***
Two weeks at sea flew by very quickly. The magicians had a wonderful time. The adults swam, sunbathed on the beach, went for walks in Marseille and simply explored the coastal towns. Cassius and Draco had an even better time. Having made friends with the young Veelas, they explored all the nearby beaches together, visited each other's homes, and saw all the wonders of the magical and Muggle parts of the coast. Isabelle and Draco got along so well that they spent all their time together. They enjoyed talking about everything under the sun and simply being in each other's company. Isabel was amused by Draco's arrogance towards less noble people and the fact that he often referred to his father's authority. Draco admired Isabel's character, which was so light and kind, completely unlike his childhood friends, who were all future Slytherins. And although he did not yet understand female beauty due to his age, when he held Isabel's hand, they looked like two little elves. Beautiful, blond, with regular features, only Draco's eyes were grey-steel, and Isabel's were emerald green.
Both Cassius and Sylvia constantly teased the younger ones:
"Draco and Belle will kiss while sitting in a tree in summer, and their first love will come," Cassius sang falsely with a mischievous smile.
"Then they'll get married, they'll get married," Sylvia continued the song in an equally unpleasant tone.
"And they'll ride their baby in a pram," they finished their teasing in unison.
Draco and Isabel were always terribly embarrassed and started throwing whatever they could find at their mockers: from shrimp in the café to slippers.
Nevertheless, when it was time to part, the children made a solemn vow to write letters to each other and to meet again next summer at Grandpa Abraxas's house.
Narcissa and Lucius watched sadly as Cassius and his grandfather made their way to the estate's landing pad. Cassius would spend the last month before school at the Chibuzo Inu estate and then go straight to school from there. The boy looked much taller and tanned to a deep brown, but Narcissa was still worried about her eldest son and did not want to let him go. Although the spontaneous bursts of dark magic had practically disappeared, the fear that the unbridled power could accidentally harm them and Cassius himself prevented them from bringing their son home. So all the poor woman could do was watch her eldest son leave.
Standing next to her, straight and stiff as a beech tree, Valburga stroked her head comfortingly.
"I understand how hard it is for you to part with him, my child," she sighed heavily. "My heart is breaking too.
"Now we'll only see him during the winter holidays," sobbed Narcissa. "My heart is breaking."
And before Cassius had disappeared into the portal, Narcissa couldn't hold back any longer and burst into tears. Lucius hugged his wife, and Draco snuggled up to them from the other side.
"Come on, dear... Don't cry, Mum!" they murmured, comforting her and hugging her as tightly as they could. Narcissa wiped her tears with a lace handkerchief and, gathering her strength, smiled at everyone.
"It must be my maternal feelings getting the better of me because we're about to part," she said with a sad smile through her tears. "It's time for us to go to England too.
A little depressed by Narcissa's unexpected upset, they said a hasty goodbye to Abraxas and set off for England through the portal.***
Cassius found himself, as usual, on the courtyard of the Inu estate and headed for the house. Chibuzo, as was often the case, was not at home, so Cassius greeted the house spirits and went to his room on the second floor. Collapsing on his bed, he sighed heavily. Although he did not show his feelings, parting with his family was not easy for him. During this time, he had grown accustomed to his cheerful and boisterous brother, his serious and reliable father and grandfather, his kind and slightly prim grandmother, and most importantly, his mother, who loved him unconditionally. Cassius was simply basking in this glow of family happiness. He even swore to himself that he would always support his loved ones, because family is family.
The next day at breakfast, Cassius read a letter from Chibuzo Inu, which was passed to him by the house spirit at the table. Cassius put down his cutlery and carefully read the lines on the scroll. Chibuzo had written out a study plan for Cassius for the month and promised to come back in two weeks to give him a short exam. The difficulty lay in the fact that Cassius had to learn the basics of blood magic. It was a rather sinister science that had been diligently forgotten in many countries. And although at first, the study of blood magic involved using only one's own blood, Cassius understood that later on, this magic would have no limits. It could be applied to the blood of other people as well as magical animals. It all seemed quite threatening, but Cassius had long since ceased to be a domesticated child who was frightened by the sight of blood. One adventure with the Igideru tribe was enough.
So he buried himself in the manor library, regularly interspersing theoretical studies with practical exercises and supplementing them with physical training and swimming in the pool. Finally, after ten days, with the first volume of blood magic finished, Cassius was so exhausted that even occlusion didn't help much. His worries about his family had long since faded into the background, and Cassius decided to take a break and walk around the city. Maybe he would even meet some of his old friends on the streets and chat with them. After all, it had been a year since he had last seen the local kids.
Taking one of the house spirits with him just in case, Cassius changed into something simpler and set off. He searched the nearest neighbourhoods for familiar faces, but found no one. Then he decided to head to the market to look for something interesting and then go home. Entering the market, which greeted him with the same noise of crowds and the cries of pushy vendors as yesterday, Cassius wandered aimlessly among the rows. Suddenly, the little house spirit following two steps behind him let out a painful cry, and a cold voice in Swahili rang out from his right: "Stupefy," "Obliviate," "Somnus." Cassius froze, then tried to use Occlumency to compress himself into a point, but to preserve his memory and consciousness, but the last spell worked on a physical level and Cassius simply shut down.
He came to in the back of some vehicle that was moving somewhere, its engine growling hollowly over the bumps of the broken road. Next to him on the floor of the truck were children just like him, bound by iron shackles on their hands and feet. Seeing that he had regained consciousness, an unfamiliar man in khaki, sitting on a bench by the side of the vehicle, slowly took out a stick and uttered the same string of spells. After a few seconds of frantic resistance from his fading mind, Cassius's consciousness slipped back into darkness. The next time he came to, he was in a strange place. He was standing in a gloomy cave surrounded by a crowd of children just like him. The shackles had been removed from their hands, but their legs were still bound together with a chain that allowed them to walk, but only in short steps. Standing before them was a man, also dressed in khaki, who was playing with a stick in his hands and said:
"You are all now meat that works in this mine. Your task is to extract magical stones from these caves. Adults can't get through here, and it's dangerous to hammer the rock, it might collapse. So when you're hammering the rock, be extremely careful, no one will save you," he grinned, his white teeth gleaming in the light of the lanterns shining on the helmets of several other men in khaki.
"Here," he pointed to the ground, "there will be two receivers working in shifts. You will hand over the magic diamonds to them, and in return they will give you food. Those who work well will eat well, and those who don't will soon die. Try to bury the bodies of your comrades or throw them into deep pits so that it doesn't stink here, otherwise you'll all die soon," he spat. "Most of you are weaklings and weaklings who are only good for feeling magic stones in the rock," and he tapped his fist on the wall. "And no one here will be able to find the mama's boys we brought from the cities. Because of the thickness of the earth and the magic stones, no search spell will work here," the wizard laughed mockingly. "So don't hope that your mummy and daddy will come and save you. Now you're just meat, destined to work until you drop. But!" He raised his finger. "Those who find a lot of stones will prove themselves to be good workers, and in a year or two, they will be able to move up and become those who work for us for money. Like these guys, for example," and he pointed to the other figures in khaki. "Understood?" the man growled viciously. "Then go over there in the corner, grab some hammers and chisels, and get into the caves. Otherwise, no one will eat today. There's plenty of water here," the wizard grinned, "even the walls are dripping, you won't die," and he laughed mockingly.
Then he grabbed the rope, put his foot in the loop and struck a spark with his stick. Reaching a barely visible light spot above, the spark apparently sent some kind of signal, and the rope stretched upwards, lifting the magician with his stick far towards the light. In the light of the lanterns, the eyes of the stunned teenagers burned with some kind of otherworldly light. Two guys in khaki, who were supposed to catch the stones, simply sat down on the floor near the opening of the shaft and, paying no attention to anyone, closed their eyes.
Someone tried to clarify the details, others decided to threaten them. Then one of the guys opened his eyes and said:
"If you kill us, no one will get out of here, and no one will throw you any food. They'll just wait until you all die of hunger or eat each other," he said with a grimace.
"You have only one chance to live a little longer," croaked the second, without opening his eyes. "That is to earn food for yourselves. We started out just like you five years ago. The only way to escape these magicians is to go to the upper world, there is no other way. So those who just want to die, smash your heads with a hammer or jump down into the openings.
"Now get back to work," the second one croaked again, "what's the point of standing around here?
A crowd of children and teenagers, like sleepwalkers, swayed towards the pile of hammers and chisels lying at their feet by the cave wall, and one by one, or in small groups, began to crawl through the narrow openings in the cave walls. A couple of minutes later, only the dull, receding sound of shackles reminded them that thirty children had been standing here just a moment ago.
Cassius buried his head in the wet wall and tried painfully to remember who he was and how he had ended up here. His head was filled with pain and a ringing emptiness. He tried to do what the man with the stick had said, to feel the stones, but he couldn't. He was very thirsty and had to lick the moisture dripping down the wall for a long time. The water tasted disgusting and smelled rotten. But there was nothing else to do, so the boy tried to quench his thirst as best he could. He went so far as to cut his tongue until it bled in an attempt to get a little water. Swallowing the salty liquid, he felt a little better, his headache subsided and the fog in his mind cleared a little. After a few more hours, Cassius realised that he couldn't find anything and moved towards the exit of the cave, where it was difficult to even stand up straight. The shackles rattled and rubbed against his legs, but he still managed to break free from this hole and into the main cave. There were already several guys here, aimlessly crowding around two men in khaki who were still sitting near the mine shaft. Only there was a good air flow and it didn't smell so bad of rot and dampness.
Cassius noticed that some of the boys were approaching the collectors and giving them small stones, in exchange for which the collectors handed out metal tokens with numbers on them. Cassius leaned wearily against the wall and slid down to the floor. His head was still foggy, and even his thoughts were sluggish, more like shadows. Without even noticing how it happened, Cassius lost consciousness. He came to a few hours later when he smelled food and heard the slurping sounds of several people hurriedly swallowing their meals. When the stones were gathered in the evening, one of the collectors counted them all and sent them up with a rope. In the opposite direction, they lowered a twenty-litre metal army thermos, which was about half full of warm porridge.
Unfastening a small cooking ladle from the thermos, the guy in khaki began to collect the tokens that had been handed out earlier and pour the porridge into the children's cupped hands. The teenagers immediately tried to swallow everything quickly and held out their hands again. Some were given more, while others were chased away. When the porridge was finished, the supervisor sent the thermos back. After a while, another rope was lowered from above, and both supervisors began to climb up, hooking themselves onto it. The teenagers who had eaten moved away to the wall, and the rest rushed to their place, trying to pick up at least a little bit of porridge that had fallen through their hands among the stones on the floor. Cassius looked indifferently at the teenagers crawling on the stones, trying to find at least a little bit of something edible.
In one of the corners of the cave, water was actually flowing down the wall, not just seeping, and it was possible to press your palm against the wall and collect a little of the same stinking water. But at least it quenched his endless thirst and refreshed his head a little. Cassius tried again to remember anything, but the headache began to grow, and the boy gave up. It seemed impossible to fall asleep on the cold, damp stones, but the children huddled together as closely as possible near the wall, where the floor was more even, and eventually fell asleep.
The next day, two other guards came down, bringing batteries for the headlamps, and took the old ones upstairs in a box. This morning, everyone got the same portion of gruel, and the guards explained that they feed everyone once a day, otherwise the teenagers would quickly become exhausted and useless, and in the evening they only feed those who can find stones. They also ordered everyone to take apart the hammers and chisels after eating and go in search of stones.
"Try to listen to yourselves, you idiots, you'll hear the stone singing or calling you," said the taller guard. "Then go to the wall and start chipping away at the rock in that spot. Sooner or later, you will hear the call getting closer, and then you will finally be able to get the stone. The stronger the call, the bigger the stone. There's a story that one lucky guy found a stone like that, and he and the supervisors working that shift were simply taken upstairs and released. Now they live and work for the company only upstairs. So look harder," he smiled. "Maybe luck is waiting for you.
Today, Cassius spent the whole day trying to feel something that the magician had talked about, but again he was unsuccessful. The stone remained a stone, and he heard no call. Cassius was infuriated that someone else could hear the stones, because some of the teenagers had found something. Unable to bear this injustice, Cassius struck the wall with all his might. No miracle happened, he just cut his hand on the stones. The boy cried out and began to rock his broken wrist, licking the salty drops of blood. After a while, the blood stopped flowing from the wounds, and Cassius suddenly felt better.
"I don't understand," he thought, "am I some kind of vampire? Blood really makes me feel better." As an experiment, Cassius tried to bite his finger, but couldn't bite through the skin. It hurt so much that he always stopped. In the end, he got so angry that he punched the wall. To his surprise, this time he didn't even feel any pain, and stone chips flew in all directions from the wall. Stunned by the unexpected, Cassius stared at his completely intact hand, then looked at the crack in the wall. The boy touched the surface of the wall with his finger, but it felt like stone. Suddenly, his head began to ache again, and he sat down on the ground next to the wall. His pain-stricken gaze wandered and suddenly caught sight of something glinting in the light of the headlamp, and Cassius was surprised to see a small shiny stone shimmering faintly in the rays of light. Clutching it in his fist, Cassius felt a slight warmth from the stone. Deciding not to go anywhere else, the tired and hungry teenager dozed off against the wall on the stone rubble, still clenching his fist.
***
Chibuzo Inu returned home and immediately sensed something was wrong. One elf was missing from the manor's defences, but more importantly, he couldn't sense his apprentice. Deciding that Cassius was out wandering somewhere, Chibuzo devoured his late lunch and asked the house elf who served him if the boy had been there in the last few days. Three days ago, he had taken one of the house spirits as a guard and gone to visit his old acquaintances. After a while, the other house spirits lost contact with their comrade, and the master's little apprentice did not return. Puzzled, Chibuzo decided that this was all very suspicious and ordered someone to bring some of Cassius's personal belongings from his room. Leaving his food on the table, he made his way to the ritual room. Inside, the dark wizard was suddenly overcome with the certainty that something terrible had happened.
Taking Cassius's school pen, Chibuzo placed it in the ritual circle and read the spell. A map of the city flashed above the ritual circle, with a dot in the centre of the estate where the ritual was taking place. Now, from this point, which only marked the student's personal belongings, a line would stretch to his current location. And depending on the colour of the thread, it would be possible to tell whether he was alive, wounded or healthy. Chibuzo waited a few more minutes, but nothing happened; the dot remained in the centre of the map.
"So he's not in Kinshasa," the mage said, a little surprised. "Let's expand the search spell."
Raising the energy a little more, he waited for the map to expand to cover the entire country and cast the search spell again. He waited a few more minutes, but the dot remained unchanged.
"All right," Chibuzo mentally cursed the unsuccessful search and fed energy from the stationary accumulators into the ritual weave, and the map grew to enormous proportions, reflecting the entire continent, most of Eurasia, and almost reaching America. The towers with the energy accumulators hummed intensely, and the density of magical energy increased by orders of magnitude. Chibuzo saw pale threads stretching somewhere towards England and France. The threads were pale, which meant they were Cassius's relatives, but not him.
Having stopped the extremely costly ritual, Chibuzo returned to the dining room, sat down at the table and fell into thought. He did not believe at all that the boy had been taken to America or Australia. It was also unclear who could have captured or killed the boy. The boy himself did not yet have any enemies, and the last time enemies had tried to challenge Chibuzo was when he was forced to hide his daughter in a foreign country, where he met Cassius's father. It was strange that if the boy had been killed, the thread would have shown everything, only the colour would have been black, but as it was, the search simply did not work. With the power that the magician had put into the ritual, it should have worked one way or another. "So, something really powerful is blocking the search," thought Chibuzo. "And it's clearly a natural phenomenon, not a human one. Any human defence would have been broken by the ritual. Well, except, perhaps, the defence of the Atlanteans. Sooner or later, he'll turn up somewhere," the mage smiled grimly. "Now we need to create an autonomous search amulet. As soon as Cassius appears in this world, the amulet will let us know."
Taking another pen from Cassius' school supplies, Chibuzo headed to the laboratory where he worked on creating amulets. The next day, he was already wearing an inconspicuous ring with a blood-red stone on his finger. As soon as the student appeared in this world or even died, a map of the area where Malfoy would be found would appear above the stone and create a portal disturbance to that place.
"And there we'll see," thought the magician, "who's the biggest frog in this swamp. When the lion is hungry, he eats!"
***
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