Raylynx's POV
That night, with my hood low over my face, I made to sneak out into the mountains.
"You don't give up, do you?"
I let out a breath of frustration and annoyance as I turned around to come face-to-face with Sehtzer. His arms were crossed over his chest and he made for an imposing figure. He looked down at me, unimpressed.
"I know where he is," I retorted. "Now, would you like to come with me or-"
I was about to say "bugger off", but he smoothly cut across my aggressive retort by answering, "Yes."
His simple affirmation caught me off guard. "But not until daylight," he continued. "Vampires are always more powerful than humans, but the sunlight weakens them intensely while nighttime strengthens them infinite times over."
"So," he finished, "it's not a good idea to go after him now."
"He's not a vampire. He's a wizard, a Dark Wizard," I told him.
"Yes, but he has made an alliance with the Vampires," Sehtzer replied. "Now, come away from the door."
I sighed as I followed him back to the hallway that housed all the overnight rooms.
He pushed open the door to mine, which I had left unlocked. As he did, his sleeve rose up his arm and I saw his tattoos once again.
The question, burning with an old curiosity I hadn't felt since Hogwarts, left my lips without any consideration. "Can I read your Runes?"
Sehtzer paused as he turned his head to look at me. "You can read Runes?" he asked me.
I shrugged. "Only a little. Only the basics."
Sehtzer seemed to consider for a moment before he relented. "All right. You may try."
"But they are many and complicated, so let me sit down first," he told me.
I knew he was asking permission to enter my room, so I nodded and went in first and then offered him the chair at the table. I pulled up the other chair besides it. He sat down and gracefully folded back both his sleeves. Then, he held out his arms for me to read.
I read one around his wrist, having to turn awkwardly to do so.
"That's an ancient Runic form of Latin," I realized.
"Yes."
"Deo volente. God Willing?"
"Yes."
I started to read the one running around his forearm and up to his shoulder. "Cum daemones deficiam accipient post me…" Immersed in my reading, I didn't think twice about it when I gently pushed his sleeve up his arm without asking.
"… ne quis mihi opponere idem. So, that means-"
"When I die I shall take the demons with me, so that no one behind me shall have to face the same ones," Sehtzer recited.
I nodded, then realized what I was doing, holding up his sleeve to read his shoulder.
"Oh, I'm sorry," I said, and hurriedly let his sleeve back drop.
"No need for apology," he said calmly and held out his other arm to me.
I read aloud, "Inspire et perspicuitati conducit et tremens, timorique perpetuo in fronte vitae quam vel limitatione, constituere visu indigentiam…"
"To fears that inspire clarity and the trembling before life- " he began to translate.
"- Rather than blindness or limitation," I finished.
He nodded. Then, he opened his hand.
I studied the markings running down his fingers and in his palm.
"Can you read them?"
I hesitated, and then shook my head. "These are unfamiliar runes. I've never seen them before," I admitted. But wait, haven't I see this pattern before? "But this pattern of lines... They're tied to old magic," I realized. "Myth, lore, legend…"
"Impressive," Sehtzer raised an eyebrow. "But I expect no less from the witch who wields the King's Wand."
My eyes flickered up to his face. How does he know about the King's Wand? And why are the line patterns of the ancient magic circle pointing to the center on his arm? Is the parallel design mere coincidence?
His dark eyes gave away nothing, so I dropped my eyes to his palm again. Unfortunately, I couldn't read them at all. "What these Runes mean, I've no idea," I admitted, letting go of his hand.
He brought his other hand to his palm and with his finger, he began to trace the markings. "These are older Illyrian markings," he explained. "You have to know five different languages to translate them into your tongue: Runic to Illyrian to modern-day Albanian to Latin to English. Essentially, these markings signify a property." He traced his five fingers with his other hand all at once. "Endurance, Healing, Tracking, Power, Sure-footed… and Balance, here." He tapped his palm to indicate the 'Balance' Rune.
"These Runes invoke passive spellcasting," I observed.
"Yes, they are cognizant even when you are not conscious."
"Like protective enchantments?"
"Yes. Although, the specific Protective and Guidance runes are inscribed on my back."
"Can you show me?" I asked.
He raised an eyebrow, but then proceeded to stand up and pull off his cloak. I suddenly realized he would have to take his shirt off to show me his back markings. Fortunately, he didn't seem to think anything of it as he pulled off his shirt. "Look at my back," he said.
There was a dragon curling down the right side of his back and it encircled four Runes, one in-between his shoulders and another stretching up from the base of his neck to the back of his neck and on either side behind his ears.
"Protection is the one directly on my back. It's merged with Deflection," Sehtzer explained. "Clarity is on my neck. Behind my left ear is Wisdom and behind my right is Night Vision, merged with Stealth."
I tried hard to commit the Runes to memory. But they were far too complicated to memorize just by sight. My finger hovered in the air, trying to trace them.
He abruptly turned around to face me. I paused, my finger see hovering in the air. He instantly realized what I was doing.
"You wish to learn a Runic marking?" he asked me.
"Yes," I admitted.
Sehtzer sighed, and simply continued to explain the remainder of his Runes. "The one over my heart is faith, accompanied by True North."
He started to reach for his shirt when I noticed one Runic Marking that he had not explained.
"And that one?" I asked.
Sehtzer didn't respond until he had put his shirt back on.
"It's dux bellorum. I imagine you know what that means," he said quietly.
"War leader," I translated.
"Yes. That's what I am for my people."
"So, you're not just an Apothecary," I guessed.
"No, I suppose not." He sat back down. "However, it is true that only people who have Healing Powers can ever be War Leaders in my community," he explained. "We have to know the cost of the damage we inflict before we have the right to inflict it."
"I see."
Then, he asked me, "Which Runic Marking do you wish to learn?"
"What?" I said, startled.
"Which Rune do you want me to teach you?" he said impatiently. "Answer wisely."
I gazed into his face, trying to study his intentions.
"What gives?" I asked.
"Excuse me?"
"What's the price?" I clarified.
He hesitated and then, in a very quiet voice, he said, "I wish to hold the King's Wand once more. Just for a moment. The Wand will resist me, because you are its Master. But I had hoped to speak with it again."
I did not answer immediately, mulling it over in my mind. I wanted to learn a Runic marking, and Sehtzer had been very patient in explaining all of markings to me. At the same, I could tell that this was no ordinary wizard before me and with the King's Wand, there was no telling what he would do.
"You give your word not to take it or kill me with it?" I asked him, hardly daring to believe that I was willing to make this trade. This is stupid. This is too much of a risk. But if what he says is true and the Runes are tied to ancient language and Protection, then I need to learn about them. I have always been stronger at Runic magic than spellcasting.
"Do what you will to stop me from taking it, if that will ease your mind," he offered.
Finally, I made up my mind. I placed my hand on the table, palm pressing flat to the table top. A silver sheet that looked almost like crystal ice expanded from my palm and covered the table, ran down the table legs to the ground and covered the entire room in this magical freeze. The doors froze shut and the window was covered over by impenetrable ice.
Then, I slipped the King's Wand out of my cloak and held it out to him.
He grasped it.
Suddenly, the markings on his body glowed a silver-green.
Sehtzer shuddered and closed his eyes.
I leapt to my feet, ready to produce a Shield from my palm.
Sehtzer groaned and whispered, "My old friend. Pendragon…"
Then, he cried out in pain as the light emitting from his body turned a crimson red.
He fell forward from the chair and collapsed on the floor.
"Sehtzer!" I shouted.
"You are not my Master anymore!"
"Take it!" Sehtzer shouted. "Take the wand from me!"
"Let me devour you," the dragon's voice growled menacingly. "You traitor… Abuser of power!"
I leapt over to him and tried to grab the wand from Sehtzer's hand.
I gasped as my body felt like it was doused in ice cold water. But, by some magic force, the King's Wand tried to remain with Sehtzer, and the light running through his body was growing stronger, as if it met to devour him. We both held onto it, though he was trying to let go of it and I was trying to take it back.
As we both held the wand, suddenly, my mind was flooded with memories that weren't mine.
Sehtzer let out a loud shout, and finally, we broke apart and fell onto the floor. The King's Wand was held tight in my hand.
I got to our feet, breathing heavily. "You… You used to be the Master of this Wand," I said, accusingly. That was Pendragon on his back. I knew I recognized the tattoo.
Sehtzer slumped in his chair, trying to get his breath back.
"What happened?" I asked. "Why did the Wand reject you? How did you lose it in the first place?"
Sehtzer looked up at me. His eyes look haunted. "I betrayed Pendragon," he confessed. "These Runes and the ways of my people: They are repentance."
"You're a King," I realized.
Sehtzer sighed and did not answer my question, but his silence was answer enough.
I looked down at the King's Wand before I stowed it away.
"Now, tell me which Rune you want," Sehtzer said grimly.
"Protection."
Sehtzer nodded, but he cautioned, "There is something you must understand about these Runes. The Runic Markings signal magical ways of being. So there is a certain naturalness about how they acquired. Often, they must be earned before your body will accept the marking. You cannot do justice with Runic Magic unless it is authentic, and for that, you must experience it yourself. However, with the Protection Rune, protection is something only someone else can give to you. You cannot bestow it upon yourself."
"So what you're saying is that someone else has to grant you Protection," said.
"Yes. Either someone who cares for you very much or someone who is well-versed in Runic Magic. Of course, the Rune is at its most effective when both conditions are met."
"Furthermore," he said, "only someone who possesses the Protection Rune herself can cast it upon someone else. This is true of all Runes. Understand, also, that ancient Magic follows fundamental laws. They do not strive to keep to methods of science or defeat natural causes. The Protection Rune does not look to counter death, nor is it always clear how the Protection will manifest itself. Sometimes it physically deflects blows, but other times it protects your memories. It all depends on how you react to a situation."
"You trade the risks of unpredictable specific manifestation for the predictable control of space and time," I realized. "When you secure one, you lose the other."
Sehtzer nodded. "Yes. Magic from a wand and spell-casting in general tend to demand as narrow as possible a window of space-time and in return, grant very particular control over that moment. Runic Markings extend that window, but as you note, you can no longer control the particular manfestation."
"Now." Sehtzer stood up. "Protection Runes are usually on your back."
"Yes."
Sehtzer looked at me skeptically. He waved his hand in the air a couple times, as if asking, "Well…?"
"Oh," I realized. "Right." I got up and took off my Cloak. Then I hesitated, but he'd already turned his back. I slowly stripped off my shirt and then tucked it securely between my arms before sitting in the chair with my back to him.
"Are you ready?" he asked.
"Yes."
He pulled out his own wand, but it was different from normal wands. I looked over my shoulder at it curiously.
"It will burn slightly, but nothing unbearable," he warned me.
I nodded. As he started to engrave the Runic Mark on the middle of my back, I flinched a little. He paused for a moment before carrying on.
"Should I be silent?" I asked him.
"You still have questions?"
"Yes."
He waited quietly.
"Your wand. I've never seen that type of wood before."
"Yes, we subscribe to a different philosophy of wand-making," he affirmed. "We use healing and tracing woods for our wands and fuse the woods alchemically, to encourage healing over fighting. It's not that we do not fight or duel or hunt. We do all of those things, but we blunt our wands to force us to try to think more creatively before we use force."
I thought of what Pendragon had said to me as I took the King's Wand: "You will never be able to fulfill its destructive potential. That is why I have blessed you with it."
Finally, Sehtzer said, "All right."
He turned away again to give me time to dress myself, and I looked at my tattoo through the mirror in the room. It was Protection Rune encased in a blooming lotus.
I put my shirt back on before I turned to him and said, "Thank you. It's beautiful."
"Practice drawing the Rune before you perform it on someone else," he advised me.
"I will," I promised.
I pressed my hand to the wall and the Freezing Spell slowly melted away. I opened the window to reveal sunrise.
"Let's go," I said.
He nodded and followed after me.
The sun had risen fully by the time we had we made our way deep in the forest, but the trees were so thick that the forest was as dark as night.
"We should have taken broomsticks or a magic carpet," I mused.
"They would have brought it down," Sehtzer replied. "Although the shadows are more advantageous to them than to us, it still keeps us hidden from unfriendly eyes."
I led us further into the Dark Forest.
"How is it you know exactly where you're going?" Sehtzer asked me.
"I'm guessing," I dismissed him briefly. I hated talking about the Legilimency I performed. It always reminded me of what I'd done to Amy and by extension, to Jamie and Sola.
Sehtzer suddenly held up his hand. "Wait," he said. "Do you hear that?"
A soft crunching… and then a flapping of wings…
"We're being followed," Sehtzer murmured.
"We're close to the cavern," I whispered back. His eyes flickered up and I knew I'd confirmed that I had just confirmed that I did, in fact, know exactly where we were going.
"Stay close," I said quietly and we moved forward.
At one point, I stopped abruptly, putting my arm out to stop Sehtzer.
A huge python ran through the foliage and slithered away.
I let out the breath that I'd been holding and moved on.
"This is it," I said, peering into a pitch-black cavern.
"Now listen," I said, turning to Sehtzer. "You have your own reasons for wanting to hunt this man down."
"He's wreaked havoc on the villagers," Sehtzer growled. "He's clearing the path for Unicorn Hunters, and he's killing innocent peasants. Furthermore, he has an Alliance with the vampires, who have been itching to overturn Albania into their rule for centuries now."
"Right," I said. "All very, um, legitimate reasons," I understated.
"And you want to tell me you have your own," Sehtzer guessed.
I nodded.
"Understood. Let's go," he said.
We entered the cavern together.
My eyes widened as the cavern quickly expanded vastly into some sort-of underworld gothic castle carved completely out of black stone.
"This way," Sehtzer whispered, and led the way into a hallway.
We made our way deeper into the sanctum, climbing stairs further down.
Suddenly, Sehtzer hissed. He grabbed me and shoved us into a niche that I had missed. In fact, it was so well hidden that I was certain that there was no way of guessing that it was there before.
"You've been here before," I breathed out.
Suddenly, the low snakelike hissing of vampire speech could be heard.
Sehtzer and I, crammed into this crack in the wall, both held our breaths.
Footsteps sounded at past us.
I let out the breath I'd been holding.
"Come, we must move on," he said. "Those were guards. We're close to the inner sanctums if they're here."
Perhaps we were close, but it felt like these dark curving tunnels were endless.
"It's an illusion," Sehtzer told me, noticing how weary I was becoming. "It's their defense against intruders."
"We're not getting anywhere," I said, frustrated.
"We are. We're close," Sehtzer promised.
Suddenly, I heard footsteps sound out from the end of the hallway we'd just come out of.
"Sehtzer," I said quietly. He turned and looked over my shoulder. His breath caught, and I felt a thrill of fear as I turned around.
There, at the end of the hallway was him. Voldemort.
Before either of us could react, a piercing shriek filled the cavern as a vampire leapt down from the ceiling and attacked us.
Sehtzer raised his hand and a magical shield emanated from his palm, deflecting the vampire's aggressive attack.
At the same time, two more vampires dropped down behind me, hissing.
I swiped my wand in the air in time to conjure a shield. Then I pointed my wand at them and shouted, "Sonum ignis!" A fireball erupted.
The vampires' high-pitched screaming made me want to drop my wand and press my hands to my ears, but there was no time to pause.
"Run!" Sehtzer and I ran as hard as we could down the passageway, away from the vampires.
"You realize we're running further into their lair!?" I yelled from behind him.
"There's an exit up ahead!" Sehtzer shouted back.
Then, I heard the shrieking of vampires again. I looked back to see partially-translucent smokey figures half-flying and half-running through the hallway towards us.
Telo lumen! I thought and a bolt of pure light shot out of my wand.
Those hideous screams rang out again, and although the first two forms fell back, the third form managed to push through its brothers and leap at me.
It leapt a huge distance in the blink of an eye and managed to land on me.
I yelled as it pinned me to the floor. I tried to struggle, but didn't last so much as a second. The vampire was famously vicious in both strength and speed. Its physicality was superhuman many times over and its ice-cold hands gripped at my wrists and I screamed as I felt my bones starting to fracture from the intense pressure. Quicker than a blink of an eye, the vampire ducked its head down and made to pierce its fangs into my neck. Just then, a blast of fire sent the vampire hurling backwards.
"Come on, get up!" Sehtzer pulled me up to my feet and helped me to scramble forward. We were constantly tripping over each other, but we managed to keep going forward.
"That's the exit!" Sehtzer pointed to the end of the hall we were racing down, which was lit up, but I couldn't make out quite what was beyond it.
However, just before we reached it, a mass of bats flew out from an adjunct passageway and attacked us all at once. Sehtzer opened his hand and let out a stream of fire on the floor. He had hoped to set it alight, but the black rock here was magical in that it resisted flame. He cursed
"Keep running!" Sehtzer roared.
I threw my hands up to guard my face as I tried to follow him. The bats attacked mercilessly, their claws scratching at our faces and shoulders.
"Jump!" he shouted.
We both hurled ourselves out of the passageway, straight into the midday sunlight. To my surprise, even though we were already so deep underground, we dropped quite a ways down. I fell hard. Besides me, Sehtzer groaned as well. The couple bats that got caught up with us were immediately weakened. One of them managed to weakly go back to the cavern. The other failed to gather the strength to fly and was slowly incinerated.
I pushed myself up to my feet. "Where are we?" I murmured, looking up.
Then, my eyes widened as I realized in shock that we were in front of the tree I had traced Dark Magic to yesterday. But I traveled high into the mountains to get to this tree. How did we come to this tree after jumping down from the vampire caves?
"It's an illusion," Sehtzer explained, seeing the confusion written all over my face. "It only seems downhill because of the mountain slope. The whole castle actually reaches higher and higher into the mountains. That, and there are plenty of illusive mental barriers in there."
"But we're still not safe here," Sehtzer said to me. He beckoned. "Come on."
I nodded and started to follow him when abruptly, a flash of intense pain ran down from my neck all the way to my leg on my right side.
"Ah," I hissed and put my hand on my neck.
But Sehtzer had already quickly started to make his way down from the jut of rock we were standing on. He dropped down. I followed him, but as soon as I landed, another flash of pain shot through me.
"If we can just get to the base of the mountain-" Sehtzer was saying, but then another wave of sharp pain racked my body. Before I knew it, I fell to the floor.
I was still conscious, but the overwhelming pain consumed my mind. I could think of nothing else but the fire- or was it ice- that tore at me inside of my veins.
"Raylynx!" Sehtzer kneeled down beside me.
The pain so sharp that I could not tell if it was hot or cold. I shivered. "My n-neck." I managed to force out the words. "It burns!"
Sehtzer reached down and pushed my hair away from my neck. Then, his eyes flashed and turned hard. For a moment, he seemed to be weighing all of his options carefully.
"I could hunt down a vampire, but I'd have to leave you here," Sehtzer muttered under his breath. He looked at me and I saw something resolve in him.
I gritted my teeth as my blood seared.
"Can't," I heard him say.
It felt a knife was being dragged through every atom of my body. It felt just short of the Cruciatus Curse- just enough to keep me conscious for all the pain. And something inside me was starting to grow, like a shard of metal, and it kept my eyes open and I knew that I couldn't fall unconscious even if I wanted to. Am I Petrifying?
"I need to get you help immediately," Sehtzer said, intensely focused. "But how? A werewolf could save you, but there are no werewolves around he-."
Sehtzer cut off as a shrill whistle rang out through the cavern above us.
"Damn it!" Sehtzer hurriedly put away his wand, picked me up in his arms, and immediately started running through the forest.
But the vampires were already leaping down from the caverns. These were the stronger vampires- the guards- who had been trained to withstand some amount of sunlight.
Weakly, I pointed my wand at the ground behind us and murmured, "Incendio."
Flame burst onto the ground. It caught on the natural foliage and began to spread quickly, climbing up trees and devouring the dead leaves.
The fire prevented the vampires who were attempting to close in on us from the shadow of the trees from getting to us easily, but at the same time, it forced Sehtzer to try to keep up with the flames with me in his arms.
I tried to conjure a Water Shield for us, but I couldn't think straight. I was sweating feverishly and my vision was starting to go red. I was having trouble breathing. "Save your strength," Sehtzer managed to breath out as he kept running down the mountainside as fast as he could.
We finally broke out of the Black Forest just in time to avoid both the vampires and the trail of fire we'd left behind us. Sehtzer gently set me down on the ground in sunlight.
But I found that the bright sunlight hurt me. I grimaced and moaned slightly.
Sehtzer's brow furrowed. "It's only been a few minutes since you were bitten."
I grit my teeth, but the sounds of hurt escaped anyways.
Sehtzer checked on my wound again. He hissed lightly when he saw it. "The wound is closing already? How in the world-?" Suddenly, he let out a breath of both understanding and frustration. "It's the snake's venom. It's because the snake's poison is interacting with the vampire bat's venom. The poison is already deep in your system, so it's aiding and speeding up the venom spreading in your system."
He closed his eyes and breathed out, thinking that there was no chance of survival for me.
"S-Sehtzer," I managed to breath out. "A-Apparate to L-London."
He shook his head. "How? I've never been. For Apparition, I must picture it clearly enough to-"
"But I've never been! I can't picture it clearly enough to-"
I gathered my strength and with a colossal effort, I reached up and pressed my hand to his face.
I tried to send him a clear picture of Remus' place, which is where I needed to go. But my heart just wasn't there, and in my current state, I finally lost the will to resist my desire. So, I sent him an image of the place I wanted to go in the deepest part of my heart. His eyes widened as he saw where I was signaling for him to take me. Then, the pain kicked in at such a high level that I lost focus. My hand dropped from his face and my eyes closed.
I felt the sensation of being picked up and then the rushing of wind sounded out all around me.
