Eclipsing the Dunes

[Tom Marvolo Riddle]

You and me both, I thought with a wry tone. It made me thankful that Nealaphh hadn’t penetrated my thoughts, although at this point I was pondering that had it actually tried I may not be able to keep my occlumency barriers up. The whole act of ‘knocking’ had been polite enough and the diary did provide me a degree of a partition… but I had never had to deal with a purely psychic entity beyond that of the simple boggart.

Which considering my capabilities now would make a rather effective… spell.

Blinking I shook my head and glanced up, first at the Sorting Hat, which was still brooding over everything that was in the Dataverse, and then the edge of the pit. I did some mental maths trying to figure about how deep we had fallen. Considering my current predicament with my ally effectively waylaid, I didn’t want to be dealing with individuals just yet of an unknown quality and quantity. Bearing in mind that they were ruthless enough to drop someone in this potentially lethal hazard where one wrong bone would be a drawn out death… I decided to offer them the appreciation such a thing deserved.

“This trap seems far too generic and too feeble to be design for ones such as us.” I said with more than a little bit of disdain. That someone would do this to me deserved recompense.

It was most unfortunate… but I was reminded of the story of the Deathly Hallows. How they supposedly came about. Not really the close to the factual art of how magic worked, but more of a ‘moral’ tale. I saw it for what it was meant to mean, the subtext that colored Wizarding thinking. Simple solutions were often unbecoming of wizards who reveled in the flash and drama. But that was the touch of the inept, incompetent, and idiotic. A true wizard simply undid the issue that was boggling them. In this case the Brothers crossing the river didn’t try and divert the river, or vanish the water. They instead grew a bridge which became their means of cheating Death.

Summoning my wand to my hand; I began to sketch out an object of my own bidding but of modest design. It was a simple thing, something I should have been able to do in seconds, but instead I felt sluggish. The magic here was definitely different. Thicker, weaker, like pushing a fist sized glob of dough through the eye of a needle. Any effort I expended to speed up the process seemed only to be rejected by the wand. It was rather annoying, as I didn’t know why.

So I followed the lead that my instincts told me to walk. Omnilium. Not much, but there it was. The amount I needed didn’t seem to be significant, only a dollop. It rested at the tip of my wand, pulling what work I had done. And no matter how much I tried it looked like it would be the medium I had to work with. I couldn’t just conjure something from nothing unless I had somehow had used it in the first place; which was how I suspected was the reason I was able to use my wand so.

Seconds ticked by and I could feel the components of my work beginning to snap into place with each nudge and push of the force that was mine to command. Every bit of work I normally would’ve done still had to be reinforced in triplicate until at last it felt acceptable.

With one final jab of my wand, I muttered a casual, “pario,” that wrought my will upon this reality. Reshaping it into a ladder that gleamed solid gold.

It was a bit decadent but I figured if I could casually violate certain laws then I should engender people to avoid making stupid mistakes that would cost them their lives. Or at the very least set a spectacular precedent. Any being that would design a trap like this had an intended target, thusly they should also make preparations for unintended targets being, sidetracked. If they didn’t well then…

I said surreptitiously to Nealaphh, “I’d rather not wait” And with that statement I climbed. Upon reaching the top I surveyed the pit and pointed my wand. Not to recover the ladder’s worth. That was a pittance and a seed. Now I drew in power and my annoyance. I would see this pit be the undoing of the fools who dug it. And if the simpletons to retrieve my warning… they would pay.

With a growl, I rolled each syllable of power out with my grievances, “Infini Fractaviscus!”

Molten light pooled at the tip of my wand as the entire world seemed to retract in fear of it. In fear of me. I rolled it once in a swirl, pulling my arm upwards towards me before thrusting down towards the hollow once more. A bolt of blackness and purple discharge erupted, increasing the deepness of the cavity’s gloom before a howling scream tore upward. Living shadow undulated like a liquid current of expanding smoky fire, its tendrils corrupting everything within reach. Even the gold seemed to quiver though it did not sicken or corrode unlike its earthen neighbor. Root systems shriveled and the plants connected to them began to wilt all around me into black decay. That would give them one last warning to mind their betters. Anything else was blood on their own hands.

I glanced back at the gold that the darkness still burned across its surface; sickly lines of power impregnating it with forces that were my ken alone. They would soon dissipate but the anathema would remain. It brought a smile to my lips, such inauspicious thing gold. Cursed though it was.

“Let’s be off shall we?” I said to no one in particular, or perhaps everyone.

Feeling the high of the magic in my veins I turned down the path we had been heading and began walking. Though I could feel the slight wariness that the casting had imparted on me, it also left an energy I had thoroughly missed. Perhaps it was something that I should have used on Potter rather than employing the basalisk… But then where would I be? One lone Dark Lord whose minions had abandoned and an entire world against me.

No this was much better place to be.