Jeremy Taylor communed with his British colleagues well into the night. They found a red Toyota Aygo on the road a few blocks away from Jeremy's hotel, but not the car's driver. CCTV footage from the traffic light showed Eren surrounded by the non–wizard cops, but the camera was positioned in such an angle that it was impossible to actually see the moment of the kidnapping. All they found was him surrounded, glass shattered, then the cars drove away and he was gone. Other cameras in the vicinity of the intersection showed no cars in that area, police or otherwise.

Finally Jeremy acknowledged there was nothing more he could to. He was tired. He hadn't eaten all day. He needed rest. So he took off his trenchcoat, his black t–shirt and his black jeans, and went to bed. He lay there a very long while, now and then drifting into sleep, then waking up again, until at last exhaustion overtook him...

They could not fly. Trapped in the dark, among the corpses, and they could not fly up. Something was at work here, some will had set itself against them and would not let them fly.

McCulloch laughed, but there was no mirth in it. „He's going to force us to reach him the hard way. There are more horrors in store for us in that building."

They had no choice. If they were to get to the Excruciator they would have to play his sick game. Pierce went first, casting another Lumos spell into the darkness. It was bad, yes, the stench and the sound and the swarms of flies that assailed them, but it was better than having to walk in total darkness and risk stepping onto the corpses. They joined up behind Pierce, each man holding onto the one in front of him.

The building loomed ahead of them in the dark, occassionally lit up from behind by the wizards waging war in the air. In Jeremy's mind the tower resembled the barrel of a gun, pointed upwards. „Watch out for broken glass," Pierce said as they approached the main entrance, the glass doors smashed apart by something or someone. Thus far they hadn't caught even a glimpse of their target. And things were about to get worse, not through gore and mutilation of the human form, but through implication.

The main lobby lay in ruins. The ceiling above their heads had been destroyed, the rebar completely bent out of shape. There was rubble everywhere, the dust of concrete lay thick over every surface. Every surface but one. As they advanced into the lobby they saw piles upon piles upon piles of clothes and shoes, a huge circular mound. And in the center of the circle a hole filled with still fresh, glittering blood.

They stood around the pool and the mound of clothes. They all seemed to know instinctively what this meant, and felt no need to discuss it further until Cobb brought something to their attention. „Look up," he whispered. They did as told and saw a cluster of blood bags directly above the pool. Upon closer observation, each and every blood bag had the same name on its outside packaging. Malachi Greymist.

„Still fresh..." Houston said. „And all of it his own? He must've somehow... cloned it, or something..."

„What do we make of the clothes, then, if all the blood is his own?" Greer asked.

„Pseudo–wizards..." Pierce whispered.

„What?"

„Pseudo–wizards. Hybrids," he explained. „I've heard rumors of Greymist's experiments on non–wizards, but I didn't think he was actually performing them."

„And what did the rumors say?"

„Oh, he would... kill them, leave their bodies to soak in his blood, and then they would miraculously come back to life with magical power in their veins. He never succeeded," Pierce was quick to add. „But yeah, we are looking at a mass sacrifice of sorts. Just not in the traditional way."

A blood baptism. Jeremy felt sick.

„I heard differently, boss," Buchanan spoke up. „I heard there was one survivor of the procedure."

„One or none, I guess it makes no difference in the grand scheme of things," Pierce shrugged. „Let's continue."

The elevators in the lobby were, as expected, not functioning. They would have to use the stairs. Floor by agonizing floor they went, in silence and in darkness, wind howling through the broken windows of the tower. They were on the sixth or seventh floor when from behind them came a flicker. The Aurors reacted as one, their wands trained on the sudden source of light.

A television set. At first the screen was pure blue. Then shapes came out of it, stuttering, soundless, taking the form of people, people riding brooms over a lake in broad daylight, with downtown Seattle in the background. Jeremy seemed to recognize the place shown, if only barely. „Gas Works Park," he said, more to himself than to anyone else. The Aurors put their weapons down, but did not yet look away.

The transmission continued. People. People running. People cheering. People applauding. Police on bikes, police on cars, police in their vans. A military parade, of sorts. Men and women in black, marching, wands held in their right hands and across their chests, some carrying standards resembling those of the Roman legions, black with a white circle in the center where the great red dragon spewed flames, its head held high and proud.

The camera cut to what appeared to be a podium. In the middle of it stood their man, or at least so they thought. The brightness was suddenly turned all the way up, clear blue sky in the recording turning white, and a thick vertical line of digital corruption ran through the middle of the screen, where the Excruciator stood. Maybe. The only sound until then was the quiet buzz of the television. Suddenly a garbled voice came through, his voice. „– nute of silence – who lived – suffe – died – wizard brethren –"

Then the screen went black again. The Aurors looked at each other uncertainly and came to the unspoken agreement that they would go no further unless they knew what they were getting themselves into. And so Pierce cast a spell, something new from the Auror Department just for situations like these. A small cube of blue light manifested itself in the air, and on each side of it six more cubes materialized. This sorcery would serve to detect movement in front of them, behind them, above, below, left, right, they had their dimensions covered.

They proceeded up the stairs. Everywhere the corridors were riddled with holes, walls half demolished, in some cases even melted. And the further they went, the more apparent signs of struggle became.

The intersection filled with tormented corpses was horrifying, yes, but if that was Greymist's intent, to horrify them by showing them what would happen to his enemies, then he had failed. He had failed, because the disgust they all felt at such desecrations of the human form far outweighed the initial horror. If they went a little further and came across another room filled with bodies, it would've had little effect except to spur them on to find the foul wretch responsible for the massacre.

But no, the more they advanced, the less overtly horrifying everything became. Their environment seemed to recede into mere implications the further they went. First there was that pool of blood, then that broadcast of a military parade of wizards and non–wizards, or whatever it was. And now they were passing rooms and offices with burnt interiors and splintered doors and blown out windows and it was clear that something had happened here, but they had no clue what.

On the thirty–sixth floor, Pierce assumed a more guarded stance. The rest of the Aurors followed suit, though they weren't sure why. Their magical tesseract radar didn't show any movement in the area. „Sir," Jeremy began, „what is–"

Pierce pressed one finger to his lips, eyes wide, and pointed forward. Beyond the blue light of the radar charm they squinted, but eventually the rest of them saw what Pierce had noticed. From one of the rooms to the left there emanated faint white light. As they approached they could hear a feminine voice, maybe that of a child.

„We went to the trough, Lord. We went bent and convulsed. We saw blood, Lord. It was glittering. You dispensed it, and we bathed in it. We saw your image. The gap of your eyes and mouth is void. We went bent and convulsed. It broke us and dissolved us. We went to the trough, Lord..." It went on with the same cadence, the same tempo, the same order of words. It was a recording being played on a loop. And increasingly they became aware of an ugly droning sound in the background that came and went from the recording, similar in tone to those harsh noises one heard in EAS broadcasts.

Pierce entered the room first, checked the corners. Nothing. Just a single analog television set, tuned to static. The voice persisted, the droning persisted, but now they were joined by another voice, playing exclusively on the left audio channel. This one was deep, wise, grandfatherly and full of sorrow, but the words it said made zero sense, and occasionally it was interrupted by a single brief burst of racuous applause that would be played on a loop, over and over before cutting out just as abruptly as it appeared.

„– vain – exceptionally – important – the – I – know – Diggory – will – to – and – pain – in – and – events – speak – does – reminds – was – importantly – know – different – the – Cedric – The – come – Diggory – and – made – was – this – be – acknowledge – working – that – this – Lord – remember – as – and – Remember – this – loss – died – see – insult – ever – I – we – of – that –"

Applause. Applause. The girl's voice sounded like it had shifted to the right, seemingly to accomodate the stream of nonsense on the left.

„We went to the trough, Lord..."

„– a – to – you – think – intricately – end – have – will – light – a – our – different – Now – be – kind – would – Cedric – honest – so – really – fierce, fierce – of – reminds – Voldemort – Today – Diggory – and – terrible – that – all – we – the – was – exactly – me – You – of – at – magic – bonds – he – me – right – died – boy – have – to – therefore – more –"

„We went bent and convulsed..."

Applause. Applause. Applause. It was fascinating how a single moment in time could, through the mere act of repetition, begin to feel distorted, bizarre, menacing, or just outright strange.

„We saw blood, Lord..."

„– most – all – in – do – we'll – while – friend – not – loss – and – tongues – places – than – how – us – think – You – friendship – one – celebrate – brave – And – not – to – recent – we – as – murdered – But – you –"

„It was glittering..."

Applause. Applause. Applause. Applause. Applause. The Aurors stared at the static, then at each other. They understood the message of the intersection filled with corpses – step to me and you will end up like them. They understood the message of the previous broadcast – my rule is accepted by the people. But this? What was the message here? They knew not, and they felt like they should.

„You dispensed it, and we bathed in it..."

„– a – wish – ministry – true – memory – dreadful – year – his – not – minded – hard – we – may – In – right – Cedric – hearts – by – fair – to –"

„We saw your image..."

Applause. Applause. Applause. Applause. Applause. Applause. Applause. Applause.

„The gap of your eyes and mouth is void..."

„beat – tell – the – you – very – from – feel – who – an–"

„We went bent and convulsed..."

Applause. Applause. Applause. Applause. Applause. Applause. Applause. Applause. Applause. Applause. Applause. Applause. Applause. „I don't think we should listen to it," Rhett said. He looked around at his comrades, wincing.

„It broke us and dissolved us..."

There was no remote to turn the television off. Jeremy went for its cable, only to find the thing wasn't even plugged into a socket.

Feeling distinctly like they had just been placed under some kind of curse, the Aurors continued their long climb upwards. More and more they had to watch where they were walking. Huge gaping holes began appearing in the walls and the floor the more they went upwards. Offices looked like they had been gutted by fire and the wind howled through the shattered windows, through the desolation. But so far they had found no one, dead or alive, and their magical radar wasn't picking anything up.

On the 72nd floor Rhett split away from the group. At first no one noticed as he shuffled away silently. Cobb was the first to call it to the attention of the others and they turned to see him standing in an office whose entire wall seemed to have been ripped off and the place exposed to the wind. There stood Rhett, on the edge of the precipice.

Not that Jeremy could see any of that. They gathered at the entrance to the office, the entrance flanked by two great pillars of concrete, and Jeremy was all the way at the back of the group. „Rhett?" Pierce called out.

„Pierce. I have found something wonderful."

„What?"

„See?" Rhett said. „Do you see him?"

He could see Pierce staring, frowning. „Rhett, what are you talking about?"

„There! There!"

„I see only darkness. And those flashes of light."

„Yes, yes! It's in the light! It came in. There and gone. There and gone. See? It appears in the flash and then disappears. But it always comes back."

„Rhett, are you alright? I think–"

„Look, Pierce! Look at the flashes! Can't you see his blood? It was glittering."

„His... oh no."

„You dispensed it, and we bathed in it. We saw..."

Pierce looked at the rest of them. „Let's go restrain him," he said quietly.

„What are you doing?" Rhett laughed. „Don't you understand? We saw your image. We saw your image." His voice dropped dangerously low. „We saw your image!" he began snarling and a new voice seemed to join him in lamentation. „WE SAW YOUR IMAGE!"

„Let's go, buddy," Pierce said kindly.

„EXPULSO MELSO!"

The room exploded, turning into a roaring inferno. Of the ten, nine were instantly slain as the force of the detonation ripped the room apart. The concrete floor exploded into millions of tiny shards, scattering in every direction. The force of the blast rocked the tower and oily, black smoke billowed from the rising ball of flame that burst from the empty windows.

Jeremy was shielded from the worst of it by virtue of standing the farthest from the room where it happened, protected by the giant pillar that was in his way. Nevertheless he was thrown back by the force of the blast which hurled his comrades through the air like rag dolls. He was smashed against the wall and fell to the floor, amid a tangle of burning rubble and flesh. Dimly, he heard someone call his name, and then he–

And then he woke up.

He heard someone call his name, but it wasn't in a dream. It was real. Someone was at his hotel room door, knocking. „Just a moment!" he yelled, dressed hastily, and opened up.

„Sorry to spoil your beauty sleep," said Hermione. Beside her, Eren stared off to the side like a boy being brought to his parents for punishment.