Owl, Severus to Lezard. Heavily warded to cut an interceptor to ribbons.

[methleigh.livejournal.com]

He writes hurriedly and his choice of the nearby black ink ove his customary green shows this, even though he still possesses small slanted thin writing.

Lezard Valeth,

Please pardon my precipitous correspondence. There was a potion malevolently placed in the Great Hall today - I know not to what purpose if indeed it is not a juvenile prank. This potion exchanged one's body with that of another's when one drank it. I myself was turned into a corpulent purple half-wit, not even human. I discovered another being in the hall at this time in my form. This 'person' immediately drank the potion and gained the form and perhaps mind of Amaranth. I witnessed your meeting and departure but was incapable of warning you at that time. Please be assured that this woman with you is not Amaranth. If in fact the potion exchanges bodies, it may well be the afore-mentioned purple monstrosity. I sincerely hope this missive will reach you in time.

Yours truly,
Prof. Severus Snape.

"Urgently," He tells Damon, feeding him the largest piece of jerky he has. "Please deliver it with as much alacrity as possible."

Comments

[arrogantmage.livejournal.com]

Lezard was not feeling reasonable.

He found the information useful, as it explained how Silmeria could have taken on the likeness of Amaranth. Nonetheless, the encounter with Silmeria-as-Amaranth had left him in a decidedly foul mood, and he would take it out on anything that crossed his path. He took up pen to reply rather capriciously:

Professor:

I'm afraid it's too late.

Let me say, however, that my horizons have been expanded and my view of life utterly altered by the purple monstrosity of which you speak. I assume you mean the teletubby Tinky Winky, for what other could merit such a description? May he ever thrive.

- Lezard Valeth.

Warded to explode towards anyone else in a gazillian shards of glass

[methleigh.livejournal.com]

Severus frowns. This does not sound like Lezard at all. He should have been angry, incensed, offended if he were in his right mind.

Lezard Valeth,

The enclosed bezoar will counteract most forms of poison if you have ingested any, though such is not usually your way. I can scarcely imagine that it is now. Your brain appears addled. The effects of any relations you may have had with this creature should be analysed and reversed at your earliest convenience. I should be glad to assist should that be useful. As you know I specialise in potions and our defence against our own dark arts.

Yours truly,
Prof. Severus Snape.

Lezard is proud, he understands that, and capable beyond any expectation, but he is willing to do whatever he can for his student and a Slytherin at that. After tying the bezoar in a small box to Damon's leg, he smooths his feathers and hands him the note.

Should he go to find the young man? The matter seems too... personal to inform the Headmaster. Severus shudders and tries not to imagine what must have transpired.

warded with neat and careful strands of magic that form a glowing pentangle about the parchment

[arrogantmage.livejournal.com]

Professor:

What a charming bezoar. Is it from the stomach of a goat? You may consider the use of diospyrobezoars (http://www.persimmonpudding.com/bezoars.html) in your work.

I assure you I have seldom felt better, and I shall keep the bezoar only so that I may regift it to you at holiday-time.

- Lezard Valeth

PS. Everything is true; nothing is permitted.

((Postscript alludes to a catchphrase (http://www.disinfo.com/archive/pages/article/id1562/pg1/) favored among chaos magicians (http://everything2.com/e2node/Nothing%2520is%2520true%252C%2520everything%2520is%2520permitted), only in reverse. ))

Re: warded with neat and careful strands of magic that form a glowing pentangle about the parchment

[methleigh.livejournal.com]

Severus reads this remarkable missive suspiciously. Doispyrobzoars are surprisingly less effective than the one he had sent to Lezard, which was indeed from the stomach of a goat. 'Charming' is an unlikely term. Wondering if it is in code, he peers at the last line for some time. It tickles something in the back of his mind - something he had read when he had been young and more curious about his muggle heritage. More foolish.

Everything is true. That sounds like his credo. But nothing is permitted. That sounds like his fate. Does Lezard mean him? He shakes his head. It still could be code and in any case is cryptic. Though the artistic perfection of the wards bode better than the nearly nonsensical words, he will go to look for his student. Small potentially useful potions fill his pockets, and he keeps his wand ready before him.

He sends his own brief owl.

Lezard Valeth,
Gift is a noun.
Attendance is also a noun.
Yours truly,
Prof. Severus Snape.

It was the lapse of grammar that had disturbed him. Is it a clue? He sends his own obscure herald.

Though he could see Lezard appropriating or transporting a tower, he tries Slytherin first. Underground one can be more circumspect and there is so much room for low-profile expansion. A pleasure-dome with caves of ice?

[arrogantmage.livejournal.com]

Lezard has not done anything so grand as that. He's simply appropriated three rooms and dissolved the walls between them to form a larger chamber (http://community.livejournal.com/hogwarts_hocus/1639193.html). He is home, so to speak, at the moment; he's just had an idea, and has commanded a couple of house elves to carry out this idea.

He sends his familiar, a gray cat, with a message in reply to Snape's latest. Again he has warded the message with a glowing pentangle.

Professor:

Gods need no dictionaries.

- Lezard Valeth.

That done, he awaits the return of the house elves.

[methleigh.livejournal.com]

Prowling the hallways, Severus senses motion in front of him in the shadows. A glowing motion near the ground. A cat resolves itself. It can only be Lezard's - the same shining symbol. Kneeling he tries to attract it, and to his surprise it comes. A note! It is almost a welcome, so Lezard is free to write notes and will not send him away in a rage for interferring. He smiles. This sounds like Lezard.

He is not good with animals, Wishbone aside. "Go on moggy! Where's Lezard? Take me to Lezard." This is awkward - he is not used to either dogs or cats and does not know what they will understand, or the manner in which one should talk to them. But the cat seems to be returning to Lezard without his encouragement. He follows, his wand a point of dark light. He remains wary and looks for miscreants in the shadows.

Eventually he and the cat arrive outside Lezard's door.

[arrogantmage.livejournal.com]

Lezard opens the door in expectation of house elves returning laden with a valkyrie's armor. Instead he sees his cat followed by Professor Snape.

The cat hisses and scampers into the room past Lezard's feet. Somewhere in the shadows its bed awaits.

"Professor." Lezard looks ... tired. "Have you come for your bezoar already?"

[methleigh.livejournal.com]

"I came to offer my attendance and to assure myself of your well-being. Deceit is seldom without reason." He says this primly, but looking at Lezard he sees weariness, which should be beyond him. He is genuinely concerned and his brows draw together slightly, though his face is not hard or unkind.

"It is not yet time for the holidays, after all."

[arrogantmage.livejournal.com]

Here come the house elves now, trouping down the corridor, bearing the pieces of Silmeria's armor that had been left behind in the Great Hall. Lezard beckons Snape into the chamber to clear the doorway for them.

"Leave them there," he directs the elves. He's quite pleased that his guess about the armor has paid off. Now he has something of Silmeria's, since she took something that belonged to him. The elves stack the pieces of armor against the wall in the place Lezard has indicated, and hurriedly take their leave. They don't like being around this chamber.

It's not hard to see why.

He's made the room(s) into something very like the study and laboratory he'd kept at the heart of his first Tower, the one outside Flenceburg. There are large glass vessels, large enough to contain a human though they're currently empty save for a viscous green fluid that is aerated by pipes. There is a work table whose surface has been scarred by chemicals and burns.

There is also a small sitting area, where once Lezard entertained Tyrion, and here he invites Snape to sit.

"It's kind of you to have thought of me," he says, "but really, your warning did come too late."

[methleigh.livejournal.com]

Severus looks around at the tanks measuringly, at the table approvingly and at the elves curiously. He moves as they enter, strangely bearing armour. The sitting area is something he himself is always careful to include in his rooms, so he feels at home. Why hadn't he brought the scotch?

"Thank you. I apologise for the tardiness of my warning. I was detained. You were not truly engaged with that purple monstrosity, I am sure. But something has transpired." Lezard deserves politeness. And he genuinely wishes to enlist himself on his student's behalf. Now that he is here, he wants to help. "Tell me what has happened. Why the armour - surely you don't need such accoutrements?"

Lezard is neither sheepish nor embarrassed.

[arrogantmage.livejournal.com]

Lezard laughs. While the laugh is far more subdued than the full-out extravaganza of maniacal glee he can on occasion unleash, it manages nonetheless to be a shade unsettling.

"For personal use, no, I have no need of a set of purple armor that was forged for a woman's shape." The breastplate has, well, breasts. "Quite frankly I can't say what practical use it may have whatsoever. I may simply allow it to gather dust. I may also attempt to use various corrosive agents upon it, just for the sake of experimentation, though I expect the enchantments upon it will protect it from most anything that can be found in this world."

He settles in the chair opposite Snape.

"Nonetheless I've suffered an incalculable loss tonight. I have been quite unsettled. Let us say that the possession of this armor consoles me, and leave it at that?"

[methleigh.livejournal.com]

An unsettling laugh registers for Severus, but it is just a personal quirk, only slightly more telling than a stutter or habit of biting the nails.

So, he has stolen the armour and will experiment on it. It is Silmeria's - he recognises it from her sorting. Probably the girl in the Great Hall who had taken his body - for it must have been a girl, with a gown - was probably also Silmeria and not the purple affable oaf. The treachery and deceit! And she had seen his Mark. He clenches his teeth and grinds them a couple of times.

"Silmeria, then. She has taken something from you? We must retrieve it. And in the meantime, maybe we can learn from the armour, develop ways around her defences." It is a challenge, and one to help Lezard. Action is worth more than sympathy.

But he is still a spy, so he says with conciliatory tones, "I hate to leave something be when it is wrong, and I hate to leave something that would unsettle even you."

[arrogantmage.livejournal.com]

Lezard pushes his glasses up. Once more his hands are wholly sheathed in the gloves he always wears, their leather scuffed but clean, the color of freshly-turned earth.

"I neglected to convey my gratitude for your warning at the time Silmeria first appeared in the Sorting Room," he says. "I'm sure you can imagine how busy I've been. She and I are not on the best of terms. I've offered her a truce and I had hoped she would have the sense to accept it." Snape's offer of assistance with the armor Lezard dismisses. "Her armor is unlikely to tell me anything I have not already learned or cannot readily discern. I don't expect you or anyone to understand my reasoning. As for her defenses ..."

He lets his head tilt back a moment, lets his eyes slide shut, as though exhausted.

"Are you suggesting I should wish to attack her?"

[methleigh.livejournal.com]

Lezard appears tired - weary - and this worries him. But he answers hurriedly. "I am certainly not advocating attack." Nor can he be seen to do so. "But in the event that she attempts an attack herself - or a deception that may not seem an attack - it is best to know her defences. Defence is not always passive, and if she does attack one surely has a right to a counter-attack as defence."

[arrogantmage.livejournal.com]

Lezard waves one gloved hand, lazily, in a show of supreme unconcern.

"She's weak. Without both her sisters, she cannot stand against me. Her attempts to do so have been ..." He thinks of an analogy. "Like the buzzing of a fly. Irritating, displeasing, but ultimately trivial. The sort of flying insect that lives off blood ..."

[methleigh.livejournal.com]

Severus frowns and steeles his fingertips tightly and thoughtfully together. He does not point out that Lezard has lost something of incalculable value, and in addition appears drained. "Nevertheless, an itch as from a mosquito can distract one. And she has proved she is neither trustworthy nor honest. I myself could do well to learn more of her, especially if she regards you as an enemy, as she clearly does."

[arrogantmage.livejournal.com]

"She has indeed proven herself untrustworthy and dishonest," Lezard muses. "I won't say that subterfuge is beyond a valkyrie, as I have seen Hrist Valkyrie use a false identity before: but that instance was at the direction of Odin himself, and it did not come readily to her, I think. Odin is a god known for trickery, an oathbreaker of a god."

He does not make the intuitive leap required to sense Mr. Wednesday's involvement. He's thinking of the Odin who Silmeria knew.

"And Silmeria rebelled against his reign. She'd make a bad liar. I should have been able to see past her deceit ..." He shakes his head, frustrated. "It should have felt wrong."

[methleigh.livejournal.com]

"She did not make herself known to me either, though I was honest with her. I was without my powers at the time, or I should have notified you sooner, but nor did I sense her. Tell me, are valkyries predisposed to uprightness?" He does not know Wednesday, nor does he know much of Odin save as a rather distant figure in the history of magic.

[arrogantmage.livejournal.com]

Snape's question concerning the nature of valkyries leads Lezard away from the progression of thoughts he's been following -- and perhaps blocks, or defers, a key discovery in doing so.

"Do you know very much about the valkyrjar? I daresay not. They are humorless and without guile. They are ruthless creatures of singular purpose. They're exquisitely unstoppable."

He is thinking of Lenneth, of course.

"Silmeria is the youngest and weakest of the three. She is also the most softhearted. Perhaps that makes her the most corruptible."

[methleigh.livejournal.com]

Severus frowns all over again. "This one, at least, certainly possesses guile. She may be humourless and ruthless, but one must still attempt to stop them. Corruption has certainly worked within her. What is her purpose? Do you know? We ought to pre-empt whatever she may be attempting, and the best way to do that is to anticipate her next step towards her goal." He pauses a moment. "She seems curiously vindictive for someone who ought to be of singular purpose."

[arrogantmage.livejournal.com]

"She relinquished her former purpose. She was a servant of Odin, meant to collect warriors for him. Without that purpose, perhaps she needed to devise another reason to exist. She rebelled against Odin; then I vanquished Odin, so she rebelled against me."

Lezard lifted his head a little, to regard Snape straight-on.

"And now here we are, she in a questionable state of depletion, I without the resources I once had. Perhaps she fights me because she does not know what else to do. In any case I can hardly destroy her. The enchantments on this castle quite aside, what on earth would dear Lenneth say?"

[methleigh.livejournal.com]

This is further and useful information. In his world Lezard has vanquished Odin. And perhaps that was to win Lenneth's adoration in itself. "You are lacking resources. Is there any way to regain them? She must surely be less capable than yourself. She is so very clearly less intelligent, even in simple conversation. No, we must neutralise her. What are her weaknesses? He personal weaknesses. What will disturb her, embarrass her, throw her offbalance?"

[arrogantmage.livejournal.com]

Lezard shrugs. "I could imprison her again. I no longer have need of her power, so the sole purpose would be to keep her out of the way. But that ..."

He looks distant; as though he isn't actually looking at Snape any longer, but something far away and unseen.

"I've learned that is not an optimal method of dealing with valkyries."

[methleigh.livejournal.com]

So, Lezard has imprisoned her 'before' and seeing the large tanks, Severus is not surprised. But he has learned and reformed, even if it is tactical rather than regretful. Actually, Severus can almost respect that more. "I don't think that imprisonment is on something that will be countenanced. True, it is not killing, but I think there would be administrative consequences." Well, if attempted murder does not result in any repercussions, perhaps that type of bondage would not either, he thinks bitterly. "Or perhaps not, but is you have not found it effective, that is another point against it.

"Have you found an optimal method? You did not answer about personal weaknesses. Perhaps humourlessness would count for one and they might be unsettled by the bizarre and unlikely?"

[arrogantmage.livejournal.com]

"I regret to say I have not yet discovered the secret to dealing with valkyries successfully, no." Lezard's voice is dry. "Your suggestion as to unsettling them is a good one. They're somewhat inflexible. However, Silmeria is more adaptable than her sisters. That makes her the most likely to cope well with Hogwarts, incidentally. Would you care for some sort of refreshment? I seldom eat or drink except for the sake of conviviality, but I'm sure the elves could be induced to bring something a mortal might like."

[methleigh.livejournal.com]

"It is very kind of you, and as you say convivial, but there was an incident earlier and I don't believe it would be wise to ingest anything this evening." Again, he is unsurprised. Lezard had looked slightly askance at everything offered, including the chocolate frogs. He nods, though there is a place for partaking in friendship with others. "Hogwarts, as it stands, demands adaptability. But nevertheless, there are degrees of surprise. And flexibility also can be a trap. Does she deliberately try to achieve it? If so, she may be inclined to let herself be lured by a desire not to be offended, or she may allow herself to accept what she believes to be novelty simply to adapt to this new environment. We could use that."

[arrogantmage.livejournal.com]

"Even with a bezoar ready to hand, you fear poison?" But Lezard is only joking. His sense of humor is even more skewed than usual, thanks to the evening's earlier upset. "Professor, I do appreciate your concern, but Silmeria is a problem I shall have to face without assistance, I expect. Tonight I underestimated her, and I find that I am hindered by a strange deadness of perception ..."

Perhaps Snape can be of use after all; perhaps he will have knowledge that is useful. Lezard tries this: "Are you familiar with any sort of parasitism in which the host organism remains wholly unaware of the parasite's effect?"

[methleigh.livejournal.com]

"It is not so much poison as recovering from blunt trauma, self-inflicted." He waves this aside. "I have ever been a spy and shall continue to collect information for your cause, and I do have my uses." Yes he does, and there is no lack of confidence or self-deprecation.

He considers Lezard's question simply, not seeing the purpose behind it. "Almost all parasites are immediately undetectable, but as they feed upon the host they make themselves apparent by producing a variety of symptoms, almost bewildering diverse. There are some instances of symbiosis where parasites actually benefit the host and they exist taking advantage from one another." This is very basic and literal.

[arrogantmage.livejournal.com]

Lezard nods grimly. "This too is my understanding. Mutually beneficial symbiosis is rare. I have reason to believe that Silmeria siphons energy from me."

By reason to believe, he means Silmeria told him herself.

[methleigh.livejournal.com]

"That's serious. Can she use it against you? I can't imagine it would be mutually beneficial or that she can mean any good to you at all but only seeks to weaken you and perhaps gain your power." He frowns. "How does she do it, that we can construct a defense, or turn it back against her. If she is taking from you, it may be possible to give her something other than what she is expecting."

He looks at the armour. Has Lezard taken this from her in exchange then? Useless as it seems to be, it seems a poor trade.

[arrogantmage.livejournal.com]

Leaning back in his chair, Lezard covers his eyes with a gloved hand. "I cannot tell. I do not know. I would not even know she took power from me at all were it not that she had told me so. Her ... subsequent behavior ... bears out this claim. Yet I cannot sense when she siphons such energy, let alone how she manages to do it. She's a valkyrie, not a magic user, not a scholar."

With his eyes covered, he does not catch Snape's glance toward the armor. In any event he would not be able to explain it any better than he's already done: the armor indeed has no use to him. He has stolen it for sheer spite, thus appeasing his immediate itch to retaliate against the valkyrie in some more destructive way (which Hogwarts' enchantment would no doubt prevent to begin with).

[methleigh.livejournal.com]

Severus is still not completely clear on the nature of a valkyrie. Some sort of servant to Odin, it would seem. And yet Lezard seems fixated. On a servant. Overthrowing Odin, much as he likes Lezard, for mere servants seems a little cheap, and his obsession with Lenneth seems beneath him. Neither a magic-user, nor a scholar! Still, he had wished to go with Amaranth. That is more promising, and perhaps a portion of the source of Lezard's discomfiture now..

"It sounds vampiric." He answers. How can Lezard have no idea? "Why would she tell you she was draining your power if you were not aware of it? I can only imagine it would be childish crowing, but she does not seem to have the soul for pride. Either - and I would not discount the notion based on my encounter with her in the sorting room - she is so foolish she has no concept of wisdom or tactics, or she wishes to set you a challenge with which she may trap you and take perhaps more substantial parts of your energy. It must be she is doing it to weaken you. Can you think of specific aspects of encounters where she may have been able to take this from you? Contact, for instance, or a particularly intense gaze, a time when she was not quite listening to you, paying more attention to somethign unseen? Those would be the most likely times. Or have there been attempts to diminish your capacities with drink or potions?"

[arrogantmage.livejournal.com]

Lezard has straightened in his chair and is now cleaning his glasses with a linen handkerchief. "On the contrary, valkyries are intensely prideful creatures. I would not be surprised if she boasted of such a thing, more to put me in my place than to elevate herself ... As it happens, she has the peculiar notion that she's somehow entitled to a share of my power. She claims I took it from her. That's rather an imprecise and crude way of describing the connection that existed at one time ... which is, it occurs to me, not a memory I shared with you, unless there is more to Legilimency than I know."

He replaces his glasses and is once more owlishly composed. He also looks much less tired.

"Specific aspects of encounters ... She claims (http://community.livejournal.com/hogwarts_hocus/1693594.html?thread=90682010#t90682010) there is a stronger flow when I have discorporated. I mean specifically when I have released the bonds of matter that hold this form together. Those bonds also bind divine energy more closely within the gravitational field that my being exerts." He frowns. "Of course, to speak of gravity is also imprecise. A figure of speech, really. Suffice it to say, I no longer discorporate in her presence. I have teleported, which is a moving of matter from one place to another, not a shedding of the material form altogether, and this she has not claimed to strengthen her."

He wonders whether any of this is even true, now. He knows only that Silmeria told him it was so, and that she seemed to believe it at the time.

"Perhaps her own understanding is incorrect. In any event, she stated her demands, I made no promises, and it appears she has grown impatient unto the point of recklessness. Hence this mummery of poor Amaranth."

[methleigh.livejournal.com]

"Boasting tells more of the boaster than it expresses anything of deeds they announce. What are her demands? A demand is a crack one may wedge open. It shows weakness - to want something of an enemy."

"That would be my tactic - to give what would appear to be what she wants, and more besides and that more should somehow lead to her undoing."

Severus smiles without his eyes.