.
So generally speaking, the treaty wasn't ideal but it was preferable to the alternative.
"It does however the Ravenites must not be allowed to spread into the Near East as they will soon into China." Atticus explained as he placed his hands onto the table, his expression hard as he swept his gaze across the meeting room. "This delays such action for years to come and I do not have to expand on why that is preferred."
Sober nods of acknowledgement were given to him.
The people present in this briefing meeting were amongst the highest ranked in Illos, some still functioning as part of the High Council. And each of them were in his and Emily's confidence about their plans to use the Ravenite threat as the catalyst to leave Earth to Celestis.
"Have they started to move towards the Chinese border?" Paul Doyle, the recently elected Chief Representative, asked with a concerned look on his face.
"They have." Parelius spoke up as a light at the centre of the desk lit up and a holographic representation of Russia and China flared up. "They have not yet tested the defensive ward schemes the Chinese have around their fortress enclaves as far as I can tell but the number of magicals in that region has steadily been increasing over the past three months."
"With as weak as the Chinese are since the muggles' extermination campaign" Silas Merek said with disdain before he continued, this time with a sober expression "I can't imagine they can last as long despite their huge population."
"The will of their people is weak as a consequence of the trauma they suffered." Emily agreed with irritation. "It is after all why they are moving against them."
Atticus couldn't really feel much sympathy for the Chinese. Almost every overture they made to them was rejected, preferring reclusion over everything else.
It would be their undoing.
…and to their advantage.
The Chinese had a huge population that were ranked in the top three and along with that, they also had a proud history that was, in all honesty, something to be actually proud of.
He admired the Chinese but unfortunately, that pride needed to be broken if their people would fall in line by the time of Exodus. A decade or two under the rule of the Ravenites would ensure that.
"It is why we're also ensuring to secure any artefacts they might possess before they fall." Atticus explained to the room before his gaze met with Parelius who inclined his head slightly. The Chinese had a number of artefacts they used to great effects during their conflict with the communists and it was one of those artefacts that allowed them to appear exterminated to the communists long enough for assistance to arrive and carry out the mass Obliviation of millions of Chinese people.
"In any case" Atticus continued "The treaties we'll sign with the Aryan League" Atticus paused for a moment, his voice unchanged despite the unfortunate name choice the League voted upon "are only a stopgap for now." He said to them concluding this point of the briefing.
The meeting then went forwards towards other matters like the affirmative message they received back from their people in Celestis who by now should be on their way to Earth.
The progress they were making in Celestis was still a secret that a small percentage of Illosians were aware of…only those in the High Council, some select Representatives, those who working on the projects related to the Scout-ship were in the know and a few of the leadership within Aziza and Ame-No-Ukihashi were aware of it.
With only some forty years until Exodus happened, the secrecy had to be…lessened, especially when it came to ensuring compliance from their allies.
Of course, that didn't mean most of the people involved weren't Illosian born and bred nor that nearly all of the technology was kept tightly under their control and secrecy maintained through binding oaths.
Soon the conversation turned towards MACUSA's attempts to reach the moon in a vain attempt to prove themselves equal to the American muggles and Illos.
The American muggles reaching the moon was a notable news story in the magical world but only as a side story as a way to…not so lightly prop up magical superiority given that he was the first human to ever to set foot on the moon with Illos the first nation from either world to reach the moon and beyond.
And as a consequence, MACUSA wanted to prove them to be as capable as their muggle cousins…something they were fairly succeeding at. They managed to get into high orbit of Earth and soon they would try and reach further away.
He was quite disdainful of their attempts to try and match Illos in every way. The years since the peace he'd won the with ICW had not been as...fruitful as he wished and American and Illosian relations were not as good as they could have been.
Partially that was his fault by deciding to pursue a closer relationship with other parts of the world despite knowing that it would set their relations back.
Things were improving but that was mostly because it was always going to improve. Illos was powerful and the Grand Alliance was the way of the future and even they could see it which was why they were at least partially making themselves seem as equals to those in the Alliance.
Finally, after they talked about opportunities to support rebels within Ravenite held countries and other things like instituting cooperative events across the magical world like the Omniwizard Tournament, they got the final part of their meeting.
"And now onto the latest poll results from Avalon." Parelius intoned.
"Have the Secessionists gained any further traction?" Paul Doyle asked with a frown, the question that was on most people's mind.
"No." Parelius said with mild irritation flaring in his eyes before he lost it within a moment "However they have a strong base within the electorate."
"I would hardly call less than ten percent a strong base, Parelius." Emily said with a raised eyebrow "Not only that, most of that ten percent are naturalised squibborns and squib citizens who are unduly resentful." Emily said displeased with her lips thinning, her eyes glinting with an anger that was rare these days.
And it was an anger that he understood very well. They went through great troubles to find a solution that was…heavily in their favour for almost nothing in return. Yet they balked at claiming Emily as their Queen, a point that he found as aggravating as she did considering everything they were doing for their people and yet…
Some of them were dead set in refusing her. Of course, it wasn't just that they held loyalties to a muggle Queen. People never liked being uprooted never mind being given harsh choices but they weren't the only ones who were uprooted from their homes.
All magicals who called England and Wales home had to leave for the Scottish Highlands and the Hebrides and yet they got over it and were thriving in Avalon.
They made the choice to be in the magical world yet they were the backbone of the Secessionist Party whose only goal was for Avalon return to Magical Britain under the authority of the Crown with the Statute of Secrecy still in place.
No matter how unpalatable that seemed to the wider public.
Unfortunately, they were smart enough to work under the law and none of them tried to inform anyone in the muggle world so they had to be contained as much as possible until time did the work for them.
And one of those ways was to ensure that the polling results for them remained poor for them. After all, polling not only reported opinion but also shaped it. People bandwagon on the opinion of the average general public and they had to ensure the general opinion never deviated from what they wanted.
As distasteful as it was, there was a necessity of skewing things just enough – without being corrupt – to ensure that polling would get the general results they wished.
After all, polling can be used as a tool by the enemy not only to learn but also to manipulate and channel public opinion. As much as he wanted polling to be egalitarian, he was cynical enough even without Sight to know the pitfalls of relying on the honesty of opponents.
With a look across the room he knew that all of them agreed with that philosophy.
"Ten percent can easily become thirty percent, your Grace." Parelius said with a pointed look referencing towards the few still discontent former Progressives Houses who were effectively steamrolled by the Traditional and Neutral Houses when Emily came into her throne in 1958 and seized control over Avalon.
They were the 'secret' financiers of the Secessionist Party and those who wielded enough political capital to make things…a little more difficult.
They didn't truly want to return to being under the authority of the muggle Crown it was simply that they detested the changes – and him and Emily – more than anything else.
Despite the fact that some of them, like the Prewetts and Abbotts, suffered at the hands of the Order of the Phoenix that were infamously funded by the muggles.
"Unless you know something other than the muggle-lovers slowly killing their own political power, I doubt they muster such support from the people." Emily countered back. "There is no poverty, there is no subjugation nor any substantial corruption within the government. Why sacrifice that for creatures that wanted to destroy our then-government and subjugate our people and who sponsored the murder of our people?"
"Plus the tales of the refugees of what is happening across the channel past France have spread high and wide across Avalon. Upheaval at a time when it can't be afforded will also be on everyone's mind before they ever reach the critical mass of support to pose a problem." Atticus added to which Emily nodded with a faint smile before she lost it and continued.
"The threat of the Ravenites is so severe to the public that anyone with even a little sense knows that they have it good. Too good according to the migrant Houses."
Throughout the late fifties and all of the sixties, the Ravenites had gone from strength to strength all across Europe. Maligned Houses that were already weakened with their resistance against Grindelwald and his followers, could see the writings on the wall and left for pastures green…pastures Avalonian and French.
It was amongst those Houses that support for their rule was amongst the highest, only the common public and Houses who supported Emily throughout her rise being able to contend with her popularity with them.
It made Morfay a centre of multi-culturalism much like Alexandria was and still is.
"Overseer Parkinson is perhaps referring to the…inquiry we have received, Your Majesties." the Goblin Gobchoke said with bow of the head.
"As we expected." Atticus nodded to the Goblin.
"We have refused as you have ordered" Gobchoke revealed a full set of sharpened teeth as he spoke again "And gave them no impression that their probing would remain anything but secret. It was…profitable." Which garnered more a snort from Carson and other knowing looks from the others in the briefing room. No doubt they attempted to bribe for the goblins for their silence regardless if they were successful.
Atticus inclined his head to the Goblin.
There was little point in subterfuge or an over-elaborate plot. Not when he, and they, knew all there was to know of their scheming. "They will try again." He said as he looked to Parelius who bowed his head.
At the moment there were not enough to charge them with treason. But he knew that soon enough there will be enough to hang a few of them with treason when they get careless with whom they'd trust with information.
They would be made examples of.
There wasn't much else to discuss after that as the polling results were briefly discussed and soon enough both he and Emily retired back to their Manor on the slopes of Mount Celestis and it wasn't long before Emily was laying naked by the side of the inside pool with environment altered to function as a steam room.
She moaned with a hum in her voice as his firm hands stretched out the knots in her shoulders. His hands travelled down her oily back that had globules of water and her skin was as smooth as dolphin skin and as soft as silken pillows. And as he laced his fingers with magic he learned from an Indian sex magic book, he was pleased when he felt her shiver beneath him whilst he sat on lower end of her delectable arse.
She began to arch her arse and began to move it along the length of his hard member that almost nested in between her cheeks and, in return, he massaged the bottom of her back, just above her rump, a little harder and with a lot stronger magic and it garnered him a deeper, more sensual moan but she didn't stop to grind herself into his member.
It was then that his hands travelled back up her back and his large hands parted and each of them seized her by the top of her arms as he leaned forward, his chest to her back and his lips by her ear.
"Careful…" he said seductively, his voice trailing off into parseltongue and the tip of his tongue vibrating against her earlobe and she shivered with her entire body as his tongue made contact with her ear.
She began to sway her hips in response and he grunted with pleasure as his member was now trapped between her thighs and her could feel the warmth of her slits with his member. "I have no intention of being careful…" she returned as she turned her head towards him, her eyes filled with a heavy lust to match his own and within a second, she flipped herself onto her back, breaking free from his grip and grabbed his arms before she wrapped her legs around his mid rift and they began to float in the steamy air.
Atticus exhaled with pleasure as she descended her down onto his length, her arms still holding him with a tight grip and he could feel her working her magic as steam twisted around them before they formed into ropes made of water that wrapped themselves around his ankles and his lower legs.
He eyed her with lustful amusement and she smiled almost innocently at him as she stopped grabbing his arms in a death grip and instead traced her fingertips along his arms in a gentle and arousing way and he could feel his lust grow in strength as she returned the favour of enhancing her touches with sex magic.
His member throbbed inside of her despite the fact that she hadn't moved an inch and as he felt ropes form around his wrists that began to pull his arms backwards, she moved her hands towards his face as she leaned forward, slowly, sensually, kissing his chest before she moved to the crook of his neck where her teeth raked onto his skin before she bit down and he winced slightly before a contented grunt left his throat with the way she imbued pleasure into her skin with her bit.
It was then that she began to move up and down, the warmth and the tightness of her tunnel enhanced by the pleasure she bit into him, and the ropes tightened as she took complete control of his body and his arousal.
Her pace quickened, quicker and quicker and he felt her bite grow in strength and her side of the bond opened up and he gasped as he felt her climb to orgasm. He reciprocated and he heard her almost squeal in pleasure as she felt his own climb that was enhanced by all that she was doing to her and it sent her into overdrive as she moved with near inhuman speed, her hands snaking around him, her fingers digging into his skin as much as her teeth dug into his neck.
They lost themselves to their bond, to their pleasure, to their lovemaking and he wasn't sure how long had passed before he tipped over the edge when she had her third consecutive orgasm and he came inside her with almost a blinding roaring explosion that reverberated through their bond.
He could feel her heartbeat as she wrapped her arms around him and the ropes fell away and they remained afloat and he traced his fingers on her back as she fell into his arms. She looked up to him and he could see the love in her eyes, a love as deep as he felt for her and he brought his head down and captured her lips with a tender kiss before they descended down and simply held each other.
It was some time later when they siting in the shallow end of the pool. She was nested into his arms, her back flush with his chest and his arms were around her whilst his thumbs traced circles on top of her sensitive rose nipples.
She sighed contentedly and she twisted her face slightly sideways and he leaned down and captured the side of her lips with his own. It was a soft kiss, a gentle kiss, a loving kiss and both of them exuded deep contentment as she gently squeezed his legs. They parted and her head fell back onto his chest.
They stayed like that a little while as Emily fashioned a makeshift waterfall that trickled down hot water down onto them as they sat in the low end of the pool.
It was some time afterwards, when she stopped her caressing of his legs, that she spoke up "I dislike that you're leaving for Celestis for so long."
"As am I" he said to her. It wasn't the first nor the last time they'd talk about it.
"But I need to place the Mithril veins onto Celestis sooner than later and begin the process of feeding solar energy to our Mithril seeds." He said gently before he kissed the top of her hair. He wasn't ecstatic about leaving for more than a year either.
It would be the longest time they'd be away from either since they met. Even during the Grindelwald war they were at most a few months away from each other.
Thirty years of companionship, love and destiny.
The noise that came out of her was incredibly displeased but she remained silent for a few minutes before sighed almost resigned. "As much as I dislike it, I know it has to be done." She said in a way that it seemed like it was great effort for her to admit.
"We can't trust anyone else with this. Not even Gaius."
Atticus hummed in agreement as he rested his head on top of her head.
Over the past decade and a half, they built up a huge reservoir of Mithril as they converted energy from the Vacuum Energy Reactor into liquid magic and then into Mithril. All for the purpose of inlaying Celestis with the Mithril that would imbue the planet with a level of magic-ness that would be unheard of, a planet that was already more magical than Earth was.
Along with of course magically tying the planet to his and Emily's blood and magic.
They would have a connection to the planet itself, one that was deeper than their connection to Illos with its limited nature magic.
In Illos, if they concentrated, they would be able to pinpoint anyone they wanted to find. They could influence the wards that crisscrossed every inch of Illos and they could feel the magic that coursed through Illos like dipping a hand into a fast running stream of water.
Once they connected to Celestis…all of it would be several orders of magnitude greater than what they felt from Illos. It would make them practically control Celestis' very own spirits of magic.
No one was to know what he'd to on Celestis other than Emily and Alice.
His people who were either worked on Celestis or knew of the planetary system would think he'd be going to inspect Celestis for the first time ever…and to transplant most of the dangerous magical creatures such as the majority of dragons from the Sayre Reserves that resided on Illos in either ecologies or in stasis.
"One of us must go." Atticus agreed quietly and wrapped his arms around her. She melted into his embrace. Celestis won't be the only thing he'd be going away for.
He'd be planting Mithril Seeds around thirteen stars in the local star cluster to Celestis. Thirteen stars that were amongst the most massive stars in the local star cluster and that would generate the most amount of energy due their higher core temperature and greater rate of hydrogen fusion.
He would be placing massive indestructible mirrors – three times the circumference of the Earth – around these stars from the most optimum distance from the sun which would concentrate huge amounts of solar energy to a narrowed beam of energy deflected towards an energy-magic convertor connected to Mithril Seeds that would absorb the huge amounts of magic and grow for the next forty to sixty years.
By the time he collected the Seeds, they would be the size of planetoids.
For the past decade, he and Emily had a lot of time to come up with a use for Mithril and some of those ideas…he was very eager to start working on them.
He just hated that it would be started without her.
Emily sighed as she sank deeper into the water and in the process pulling him in.
"And if I go, it would give our enemies in Avalon a perception of an opportunity to cause more problems." Emily said with irritation. "However much they would fail."
As the sole reason why they had a claim to ruling Avalon, Emily had less latitude to be absent. Illos' loyalty to him and Emily was absolute and as much as people of Avalon were loyal to him – mostly because of his actions during the Grindelwald war – he was only the King consort and she was the Queen.
Most of them were completely loyal to Emily alone as the heir to the fabled throne of the Pendragon kingdom. It was easier for him to be away than it was for her.
It didn't mean there wouldn't be other problems. "The Ravenites…" Atticus trailed off and Emily turned her around and he could her eyes almost gleaming with anticipation and despite himself, he felt himself smile.
The Ravenites would notice his absence. He was too public, too involved in Illos and in Avalon for them not to know nearly immediately that he was not around.
"With the treaty that we will sign with the Aryan League." Emily said and he sense she did so with a roll of the eyes "They will be reluctant to move against us despite your noted absence." She paused for a moment
"At least in the immediate short term."
It was one of the reasons why they were not so bothered about accepting the limited proposal from the League. With his absence, the Ravenites would move against China and begin incursions against the Ottomans whilst also attacking and subjugating Italy.
It served their purposes in turning what was practically the calm before the storm, the deadliest of storms in the history of magical-kind, into a small tempest.
He often wondered about the parallels with the muggle world. World War I had been a cause of nationalism, World War II a cause of fascism and vengeance and ideology and the Cold War a war of ideology and domination.
After their show of force against the ICW, the notion of another war being inevitable had been almost unilateral across the world.
The peace hadn't been won, it wasn't allowed to be won after the defeat of Grindelwald. The Men of Symbols had seen to that and they had only inflamed it further for their own goals just as much as the Raven had in his own twisted way.
Of course, as the years passed and the ICW became directionless without the Symbols steering the vehicle, the thoughts of the next war changed to one with the Ravenites as Ministry after Ministry toppled under their strikes from the shadows.
There was a sense of irony in a way…of how history adjusted itself to fit a resemblance of what once might have been only this time across Europe instead of Britain.
That the hunger and intolerance for anything different was always meant to flare up in the magical world just as in the muggle world the ideological war between communism and capitalistic democracy was meant to have a facedown.
A pendulum that hadn't stopped swinging until it was made to stop to swing after another, however different, climactic end was written, that would always be written.
"You will not involve yourself personally?" Atticus asked quietly as he drifted his mind back to the conversation at hand.
Emily fell silent for a few moments and he spoke up again "We both know that the Raven and Cullaica are weaker than either of us but even the strongest can be toppled with the infinity of magic. I have not Seen it happen in any timeline" he paused for a moment, smiling sardonically "in thousands of timelines but I cannot be certain that I am not being blinded by anyone…or anything."
In more than a few timelines in his absence, he'd Seen her battle with Cullaica, killing him, before later fighting with the Raven who would be allowed to escape.
In all of those timelines, the Plan was not in too much jeopardy but it always left fewer survivors from Ravenite dominated nations. Not only that, the fallout from the Raven's cruelty also extends to the muggle world which pulls forward the time of Exodus by nearly two decades.
International pressure for the moment to intervene was sufficiently low as no one wanted to be involved what would promise to be a devastating world magical world but in those timelines, it was very, very high.
"I can't promise that." Emily said as she turned towards him, her expression genuinely remorseful as her hand went up "I know…I know what you have Seen and I will try my best to avoid such outcomes but we both know that the timeline will change between now and then by the simple fact that we make minor adjustments as we chart our way to our destiny." She said delicately knowing that neither of them would be pleased if one of them got into a battle without the other.
He knew her argument was true. He was no longer the only one who traverse Living Time with any skill. Hypatia and the four other under her tutelage were all capable of altering the timeline and did so under strict conditions.
Even a minor change can snowball into a course change that can affect other paths and soon all previous knowledge where things were going was meaningless.
He could order them not to change anything. The Office of Far-Sight directly reported to him and Emily alone. It would be that simple and the course that they set prior to his departure should be as close to fixed as possible.
And yet, it would be something that they both knew would not guarantee the timeline would remain the same. They knew better than to think that the timeline was anything but the string of the most likely possibility in many that were subject to akin to winds of change.
Winds that were subtly influenced by something other.
He and Hypatia and her underlings were those who could counter said influence, just as Moira's daughter and her organisation and the Men of Symbols were able to do, but that was something that had to be actively done.
And he would be hamstringing them if he commanded them to do nothing.
Ultimately, he would have to trust in Emily's judgment. "Then you will promise me that you won't endanger yourself?" It was pointless to ask, he knew, but he still wanted her to say it. She smiled at him, knowing the same thing he did.
"I promise" she said as she grabbed his hand and kissed the back of his hand, a coy glint in her eyes. "Does that make you happy, husband?" she said demurely.
Atticus cracked a fond smile. "It will suffice for now, wife." He said as he rolled his hand and cupped her cheek, his thumb tracing the right side of her nose. Mother Magic…he loved this woman more than life itself.
He would ensure he made any need for her intervention to be as close to null as possible by the time he left around autumn. Not only because he would be concerned for her but also because the pragmatic in him that wanted the Ravenites to be successful to a certain degree…for as long as possible.
Once the people were broken in spirit, first by the Ravenites and later by the horrors of war, people would search for meaning in their private lives once ideology has lost its appeal and there would be a desire for peace.
A peace that would be denied when Exposure happened and after all that has happened, there would be little appetite for further war and that was when they would present the alternative, an alternative that people would look forward to and embrace the chance to build a new world and gain a new lease on life free from their past.
Emily hummed indulgently before she closed her eyes and tucked into his chest, the sounds of soft dripping water the only thing they could hear and soon enough, he also closed his eyes and drifted off to sleep, his overworked mind getting much needed reprieve.
-Break-
Belogradchik Fortress, Bulgaria
Otto ÆlvissonPOV
He exited the floo in a flash of green fire with a seamless transition and as he looked up he could see a host of Ravenites waiting for him and he hardened himself in the face of their cool and hard expressions.
"You are late, Chief Wizard of Denmark." One of the Ravenites said in a cold tone to match his cold, hard expression.
Otto snarled "Mind how you speak to me, disciple." His face twisted into a furious snarl "Lest I have your tongue ripped out of your mouth." He said with a furious tone that lessened as he calmed himself though not without sending one last a hateful glare at the insignificant rat "I was delayed at customs despite having diplomatic clearance…something I will raise with Cullaica."
The Ravenite narrowed his eyes "Go. They will lead to him" He said and the path was cleared before him and Otto scowled at the man before he raised his head and simply began walking after the Ravenites.
Inwardly he let of that bout of tension. Weakness could never be shown. Never.
Even one as him with power in the Empire.
He followed silently through the labyrinthine ancient castle, the dampness of the castle could practically be felt on one's skin and he hated it. He never knew why Dark Lords liked these kinds of places. That was a lie, he morbidly though to himself.
It was uncomfortable, it was visually dark and it was intimidating.
What Dark Lord wouldn't want such a place as his throne?
He sighed internally as he reflected on the past decade and some years.
The Raven had delivered as promised.
The nobility lay supreme across most of Europe, those of weak and impure blood either put in their place, in the ground or working the ground, and the rest either allowed to remain relatively intact or otherwise scattered to the winds leaving their lands and wealth to those who it always should have belonged to.
The ICW had turned a blind eye as Ministry after Ministry fell to the Raven thanks to their agents that rotted the organisation from within and the reluctance from the rest of the world to get involved in another European war.
Something he was sure they were regretting deeply now that their power was left a shadow of itself and its political influence in the gutter as most members at most paid lip service to the weak authority of the organisation.
The few members of ancient families that managed to survive the purges – those who were helped to survive, he thought to himself silently – had their assets taken and redistributed to the families that were part of the Conspiracy and it allowed them to regain, if not greatly expand their wealth to levels before Grindelwald's defeat.
Their hereditary rights were restored and expanded, the Ministries were abolished and a return to the traditional Noble Folkmoot was re-established. The common folk served at the leisure of the nobility with little change to their circumstances – if they behaved – and all economic power rested back in their hands as it always should have been. This was a similar story that repeated itself throughout Europe.
His eyes flickered for a brief second before he returned his expression to a blank state. Yet…it was far from ideal. He eyed his escorts that bore indistinct black robes and walked with the same gait that only spoke of years of training and for a moment he let himself feel grim at the thought of tens of thousands of these men willing to die at the Raven's command.
He once though they were getting a younger, more malleable Grindelwald, one that wouldn't be able to make demands or have the strength of magic that seemed unsurpassable…how foolish were they.
In a way, they got what they wanted…and in others, he was far worse.
If Grindelwald had ever been as smart as the Raven and less insane, Europe would have been his well before Sayre had grown old enough to pose a threat.
And, he thought grimly, he thought that perhaps that was the greatest tragedy about it all, as he eyed the Ravenites with a wary and disdain glint before he squashed it.
The Raven and his personal attack dog had a cult that had grown and continued to grow at an alarming rate. Fanatics, zealous fanatics that worshiped the Raven as if he were a god and it wasn't simply the rabble that were falling under their spell…
Not that it was a spell, he thought as he resisted the urge to swallow. There were only rumours but it was enough to terrify even the proudest ones amongst them.
Those who committed themselves to the Raven would within the space of a year become unrecognisable, their entire world revolving around the Raven's whim.
Not even family mattered to them. Only the Raven did.
He resisted the urge to swallow as he remembered the extermination of the Zandorf family when its Head of House dared to stand up against the Raven for placing himself as the de facto leader of Germany rather than be voted for leadership as was tradition. Bastian Zandorf's own nephew watched with uncaring eyes as the Raven murdered his entire family…including his parents.
It was the first – and only time – that the notion of anything other than subordination was entertained. Flashes of memories of the darkest kinds of magic being employed in the killing of the Zandorf were at the forefront of his mind, kinds of magic that he hoped never to see again after the death of Grindelwald.
The worst thing about it all was that no one knew if that was the full depths of his abilities. No one even knew the man's name even after all these years.
And it wasn't the only thing that people, that he, didn't know about him. The man seemed as if he was simply spawned into existence from the depths of purgatory.
Despite his lack of political agenda, beyond the relatively simple desire to make all of the magical world obey, some had taken to come up with wild theories and attributions to the man, even suggesting that the Raven was behind the near zero birth of mudbloods in Raven held lands, that the Raven had cursed mudbloods, denying them the gift of magic they were unworthy to receive.
He would have scoffed if he did not fear that such a feat may not be out of the Raven's capabilities, he thought to himself with a shudder as he remembered the necromancy he'd seen the man perform. The only reason he doubted the man had done that is the simple fact that Otto didn't think the man even cared about purity.
The Raven was inhuman in that regard...in his disregard of all things but his desire to have the entire magical world under his rule.
He shook his head, banishing away about the mysteries about the man's origins.
Despite the Raven allowing the conservative families to regain their positions of power throughout the magical world and purification of the magical world, he made no comments about what his beliefs were…only that he be obeyed in totality.
And obey they did, he thought to himself, the concern swelling within the pits of his stomach. The Raven was as dark as Grindelwald had been…without the veneer of civility and charm. Cullaica was worse.
He shook his head and eyed his escorts another time before he faced forward, the deep trepidation that he felt roaring back from within. He made it a point of fact to never seek the presence of the Raven directly ever since…the purges.
So to be called to his seat of power…
He cursed himself for the ambitious nature that he possessed. He was the most powerful Dane in his country and the Chief Wizard appointed by the Raven himself to oversee Denmark.
Finally, he walked through the heavy doors and his escorts remained behind leaving him alone. His gaze flittered around the massive hall, a hall that reached at least five floors in height and about two thirds that wide, rings of candles lining the walls that dimly lit up the hall and he almost stopped in his steps when he saw the Raven sitting in a rickety stool by the small fire that was kept going in the fireplace.
He took a deep breath and clenched and unclenched his hand before he made his way towards the Dark Lord, a Dark Lord so unlike any he'd ever heard about.
The Raven cared nothing about comfort. Neither did he care about what he ate or what he drank. His Ravenites were the same, he thought with a scowl.
Odin-damned fanatics.
The worst thing about it is that people actually believed that the Raven was the Morrigan's chosen, her vessel on Earth to purify the magical world and that it was because of that blessing, that Gods given mission, that the Raven was the way he is.
Otto thought it was little more than idiotic ramblings by simple minded fools.
"Otto." The Raven said, his gaze never faltering away from the weak flickering fires and his voice was soft, as always, yet it left him resisting from letting a shiver go down his spine. As soft as it was, it was also like a flake of ice being carried away in arctic, frigid breeze, such was how his words seemed to be devoid any warmth.
Otto went to his knees and bowed low before the man. "My Lord…"
"How long as it been…? A year? Two?"
Otto swallowed as he looked up and somehow managed to keep the Raven's gaze, a gaze that contained two black orbs that seemed darker than the man's black locks, and on a face as pale as snow, they looked far from human.
"It has been four years, my Lord." Otto said humbly. "Far too long."
A raven's croaking call suddenly rang and a flittering of wings dominated the silent hall before the raven landed and perched itself onto his Lord's shoulder.
"You should know it is bad luck to lie before a Raven." His Lord said before he tilted his head slightly and scratched the back of the raven's head. The pet seemed to almost trill under the Raven's fingers.
His Lord turned towards him, his expression indifferent, devoid of any kind of emotion. The only expression Otto had ever seen on the man, even as he killed, even as he gained victory after victory and peoples after peoples came bowed before him.
"Nothing can be hidden before a raven's insight."
Otto swallowed and bowed his head, his head almost touching the floor.
"I…" The creaking sound of the rickety halted anything from what he going to say and his Lord's feet walked passed him, Otto keeping his head bowed as his Lord's feet disappeared from his periphery vision.
Otto tilted his head slightly and he tracked his Lord's movement and watched him go to the table that had a flat representation of the world etched onto its surface. Otto knew enough of the man's idiosyncrasies to stand up and go to the table.
The raven on his Lord's shoulder croaked again and flew away before landing, much to his dismay, on Denmark. The infernal raven pecked its beak on Copenhagen and ice replaced the blood running down his back.
"My Lor-" Otto began to choke, his body shivering as if he were naked in an ice storm in the midst of deadly winter night. His vision began to be clouded, black spots began to flicker in his field of vision but he saw enough, much to his horror, tendrils made out of black nightmare rippling from the Raven.
The Raven tilted his head slightly towards him, the same blank emotionless face that wouldn't look out of place on the face of the deceased. A blazing fire began to roar from behind him as the candle lights were snuffed out one by one and the light of the blazing fire cast a heavy shadow over the Raven's indifferent face.
"Your control is slipping." The Raven said, the ice in his voice echoing through the pitch black magic he was exuding and he was brought to his knees.
"M-my…my L-Lord!" Otto's voice was frantic, his body fighting as hard as it could as he tried to get words out from his mouth. "T-tell m-me wh-what is w-wrong, I will remove ev-vvery tr-trace of it!" he choked out with desperation.
The Raven tilted his head away from Otto and it felt like an age, as if time itself had stopped under the weight of the Raven's magic yet, mercifully, it stopped before he thought he would lose all consciousness.
Otto heaved as he sucked in deep breath after deep breath and, after managing to feel his legs again, he shakily got back onto his feet though he kept his head low and bowed. The silence felt stifling and Otto had trouble stopping from trembling.
He'd seen the Raven disintegrate men, powerful sorcerers that were far from unworthy, like they were nothing, without even appearing to do anything.
The man was a magical force of nature and it was all he could think of and it couldn't come more as a relief when the Raven spoke again, ending the stifling silence.
"There are those amongst your people in contact with the ICW." The Raven said without inflection his voice, his voice as calm as a still spring day and Otto gulped as he realised the severity of the situation…of what he had let happen.
He knew full well how close they were to expanding outward again towards Italy and the Far East and the last thing they needed is for traitors to let the enemy through the backdoor. It was the last thing he needed.
"Who, my Lord?" Otto said with urgency and the Raven raised his hand and the pet raven croaked before he landed onto his Lord's hand.
"That will be for you to find out." The Raven said as he tilted his head slightly before he turned away and made to walk away but not without adding. "Hjalmar Stolpe was unable to find out who was responsible." Otto fought to remain calm under the confirmation of what probably happened to Stolpe.
The man had disappeared just under a month ago and now he knew why.
"I will not fail you." Otto said with a bow from the hips, meaning every single word of it. He would not fail. He could not fail.
The Raven said nothing and the light of the fire was snuffed out and within less than half a second, all the candles were relit and…and there was no sight of the Raven.
Otto closed his eyes and stood there for some time, his breathing quiet.
When he reopened his eyes, he regained a measure of his composure and twisted on his heels as he made way towards the doors. He knew exactly who to question.
A silent snarl made way on his face. This was how they would repay him?!
He who ensured the blood traitors a chance to bow or to leave after the fighting was over?! This was how they would repay him?!
A glaze of hate fell over him. Fine. If he must go the route of Germany…of Austria…of Russia…
So be it