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]

"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."