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

[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.