Chapter 78 - A New Perspective.

To say that some of the people in this world are monsters, is a bit of an understatement. At least, I think so. For example, Voldemort is a monster. This is an easy connection to make for me. The first person I recognized as a real monster, was in fact, Voldemort.

I’d known people who were monstrous before that, but they weren’t fully lost. They weren’t beasts who, someday, it’ll be between me and them, because they can’t help but cause everyone around them to suffer.

That’s Voldemort, a monster. I’d known it since I was eleven.

Then there are monsters on a different track. In this case, Aubrey Hawthorne. Dueling Champion - youngest to earn the title in history. Known as easily the single greatest student the school has ever known, magically, mentally, physically. She’s what jealous people call a monster. Someone who can do anything with ease, and it’s apparent. No one is her equal. No one could hope to be her equal.

Of course no one in Hogwarts knows Aubrey as well as I do, I think. She’s shown me a lot of her skills. The ability to vanish and appear in a different place nearby, which ignores any kind of wards I’d read about. The ability to manipulate shadows to create weapons, constructs, and more. Her knowledge of spells which can do anything from knock someone out with a simulated blow to the head, or vaporize their body in heat.

Oh and she can do that all silently, without a wand and with no signs from where she is staging her attack.

Mysteriously, all of the creatures in the Forbidden Forest going quiet, and later I find out through various conversations that it seems they’ve all disappeared?

Aubrey killed them, I’m sure. No one can prove that, though.

The battle at the Department of Mysteries? The secretive second in command who Dumbledore had lead the vanguard? Who killed an entire squad of Death Eaters alone like it was almost nothing?

Aubrey. Again. Not even seventeen and already more deadly than masters of combat, killing, mind control and torture. She probably has more disturbing skeletons under her closet. I'm not sure I want to know what they are, having seen some of what is inside her closet. She did mention, once, that sometimes you have to be a monster to stop a monster.

She’s willing to be the monster. 

That’s not ideal, but as long as she’s fighting the other monsters - like Voldemort - I can get behind the idea. Distasteful as I find it to do so.

The third person I recognized as a monster was Dumbledore. Though it was for wholly different reasons than the other two. The first was obvious, the second was because I knew she was hunting down malicious creatures in the forest - sentient or no - and killing them as a form of training.

Dumbledore is a monster because he’s willing to not act, and let people suffer, if it means his goals are met. He had to be practically sat on to help me when I needed it, and he later admitted it was because his plans needed so much work done to affect the needed changes that he was hesitating due to the rush it would force upon him and those whom he must lean on.

Each of these people I label monsters has one sin or another. Voldemort is prideful to the extent that he can’t imagine the world if he’s not in charge. Aubrey is violently angry at everything for taking what should have been a happy life from her. Dumbledore is almost lazy, and wants everything to fall where it should, without realizing there are people around to change the game. There are more monsters than just Dumbledore and whatever Dark Lord he’s dealing with.

Because, of course, there’s me, too.

Most people think of me as something of a hero, but I can’t really agree with that sentiment. I’ve killed people, sentient beings who are not people, and I’ve not felt a scrap of remorse. Not when I killed a teacher, or the pet of a founder, or even when I blew a Death-Eater out of my way the other night into some Department of Mysteries experiment which reacted poorly when a whole human was added to the test.

I don’t feel bad, but I don’t relish it. I do what I feel like I have no choice but to do so I can go back to the castle and go to sleep at night.

Of course, fate loves to mess with me, Harry Potter, in the oddest of ways.

Like getting this letter, which sparked this train of thought, at breakfast.

“Harry,

You’re going to see a lot of changes over the next month, but I need to train you while I’m taking care of my end out of the castle, so I’ll be by in the evenings.

As a warning, you will likely hear some very bad things about me in the coming days. Remember, that you can’t trust gossip. They always leave out why good people do bad things.

In this case, they tried to assassinate me first, so going into their place of business to see if they’ll try face-to-face. And if they do, and I have to fight my way out, I will.

No one will like it though. So apologies in advance. I’ll see you in 12 or so hours of you getting this note, if my math is right.

Aubrey.”

Of course, like always, she was doing something dangerous and deadly. Is she going to go find some assassins guild and wipe them out? It seems in line with her standard modus operandi.

Of course, it’s only three hours later the call comes in - school is cancelled for the next two days because every single Goblin in Gringotts had been killed by the Dwarves who they’d kicked out of England centuries ago. Well, their descendants did it, anyways. On their side was Aubrey Hawthorne, and every house heir and head, along with vault-holders have to show up in the next 48 hours to go over how the contracts are changing, why and how. What the security will look like, and how it’s better than what the Goblins had.

I nod to myself, chalking up another genocide to Aubrey’s name. She does not take blood debts lightly, at least. If you try to kill her, she will fight back, then go confront the person behind it, and if they try to kill her, she’ll kill them, and speak to the next person, and keep going until everyone is dead, or they pick someone who will talk before it’s too late.

Though I doubt that Goblins would betray their honor and speak to someone who’d killed them.

She wouldn’t hold talks with Trolls, Acromantula or Giants, either. One of the rules she laid out for me with the DA was that if something is going to try to eat you, or thinks you are food, it’s not going to hold to a word of peace. It’ll try to eat you at the first chance. After all, you don’t make a deal with a chicken not to eat it when you’ve not seen a bird in years, and remember it tasting like the food of the gods. Because that’s how most powerful human-eating beasts see us. Food. Very tasty food because of the mana. So you kill them before they can betray you.

I suppose she did talk to the Centaur herd, as they’re still around, but I’ve no doubt if she left anything else standing other than the deer and unicorns.

Goblins may not consider you food, but they fight like a pack of dogs. If you kick one, they all try to jump on you.

The question is, where did she get Dwarves from? The only Dwarves allowed in England, which I’d heard of, were the beardless kind, which is basically an exiled Dwarf who did some crime or another. A failure of a Dwarf. Not really a Dwarf at all.

I rolled my eyes as I made my way to the Room, so I could wait for Aubrey.

This ought to be good.

My fists were clenched in my mild anger - something I would have considered almost overwhelming a few years ago - but I relaxed them as I remembered why I could even feel angry.

Aubrey had done that.

Of course, the way she knew how to not only detect, but formulate an answer to the issue of the Horcrux was something I found suspicious. A thirteen year old girl, casually unraveling a mystery which stumped the most learned wizard alive for a decade, within a day?

Nonsense. No one is that smart. She had to have some kind of knowledge beforehand of souls, magic relating to them and how to fix or undo the spells relating to the souls.

How, though? It’s clear her brother, sister and other members of her family have no such knowledge. This wasn’t hard to figure out with some careful questioning of various people in the castle, and especially not Cedric after we'd become friends in the Tournament.

What Cedric had to say about her had been almost unbelievable.

She was studying second, then third and sometimes fourth year material in her first year. She had created notes, then gave them to other top students, for the history classes in exchange for their notes on the classes of the years beyond hers.

How did she make history notes that quickly and accurately that students ahead of her in years would be willing to trade?

Suspicious. Not at all the actions of an eleven year-old. Of course, there’s more. The fact that she won the U17 Dueling championship twice before she was 17, and then won the Adult one following her second victory in the U17 circuit at 16.

She had accolades no one else could match academically. Outstanding with distinction in every OWL. Taking NEWTs as a fifth year so she could take more obscure classes as a seventh year. She passed literally every OWL, then took some NEWTs so she could take more classes in 6th and 7th year. Which she was at the top of, for every single class.

Angelina, who was in her study group, and is in some of her more obscure classes, complains that the teachers assign crazy homework amounts to the class, and then give Aubrey double or more homework which is, naturally, yet more advanced.

And Aubrey seems almost offended at how easy that workload is. She is never seen doing homework, never seen outside of class almost at all.

In short - a nickname she probably had no idea about in the school - was The Wraith of Ravenlaw. Fitting. She had knowledge and skills almost like she was a specter of knowledge. She had skills unbelievable, and an ability mixed with the drive to make her the biggest monster in the world.

Before you get to her morals, That is to say, her lack of them, at least in any comprehensible metric.

She clearly had no issues killing. She has no issues lying. She has no issues with nudity. She just… isn’t normal. Her moral code, insofar as I can tell is just along the lines of live and let live. If you mess with her stuff - her people - then she will destroy you, equitably to how much you messed with anything in her sphere according to how precious it is.

But thats not a morals thing. That’s just a personality trait. I don’t think she’d be unwilling to do anything if provoked. That is, of course, terrifying.

So when she wants to meet with me for some reason, I am understandably nervous. I am also a bit angry at her for destroying the economic situation in England, and then I’m curious why she did it while being upset that she actually had to do that severe of an action.

What did they do to her, to make her feel she had rights to kill them? Steal from her? No. When people did that, she just humiliated them. I’ve heard stories of her first year.

So, they tried to kill her probably. But why would they do that?

She stole from them, is the easy answer.

Why did she steal from them? This becomes the logical question, and I feel like whatever the reason, she knew what the outcome would be. Knowing that, means she doesn’t care.

Which really upsets me - how are her actions different from Voldemort's?

Well, I guess she gave them the chance to try to resolve without bloodshed - Voldemort just killed as he stole. No chances there, but the end result is the exact same.

Everyone she’s wronged has died. Those she directly wronged. She indirectly did the whole of England a blow by killing the Goblins. I doubt she really recognizes that as a wound though. Or she wouldn’t have done it so flippantly.

I suppose I should have done more research on the Dwarves? But how could I comprehend her plot without the information she just doesn’t share? That bit always makes me mad. I don’t have the information or control over the situation needed to be able to help or mitigate damage to a location.

So I have a lot of questions, I find, as I settle into my chair in the Room.

I don’t wait long.

The almost cheerful smile she wears upon seeing me - on time - irks me. I’m not often late, so the smile has to be one of a job well done, mixed with the pleasure of my being on time.

She’s happy her genocide worked out? I sigh.

“It’s good to see you!” She says. Her tone is almost flat, but having interacted with her enough, I can detect the sincerity there. The happiness I showed up instead of writing her off.

I suppress my shudder at the thought. If I slighted her, what would she do to me? Of course I came. She just proved she’s a deadly force with no leash. I’m not going to ignore a loose cannon asking me to talk, lest it choose to aim at me.

“Yea, I figured I should show up.” I reply, keeping my voice calm. I know she prefers minimal emotion in her interactions, though this seems counterintuitive - inhumane almost. Another prickling point for me. How can you fix something if you don’t know what’s wrong?

“You must have questions, so feel free to ask.” She offers, sitting in a suddenly available chair, and crossing her legs patiently.

No need to beat around the bush, then.

“Why did you kill the Goblins? I’ve figured out you killed them, because they tried to kill you for stealing - most likely - which you had to know would happen when you did that. So why?” I ask. She smiles. Smiles. At the question. I feel my pulse throb, I close my eyes and lean back. A tantrum won’t help me, no matter my desire to stomp or punch the wall. Her answer is quick.

“They killed a lot of people - innocent people - and stole from them, so I killed the ones who owned the objects, following their custom and stole the items back. I plan to give the stuff which I can back to the people it should belong to.” She responds easily.

“That’s not like you, why give it back?” I ask, sighing. She saw they’d committed a wrong and took it upon herself to act as judge, jury and executioner. At least she operated in something of a framework. Even if a loose one.

“Because it’s not mine. I have enough things, and they had something they couldn’t use but I could, and I’m the only one who can really use it, anyways. I’d have gotten it, no matter what if a certain prophecy is to be believed, so I took it and plan to do the rest when the Dwarves are done. I don’t keep what I don’t need, or which I could make for myself. Which is most things. Like if I found the Hallows somewhere, I’d make sure you got them. You’re the owner. I have no use for them.” which is true. She’d done exactly that. She could have claimed them all for herself. She did not. Even though they’d be very very useful to her. An unbeatable wand, a perfect stealth device and access to the greatest minds ever seen?

As I’ve said, her morals are confusing.

“That’s unlike you.” I comment. Trying to get clarification.

“I only keep things if what I’m fighting is a monster who looted it from somewhere. That’s spoils. I don’t keep objects which are in a structure which I know belongs to someone living, not the person I killed. Or I’d have looted the bank on my way out. I wouldn’t loot anyone’s vaults, except those of my enemies whom I know are trying to kill me. Like Death Eaters. When at war, anything goes.” She responds, and that does make some twisted kind of sense.

All is fair in War. She follows the rules of war for her enemies then? Otherwise… “So, if they’re not an enemy who will try to kill you, you wouldn’t kill them, or steal from them?” I ask, and she nods, seriously.

“I also don’t use poison on my non-enemies. I only fight when I don’t think there’ll be another outcome. I’ll do politics otherwise. They’re more sustainable.” She confirms. I squint in thought. She draws the line at stealing or harming - in other words - at least physically, unless she can confirm you mean her bodily harm. Then that’s on the table. She’ll only steal if she feels you’re at war with her.

“So what caused you to go from peaceful to ‘at war’ with the Goblins?” I ask. She grins. The grin is one which makes me want to run whenever I see it. No Human was ever meant to smile like that.

“They helped kill the Elves, then they killed the native Dwarves to the Isles, and then they killed humans to enrich themselves. I figured they’d be coming to kill - or steal from me to weaken me in order to kill me - in short order. They were stealing from me, by the way. I have the paperwork on that, and the Dwarves are auditing the accounts to see if others had similar situations. Like you, or Dumbledore. People who are threats, so they weaken however they can.” She answers, the dangerous grin and voice falling into that deadly serious tone which makes me want to run. Run and not look back. This is the Monster. She's discussing business, and the voice leaves no room for questions. Razor sharp, steel hard and cold. Unfeeling. 

She’d look at home on a throne, face and tone so set as they are. A professional killer.

“I’ll want to see those, if I can. Also, since I think I understand, why did you call this meeting? It wasn’t to explain your genocide of the Goblins - killing the ones who killed others isn’t the answer I’d go for, but I get it. They wanted you dead, why you went to that extreme, well." I pause and then shrug. "Even if I, personally, wouldn’t do that. You and I will have to just agree to disagree.” I say expansively to make my point clear. I don’t like what she did but realize I’ll have to live with it.

Spilt potions and all that.

“Of course." She nods. "Now, I should get to why I actually came here. You have the Deathly Hallows in your possession." She gestures for me to take them out, and I pull the wand from the sheathe on my left arm. I don't use it if I don't have to. 

"The Hallows are one of thirteen sets of items called Divine Regalia." She says, conjuring an illusion of thirteen orbs spinning around a sphere, black on bottom and white on top with shades of grey blending between the two, and a bright green, blue, red and brown quarters inside of that and then a purple center point inside of that. she gestures at the thirteen orbs.

"The aspects of the universe tossed them down to mark people as their champions. This is a diagram of the universe as I know it. The thirteen outer orbs are the foundational powers, then the layers where the gods, then the spirits if the world and then our actual world, reside. Each layer is important, because the each layer is a level above the next. So if you start on our world." She helpfully expands the illusion and taps the dot. "You are limited to this worlds level of power. Some people can innately overcome this. They're immortals, or extremely famous. Saints, Heroes, you get the idea. These people all do what I call ascending." She zooms the illusion out to the quartered area. 

"This is where we - Dumbledore, Voldemort and others like us who Ascend are. The lower levels of things which can interact with things beyond our native world. I have a pact with a devil, a Dragon, a handful of gods - though I suspect that's through intermediaries - and so forth. You likely have similar, though Dumbledore will shield you from all but the minimum required contact until you're ready to handle deals on your own. Mortals like you and I - no matter how skilled - cannot grow past this point. Not without outside help." She zooms out and the border of the grey zone is barely visible. 

"This is the level where everything with a finite life span will reach and stop, the edge of divinity. Most things people worship are here. Only a few gods are really beyond this point. Satan, and other powerful creatures created by the gods to do tasks will inhabit this level. This is the level of power I am aiming for, and with Divine Regalia, I can reach this level. So can you. That's the job of Divine Regalia." Then she zooms out some more. The whole thing is visible again. "Of course, when you get more powerful the thirteen will try to keep the world in balance and restrict you from what you can do. I can manipulate time, and do things no one else can, as I have the set for Time. I cannot use this to get other to break the rules, and if they do, I have to take care of them. By either driving them insane, killing them or likewise. I also have to fix any points in history which might unravel due to interference. I can insulate the time stream to a point using my regalia." She pauses then looks at me calmly. 

"You have, unsurprisingly, the set for Death. This means you will probably get missions, things like making sure necromancers and people who try to cheat death don’t get the chance. No one can be immortal, no one can cause too much unrest in the world. You will be the arbiter of the final law. Where I will be the one to handle people who are going too far with time magic, you're handling the ones who go too far and try to get too good with death magic. This means fighting verifiably evil people. A good job for you."

Her head tilts to the side, I suppose she can sense that I am incredibly uneasy at her reveal. I do not want to end up like her. Killing people who do things I don't like.  "However, I wanted to check how the Divine Regalia worked for you, since I can summon mine -” an orb appeared in her hand “- at will. I also wanted to see if yours have special powers, since mine do. One of them lets me relive this month a certain number of times. I've activated it recently so I'll be optimizing my time and getting as strong as I can in this month. I’m basically trying to help figure out how to train you to use your set, and figure out the abilities of it so you can use it better when I leave this month behind. Hence my actions. I'm going to systematically figure out who my enemies are, and how to most effectively clean them up. Then, when I'm done, I can just give you a pile of notes on what to do and how and when and why. It’ll confuse you, but that’ll be how it goes. Then all of my enemies will disappear, as best as I can make them.” She explains, and I nod, slowly.

“The Hallows seem to be made for… well, stealth, fighting and ensuring the death is final. If I want to think of it like that. What kind of abilities do you think they’ll have otherwise?” I ask.

“Actual perfect stealth for the cloak. Easy to test. The other two will need more testing, but I think limited resurrections should be possible, for a day or two. Perhaps a month. Perhaps longer if it works like my orb - you could have one person for a year or so. Then probably something directly combat related. It’s death, so probably just something which kills the person. Unbeatable wand giving you an unstoppable, unbeatable spell. There’ll be limitations, but I imagine those are the three abilities.” She comments like she already knows.

“You know that’s what they do, don’t you?” I ask, and she smiles sheepishly.

“Powerful identification and probing magic, yea. It was a wandless magic skill - accidental - that I learned how to do on purpose and improve to the point I can get information out of almost anything.” She confirms.

“How did you have the mental skill as  a kid - probably five or six - to do that?” I ask, exasperated. A kid would never have that level of dedication. Not for the time needed to wrangle magic at that age. It’d take weeks or months…

“I’ll tell you, since you deserve to know, what with Dumbledore dying and you being set to take over his position.” She begins, and I can’t even breathe for a second, which is all she needs to begin her truly insane tale.

Memories of a past life? As an Elf? In a world with almost no real law or order, other than might makes right?

And she was how old? One of the top assassins and mages, of course, what else with a mind and skillset like hers, but seriously.

Hundreds of years of memories, memories of war, constant fighting to preserve civilization through any means needed?

If this is true - and there’s no hint she’s lying…

No wonder she is how she is. Modern Morality must seem asinine to her.

If this is true, what other secrets does she have? She’s clearly got more, but I won’t pry.

Dumbledore’s only advice for dealing with her was to ask questions and if she doesn’t give a satisfactory answer, to not pry. She will remember what you asked and try to explain when she can.

While the information is upsetting to me, it’s also very illuminating. Terrifying. Why am I being entrusted with…

The time loop. Of course.

I feel the slight anger build, then simmer as I ask, voice tighter than I’d prefer. “So, will you tell me this when I forget?” and she nods happily.

“You’ll remember for one year in this time loop stuff. I wanted to work with you first, before I go looking for others who I’ll need to work with in the future and don’t know. I’ll probably be repeating this month exactly as is until then, to try to manage the variables. If you could do that, too, then it’d help. Just to make sure we waste nothing. We’ll never get another month where we can do stupid things like this and get away with it, just to see what reactions we kick up.” She reminds me, almost glowing with cheer.

“I’ll do what I normally would this month, and in the last month so you can have trial months to test against. The other ten, I’ll try to optimize things and get you notes on what works best for me. Just don’t lose them, please.” I say, and she gives me a serious nod.

“I think that’s all.” She tells me, and I nod. No need to keep her - I can get the relevant questions answered by Dumbledore from here.

I might be upset - understanding why she is the way she is doesn’t change the fact she’s dangerous and what she’s doing isn’t ethical in any way - but I also feel pity. How hard would it be for me to adjust to life in her world, from where I am now?

I doubt I could. The fact she can even pretend to get on as well as she has in our world is a feat.

So it is, with a heavy heart and irritation in my step I visit Dumbledore for answers.

.*****.

“The girl is more skilled than we were led to believe.” The patriarch spoke from his position at the head of the table. I nodded seriously along with the other remaining leaders of our clan. Nine, now. He continued. “We’ll need to send the Snake and Dragon groups out, to deal with her.” He concludes.

Snake and Dragon are the third and second best divisions, respectively. Snake is the second best assassins, and Dragon are the second best at direct combat - when stealth fails. Tiger and Rat had failed, and while they were fourth, the way the target had killed them all within a day - before any of them knew the others were dead, to send a message… well.

The second ranks in everything will have to do. I give a slight bow to the leaders of Snake and Dragon. They sink into the shadows slowly, and then their presence vanishes from the compound.

“When they fail, we will escalate directly to the Elders.” The clan head declares, and I blink in surprise. He’s predicted they will fail?

Why send them then? Why skip over my division? As though reading my mind, he turns to me.

“We will send the elders, because they are individually powerful, but lack the cohesion of the Rabbits. Should the Elders fail, then it will be your turn, and I will be going with you, along with my wives and brothers.” He explains. I bow.

“Excuse my impertinence, clan head, but why would you send a group who is fated to die?” I ask coolly. As befitting the heir. My anger and outrage do not show.

“The elders do not think the target managed on her own. They do not know how to read the death stones as I do, and they think it was likely they died foolishly. While splitting up was foolish, it allowed us to gain knowledge of how the target operates and thinks. Snake and Dragon are weaker than her is physicality and skill. Only some elders, the elites of the Rabbit squadron and myself could hope to match her. However, if Snake and Dragon fall, then those who seek to cause disharmony will be punished.” He responds, just as cooly. I feel my outrage burning hot in my chest.

The old fools would risk giving the girl months to grow before they struck? Dragon and Snake dying would only be likely to happen in a few weeks. It will be a few more weeks before the Elders can be made to go, and then weeks more when they fail for my team - along with the clan head and his wives to get permission.

Months before we can make an attempt on her when her skills are already equal to our best. When it’s been noted her growth is explosive, implausibly fast and generally unbelievable.

“If we fail?” I ask, hiding the turmoil behind my - relatively - reasonable question.

“Then the main family will take note, and act.” the clan head says, voice like frozen iron.

The main family. Immortal progenitors of our line, and their direct - very long lived - children. One of whom birthed our ancestor and made our clan. One clan for every child.

The ten clans of China. Two of us were shadow mages, used to sharpen each other.

Should we fall, a whole clan and likely some immortals will move. The girl should accept death from us. Peaceful, quick and relatively painless.

The monsters of the Western Counties will not make her death so easy, nor will the clan’s ancestors.

I almost feel bad for her - should I die in combat. At least I died fulfilling my role and doing my duty to my clan and ancestors. Her death will be far less glorious.

I sigh through my nose to disperse the tension, then bow once more in thanks.

Shortly, we are dismissed, and I figure I should pen a letter - one I will keep on me. Should I die, and the girl is to be hunted by the creator of the Bloodline, it should be a fair fight.

Anything less would not be honorable. I would never be able to face my ancestors, using my death as some pathetic trap.

My honor, the honor of Xiao Long-Bao will not allow it.

.*****.

It’s time already, isn’t it? They’re all finding their artifacts, using them and growing with them. I hope that the promised ancient who will rule time is reasonable, at least. The last one was never willing to listen, and it may be better to kill them before they get any ideas, and find someone else compatible before things go too far with that one.

Waving the thoughts away, I step out of my pocket dimension - and begin building a quaint log cabin, with no wards and no defenses, so when the others come looking for me, I have an inoffensive place to meet them.

I’ve never liked cities - not after the Persian attacks on the Greek isles where I made my first real home. Connections to so many people, then watching them all get torn apart by the Persians. Well, I’d rather not relive such pain, not again.

I have to wonder when the Fox will come find me, and what she’ll have to say about this development. It’s always easy to lose track of time, but she did tell me that she’d come as soon as she could when the others started to appear.

There’s no way she could have missed the activation of the Orb of Time.

She’ll be here soon.

I suppose I should go to that town, I can never remember the name, and get some refreshments. Hunt some game and acquire the spices to cook a proper meal.

It wouldn’t do to just drain all the blood out, as I’ve been doing, if I’ll have guests.

I wonder how they like their venison? Or perhaps they’ll prefer bear?

Well, either way, if they’re incompetent, sinister or otherwise unlikely to complete their part of the job, I’ll just find their replacement while we still have time.

Best if we do it that way.

Also, I should probably get a subscription to every major newspaper from the nations which hold the Artifacts, so I can track who has them. It’ll be obvious.

No one less than a magi has ever held an artifact, but really, magi is never enough. They need to be proper High Magi.

While I’m out, I should consult that boy, Nicholas, and see if he knows anyone. The Fox will have an eye on Europe, and I’ve put spells around the Americas to tell me if someone activates one of the sets in their range.

No takers so far.

I sigh in dejection. I suppose it’ll be a few days at least, so I best be ready.

The cabin done in the old roman style of a hunters lodge, with brick hearth and an outhouse which has magical plumbing installed, I apparate directly to Los Angeles to see what’s to be done about the whelps who’re soon to be knocking on my door. If none of them find my lodge by the time I get back, I’ll put a marker they can scry in the building if looking for me based on those prophecies.

Disappointing, but most need such things. I’ll have to teach them how to be better. Well, when I’m done collecting the news, then hunting, and then cooking I will.