In which detention serves a useful purpose for once. (closed RP, for now)

[arrogantmage.livejournal.com]

All in all, Lezard Valeth felt his Sorting had gone rather well. He had met a kindred spirit of sorts. More than one, really, for the Sorting Hat had recognized his potential and Sorted him into Slytherin. Lezard decided he very much liked the Sorting Hat: its mindset was so very much like Lezard's own.

(Read: perverse and more than a little insane.)

Now there was the silly business of detention to deal with. Lezard had no immediate plans to overthrow the current system of order at Hogwarts, and therefore would humor its bureaucratic machinations for the time being. Turlough's threats of torture at the caretaker's hands meant only amusement for Lezard, since the things he'd done to himself with the aid of the Philosopher's Stone (no, not like that!) had rendered him impervious to such attacks. Indeed, when the very Lord of the Undead had rushed at Lezard to halt the Sovereign's Rite, the Lord's bulky body had passed right through Lezard, as though the mage had become immaterial. Which in fact he had, selectively. He could be as solid as he wished (how else to hold his valkyrie love?) or dissolve into motes of light.

He looked forward to baffling the Hogwarts staff.

Therefore he was less than thrilled when, at the end of his Sorting, a little green house-elf came shambling up to present him with a note: Schedule change. Report immediately for your detention to Groundskeeper Vislor Turlough at the mangosteen grove.

Irritated, he followed the elf out of the castle and onto the grounds. What he beheld pleased him: the edge of the grove was perfectly regular, a crescent seen on the horizon, and he knew that a view from above would show it as a green circle, unnatural, his mark on the landscape of this country. A summer breeze fluttered his cloak and wafted the scent of tropical trees toward him.

As he entered the grove, he tapped his fingers in a light rhythm along the Wand of Apocalypse's shaft.

The groundskeeper awaited.

Comments

[i-am-an-hero.livejournal.com]

A was in the greenhouse when the owl reached him.

Instantly curious (and a little wary), he set down his tools and headed for the grove.

[arrogantmage.livejournal.com]

Sitting comfortably on the spongy ground, using his cloak as a blanket, Lezard waited beside the newly installed dais at the grove's exact center.

The peaceful sound of water bubbling and flowing now harmonized with the rustling of mangosteen leaves. The air was rainforest-warm and rainforest-moist, now, the evaporating water of the new springs trapped by the leaf-canopy of Kurama's trap plants (http://community.livejournal.com/hogwarts_hocus/1633233.html?thread=86710481#t86710481). Other than the removal of his cloak, Lezard remained fully dressed in his long-sleeved tunic, heavy breeches, heavy boots, even the leather gloves, and appeared completely cool (in the sense of temperature, anyway). This was because he was, well, Lezard Valeth. People with mortal flesh would probably feel the heat.

"What do you think?" was his greeting to A.

[i-am-an-hero.livejournal.com]

"Ohhh," A sighed, feeling the new warmth and humidity. "How long is this for?" At least he'd be spared watering the grove for however long that was.

[arrogantmage.livejournal.com]

Lezard laughed. It was not quite his manic evil-overlord laugh. Rather, it was rich and smooth as drinking-chocolate, spiced with something approaching actual happiness. "The effect will last as long as the sealstone is in place." He gestured to the splayed twig-crook of the dais. "You cannot see it now, for there is no valkyrie here to resonate with its energy and reveal its presence. Nevertheless I assure you there is a sealstone there, which creates this area effect."

[i-am-an-hero.livejournal.com]

"I don't know what a sealstone is," A told him. "But it will last for always if no one moves it? Even in winter, the trees will be warm?"

Both A's expression and tone of voice grew excited.

"If, if it is warm, then the trees will live, and there will be mangosteens!"

[arrogantmage.livejournal.com]

After Turlough's unenthusiastic reception, A's reaction was balm to Lezard's affront.

"Yes, it will last for always if no one moves the sealstone from the dais. You need not learn the workings and nature of a sealstone, for it requires no energy or action on your part. Just make sure no one removes anything from this," he indicated the length of gnarled wood that he had called a dais, "and your trees will continue to enjoy eternal summer. That is the sealstone's name: Eternal Summer Blessing."

He gazed upon the dais and its invisible cargo. The last time he'd seen one of these, its sealstone had reflected, shimmered with photons of glorious light ... Silmeria's light.

"A, if a valkyrie comes near to this stone, you will be able to see it. There will appear to be a globe of light sitting atop the dais. If that happens, will you send word to me?"

[i-am-an-hero.livejournal.com]

"Should, would it still work if I covered it, then? With a glass dome, or a mesh cage?"

He wouldn't want the grove's climate to be disrupted, now that it is optimal for the trees. Perhaps some of the smaller animals might even be able to survive here, now!

"I promise if I see it glow I will let you know right away."

[arrogantmage.livejournal.com]

Lezard chuckled to himself, picturing sealstones dislodged from their seats in the dungeons of Midgard by the stray swish of a kobold's tail or the chance swing of a shadow knight's lance. "No accidental jostling should budge the sealstone. Only lifting it from its place with purposeful intent will remove it from the dais where I have placed it."

He realized that he had just provided himself with a foolproof valkyrie detector, albeit a stationary one. "Please do let me know right away should the stone become visible. We would not want a valkyrie to steal it, would we?"

[i-am-an-hero.livejournal.com]

The reassurance that the sealstone will remain in place relaxed A visibly.

"Thank you," he said softly, still with a delighted smile. "And I do, I do promise I will tell you as soon as I see it, if it glows. Would you like a mangosteen? They are very good."

[arrogantmage.livejournal.com]

Despite everything, the offer surprised Lezard, simple though it was.

"... Yes, please. I should like to try a mangosteen."

[i-am-an-hero.livejournal.com]

Smile widening, A oh-so-carefully picked a ripe mangosteen from the nearest tree, and with his (thankfully, recently cleaned) boxcutter, cut the deep red-purple rind open to expose the creamy white segments inside.

He held the fruit out to Lezard. "It's the white part that you eat."

[arrogantmage.livejournal.com]

He took a segment. Gingerly, he tasted the mangosteen's white flesh.

In his travels Lezard had partaken of many exotic foods. He'd come a long way from the Flenceburg collegium cafeteria. Yet had he ever been offered something so simple and so sweet?

Had A been a woman, Lezard might have fallen in love right then and there, his obsession with Lenneth notwithstanding. Here they stood in a paradise of Lezard's own making, and A offered him the fruit of that paradise, gladly and without hesitation or doubt.

Alas, A's plumbing was otherwise. So Lezard was left with a feeling of exaltation that had no immediate outlet or target.

"This ... is very good," he said, his voice trembling.

[i-am-an-hero.livejournal.com]

"I had read about mangosteens, that they were so good, and wanted to grow something so good. They are too good for most cooking uses, I think, but I might try making a sorbet. I would have to practice first. Maybe I will try making a mikan and lime sorbet first, for Kusuriyuri, and if it comes out well I will make a mangosteen sorbet."

He was thinking out loud, but A often did that.

"Have you ever made sorbet? I am not sure how difficult it is."

[arrogantmage.livejournal.com]

Cooking did not interest Lezard, unless the context were alchemical.

"I would not know. You should have plenty of mangosteen for that experiment, in any event," he said, with an absent wave of his gloved hand. "Farewell, A. Enjoy your fruits."