Mist of Shadows
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Dungeon Myst Part 33
🕑 Added 2023-12-16 05:54:00 +0000 UTC"What do you want?" Petunia asked as she opened the door and glared at Sirius Black, a man she hadn't seen since Lily and James' wedding.
"I didn't kill Pettigrew and I didn't betray Lily, I was tossed into prison without a trial," Sirius explained.
"I'm aware," Petunia replied as she studied the teenage girl standing next to Sirius, glad that Myst had given her a heads up about Sirius showing up. "Does she know?"
"About magic, yeah. Where's Harry?" Sirius asked, not in the mood for idle conversation after having to put up with the medical team poking and prodding him for nearly half a day to make sure he wasn't completely off his rocker.
"Not here," Petunia replied as she walked over to the table and picked up the brochure that Myst had left her to give Sirius or Remus if they showed up.
"Where is he?" Sirius asked, trying to keep his temper.
"Magic school," Petunia replied as walked back over and handed Sirius the brochure, taking a certain amount of satisfaction in messing with him considering his previous pranks.
"It's July, Hogwarts doesn't have classes during the summer," Sirius told her as he glanced at the Brochure that had a picture of what looked like a Greek temple on the front, curious about the school he'd never heard of. "Shadow School of Fey Delights?"
Petunia shrugged. "It's relatively new but they teach science, math and literature in addition to magic, something that Hogwarts doesn't bother teaching."
Sirius glanced at the picture of what looked like a Greek temple then opened the brochure and skimmed the descriptions of the various classes. "Alchemy, Combat Arts, Cooking, Enchanting, Foci Creating, Sculpting, Transfiguration and Woodwork are just a few of the fun and profitable subjects that we teach here at the School of Fey Delights. Is this a joke?"
"Hogwarts," Petunia replied, thinking about some of Lily's early stories before she'd let her frustration with not having magic ruin things with Lily. "The teachers at the new school have actual teaching degrees, something that Hogwarts doesn't bother with from what I remember."
"Yeah, the classes are great," Harry said as he walked up the stairs from his bedroom, distracting Sirius and Nymphadora from defending their alma mater.
Sirius relaxed when he realized that Harry was smiling and looked a lot like James, if you ignored his eyes. "I thought he wasn't here."
"I wasn't," Harry replied with a shrug. "Do you have a name?"
"I'm your godfather, Sirius Black," Sirius offered.
'Neon green hair, that's probably Tonks,' Harry mused, glad that Myst had mentioned the various people that might be checking on him. "Does that mean you're my godmother?"
"No, I'm eighteen and he's my second cousin," Nymphadora complained, looking a touch green at the idea of being married to someone she was related to by blood, closely enough that she wouldn't need a chart to figure out how they were related.
"Nymphadora Tonks," Sirius offered, knowing that Tonks wouldn't willingly tell him her first name.
Nymphadora turned and glared at Sirius. "What did I say about my first name?"
"Just call her Dora or Tonks, she gets twitchy about her name," Sirius suggested, a touch surprised that she hadn't gotten over the name thing once she grew up.
"That's because my mother shouldn't be able to name anyone, like ever," Nymphadora complained.
"You should probably come in before the neighbors wander over," Harry suggested as he walked over and sat down on the couch.
"Might as well," Petunia agreed reluctantly, not wanting to give the neighbors more reasons to gossip.
Sirius walked into the room and glanced around then focused on Harry, finding the house a bit too tidy for his taste. "So, magic school?"
"It's great," Harry replied as the attractive teenager walked in and closed the door. "I've already taken a couple of Enchanting and Art classes, I'm planning on taking some writing classes when I have a chance. I might even sign up for the school newspaper when they get it running."
"I wouldn't have minded some useful clubs," Nymphadora admitted.
Sirius stared at Harry, wondering if he was being pranked. "They're teaching first years Enchanting?"
"They also teach Alchemy," Harry replied smugly.
"What are you doing back?" Petunia asked Harry, curious why he was back.
"I was setting up the magic door in my room and I heard voices, I figured I'd check," Harry replied.
"Magic door?" Sirius asked, feeling a bit lost.
"It's like a vanishing cabinet, you walk through one door and out the other. I put one of the doors in the closet in my dorm room and the other one in my room in the basement," Harry explained, glad that Myst had given him a heads up about Sirius and Tonks.
"Can we get a tour of the school?" Nymphadora asked hopefully, curious about the school she'd never heard of.
Harry glanced between Sirius and Nymphadora. "That depends, are either of you employed by the Ministry of Magic?"
"No," Sirius assured him. "I used to be an auror but that was before they locked me up for a crime that I didn't commit."
"I was thinking about joining the aurors but I haven't actually signed anything yet, why?" Nymphadora asked.
"The owner of the flying city where the school is located doesn't trust the ministry of magic or the international group of idiots that think memory wiping people is acceptable," Harry replied as he stood up and headed for the stairs to his room. "Since you're not part of the government, watch your head and follow me."
"Flying city?" Sirius asked Petunia, fairly sure he was being pranked.
"You might as well follow him, you're not going to believe me," Petunia pointed out.
"Point," Sirius admitted as he ducked his head to get through the door to the cupboard and followed Harry down the stone stairs into a nice looking bedroom.
Nymphadora followed Petunia down the stairs and glanced around the room, noticing that there weren't any posters on the walls or all that many personal touches. "Nice place."
"I like it," Harry replied as he walked over to the closet and opened it. "The magic door is in the back of the closet."
"Why?" Sirius asked, fairly sure this was part of a prank.
"Something about tradition and Narnia," Harry replied, then walked to the back of the closet and opened the door that led to his dorm.
"That makes sense," Nymphadora agreed as she walked into the mostly empty closet then through the door set into the wall and out of another closet into what looked like a large dorm, complete with two bunk beds and two rather large couches under the bunk beds that shouldn't fit.
Petunia followed Nymphadora through then looked around. "Do you have a roommate yet?"
"Not yet," Harry replied as he followed the group through the door and into the dorm. "But it's just a matter of time."
"At least you only have to worry about one person snoring," Nymphadora said, thinking about her experience in the dorm at Hogwarts.
"Worst case, I'll just sleep in my bed," Harry replied then turned to look at the door when someone knocked. "It's open."
Thea opened the door and smiled at the people in the room. "Hey."
"What's up?" Harry asked, the naked brunette young woman something he was so used to that it didn't even merit notice… except for a quick glance at her breasts of course.
"Not much, I was talking to Ms. Julia about adjustable lighting effects and she decided that teaching a class would be easier than explaining it to everyone during her office hours," Thea explained.
'So much for getting Harry to go to Hogwarts,' Sirius mused when realized the girl didn't seem to care about the fact that she was completely starkers.
"How long do we have?" Harry asked, figuring he could delay or rush the tour as needed since he wanted to take the class.
"Probably forty minutes, maybe forty five, I need a watch," Thea admitted with a shrug that did nice things to her topography.
"It would help," Harry teased. "That should give me plenty of time to give everyone a tour of the school."
"Have fun. I've got to run, it was nice meeting you," Thea told Harry's guests then walked over to the next door, wanting to make sure everyone in the group knew about the class. "Enchanting class in forty minutes?"
"Wouldn't miss it," Hermione replied as she walked out of her dorm wearing nothing but a smile and a collar.
"Cool," Thea replied then dashed over to the next room.
"Guests?" Hermione asked as she walked over to Harry's door.
"Apparently," Harry replied with a shrug, doing his best not to stare at Hermione's white furry tail which was swaying back and forth drawing his attention to sections of her anatomy. "Sirius is my godfather and Nymphadora is his cousin."
"Just call me Tonks," Nymphadora told the cat girl, wondering why the first year girl was naked and why she had a tail. "Accidental magic or a bad potion?"
Hermione laughed as she gestured to the collar. "The collar lets me turn into a cat girl and back."
'At least won't have to chase his crush, unlike James,' Sirius thought, having noticed the look that Hermione had given Harry. 'Yeah, not sure we could drag him to Hogwarts with the express,' he mused, figuring it wasn't his place to complain about the school or the rules or the dress code, until he'd gotten a list and finished the tour.
"Neat," Nymphadora replied as she changed her ears to match Hermione's.
"Is that a spell?" Hermione asked.
Nymphadora changed her nose into a cat's nose then back. "I'm a metamorphmagus, we can change our features at will."
"That sounds useful for sneaking around," Hermione said, wondering if they could duplicate the ability with Enchanting.
"Do you want to help with the tour?" Harry asked Hermione.
"Sure," Hermione agreed, happy to help.
"Is there a reason none of the girls are wearing clothes?" Nymphadora asked, curious if there was something weird going on or if it was just a dorm thing.
"Most of the classrooms have an enchantment on them that boosts the effectiveness of the instruction or our ability to process and internalize the lessons, the only 'downside' is that it requires the students to be naked in order to take advantage of it. Yes, I'm aware how that sounds but the school has a magical system that helps with learning skills. Have you told them about the system yet?"
Harry shook his head. "That was going to be part of the tour. You should probably say character sheet and think about your sheet appearing."
"Character…" Sirius trailed off when a translucent window appeared in front of him with a picture of him and a bunch of stats that didn't make a lot of sense. "What am I looking at?"
"Your character sheet, it should list your abilities and your various status effects, we can cover things as we walk," Hermione told them, wanting to make sure she had enough time to get to the Enchanting class.
"Character sheet," Nymphadora stated, causing her character sheet to appear in front of her. "Why do I have a seven for agility?"
"Are you clumsy?" Harry asked.
"Only occasionally," Nymphadora lied. "And what’s this tab… I have a full page of curses on me?!"
"Don't worry, we have a couple of ways to boost agility and break curses," Hermione assured her, thinking about the frozen gym floor that boosted agility with enough practice.
"Oh thank Merlin and Morgana!" Nymphadora exclaimed, recognizing some of the curses including at least two that were on the Black family line that she’d thought she’d escaped being a Tonks and all.
"Malnourished, emotionally unstable, and haunted, maybe I should have stayed at the hospital for a bit," Sirius admitted, not particularly surprised by the negative effects the dementors had left him with. "This isn't a prank, is it?"
"No," Petunia assured him. “It all seems to be real, more than Hogwarts anyway, as I’ve never even seen that, just been assured it exists.”
"Don't worry, I'm sure we can fix most of those without a problem," Harry said, making a note to swing by the alchemy lab after class so he could brew a restoration potion to reverse the damage being stuck in hell for ten years had caused.
"Most?" Sirius asked.
"I'm not an exorcist," Harry replied with a shrug.
"It says that I'm haunted by memories and bad dreams, not ghosts," Sirius explained.
"We should probably talk to Ms. Julia, she might have something that can prevent bad dreams," Hermione suggested.
"Potions expert?" Sirius asked, thinking about the dreamless sleep potions the witches at St. Mungos had given him.
"Enchanter," Harry replied as he headed into the hall. "Let's go, if we hurry we'll have time for ice cream before class."
"Sounds good," Sirius agreed, looking forward to seeing the school now that he was reasonably sure it wasn't a prank. "Can you explain what the stats mean?"
"Of course," Hermione assured him, then started explaining the system.
0o0o0
Moiraine looked up from the book she was reading when a tall teenage girl in a fancy green dress walked into the reading room holding a letter like it was going to bite her or randomly catch fire. "Do you need something?"
'Snap out of it, you could wonder about why she looks like Hermione later,' Mat told herself as she held the letter out that Willow had given her. "I was paid a gold coin to deliver a letter to the lady wearing a blue stone on her forehead. Can you take it before it catches fire?"
"Catches fire?" Lan asked as he studied the girl standing near the door.
"The red haired girl that handed me the letter said that it would catch fire if someone without magic opened it," Myst explained.
"What makes you think I have magic?" Moiraine asked as she studied the girl that was only a couple of inches shorter than Lan, fairly sure you could buy the inn for the cost of her dress.
"The girl assured me that no one would be harmed by delivering the letter unless I opened it or let your guard open it," Mat replied.
Moiraine frowned slightly as she used a thread of spirit to delve the letter and found some type of weave covering the letter that she couldn't see. "Are you sure this came from a woman?"
"I watched her seal it and hand it to me," Mat replied as a woman in a red dress walked in behind her.
"Leave," Elaida ordered the unfamiliar girl in an expensive dress, wanting to find out what Moiraine was doing in her city.
Mat turned to look at the dark haired woman wearing a red dress that also had the ancient Aes Sedai symbol floating over her head. "I was paid to deliver a letter, until she takes the letter, I'm not leaving."
Elaida snatched the letter out of Mat's hand. "Message delivered, now leave."
"I'm going to have to report that, the letter needs to be delivered with the seal unbroken or I'm not getting paid," Mat complained.
"That's unfortunate, for you," Elaida said with the hint of a smile and broke the seal, causing the letter to erupt with lightning and drop her unconscious.
"I tried to warn her," Mat replied, not even bothering to sound apologetic. "Elaida should have listened."
"You're curiously well informed for a messenger," Lan said, wondering if he should draw his sword since she knew Elaida's name and presumably who she was.
"She told the innkeeper her name, I just slipped away before he cracked and told her your location." Mat opened a portal under Elaida and dropped her into the stedding where Jadon and Casey were dropping the captured sul'dam and damane.
Moiraine stared at Mat, wondering how she'd used the power without her being able to feel it. "Who are you?"
Mat let the portal close then gestured toward the door and closed it with a touch of magic. "You can call me Apple. Do you want me to call you Alys or would you prefer something else?"
"Alys is fine," Moiraine replied, wondering what she'd done with Elaida and if she was going to try to kill her. "Would the letter have knocked me unconscious?"
"No, you're one of the only people that can open it without getting shocked," Mat explained as she levitated the letter over to the table, not wanting to touch it in case Willow had screwed up the wards.
Moiraine glanced over the open letter, wondering how the girl was levitating the letter since she couldn't see the threads. "You want to hire me to teach a group of children how to channel, why not send them to the Tower?"
"We considered it but there are two major problems with sending the girls to the Tower, a couple of years of instruction isn't worth signing away your freedom for the rest of your life and I've walked around Tar Valon, you have a darkfriend problem," Mat warned her.
"What makes you say that?" Moiraine asked, wishing she could disagree with the girl.
"Elmindreda isn't the only girl with a strange ability. I can see a floating sword over your friend's head, it matches with the rest of the warders I've seen. I see the ancient symbol for Aes Sedai over your head which matches the rest of the channelers that I've seen and a chain which matches the rest of the Aes Sedai that I've run into. I haven't had a chance to check any of the steddings but I have a feeling that I'd see a tree or plants over a tree singer's head. Swearing oaths to the Dark One leaves a taint that shows up as a black hand which makes them easy to spot."
"If you're telling the truth about being able to see darkfriends, how are you still alive?" Moiraine asked, surprised that the Dark One hadn't sent gray men to kill her if she was telling the truth about being able to spot them just by walking past them.
Mat used her ring to change her appearance and the color and cut of her dress. "I tend to move around a bit and I use a number of different names."
"How do you know Elmindreda?" Moiraine asked.
"I met Min a couple of years ago while exploring Baerlon, she has an interesting symbol over her head, we got to talking and we shared some drinks," Mat explained.
"Do you have a ter'angreal that disguises your weaves?" Moiraine asked, not sure what else made sense unless she was male and using the mirror of mists weave to disguise her appearance.
Mat shook her head. "I have a pool of magic that I can use, but I can't actually touch the source."
"Do you have any proof?" Moiraine asked.
"Feel free to shield me, it won't do any good," Mat replied with a smile.
"Let's assume that I can find the time to give your friends some basic lessons, how much are you paying?" Moiraine asked.
"I doubt we can offer you enough gold to make it worth it, how about some defensive magical items?"
"Defensive ter'angreal?" Moiraine asked, curious what they'd found.
"Our crafters have been studying a bracelet that conjures an invisible field of force that works better than the best armor I've seen and a ter'angreal that unravels weaves which should help with your Black Ajah problem," Mat offered.
"Crafters? Are you saying you can copy ter'angreal?" Moiraine asked.
"We can copy some of them," Mat admitted.
"If that's the case, why do you need my help?" Moiraine asked.
"We understand the basics of channeling or at least enough to keep everyone from dying and we can pull off some interesting tricks but we're missing a lot of information and Min said that you're trustworthy. Can I talk you into seeing what we've come up with?" Mat asked.
"Sounds more interesting than reading this book for the seventh time," Moiraine admitted.
"Excellent," Mat replied as he opened a portal to one of the doors that led to the city so she could show her around. 'At least the girls should be happy I found a teacher.'
