Chapter 235: Unraveling the Secret Texts - Fusing Runes!

Chapter 235 - Unraveling the Secret Texts - Fusing Runes! Saturday, 1 November 1986 02:00 pm Covered under a blanket of books, scrolls, and cut out articles, Darcie looked pathetic. Among the plethora of old newspapers surrounding her, today's copy of the Daily Prophet stood out. On the front page, the editors celebrated the 5th anniversary of the fall of you-know-who. No such celebrations had or would ever happen in the Malfoy Manor. At the bottom of the front page, a section was devoted to the brief visit of the minister of magic, Millicent Bagnold, to the Halloween feast hosted by Lucius Malfoy. Speculations were made in this article between this sudden closeness between the minister and Lucius Malfoy's appointment as a member of the Hogwarts Board of Governors this very morning. Darcie's gaze fell on that article for the umpteenth time, and she frowned. She had guessed wrong, Darcie realized. Her father wasn't going for the post of the minister of magic, but only to become one of the twelve wizards who oversaw the running of the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Milli hinted to me nothing, she thought, recalling their meeting last night. She must have thought it wasn't of any concern to me. As she thought about the night, her brows furrowed further. She looked about her, at the piled-up books, scrolls, and notes. A sigh escaped her mouth, full of sleepiness, tiredness, and helplessness. After the initial thrill of stumbling upon those otherworldly writing and the yellow sign had died, Darcie had taken her sweet time copying one page on a fresh parchment. Those were ancient documents, and she couldn't afford to damage them further by any mistake. Then, she tried copying the yellow sign, but no matter how much she tried, or how much time she spent, she couldn't do it. The moment she drew one of the sign's arms, for it had the shape of a mixed convoluted form of number 3, a question mark, and some kind of three-pronged wheel, she forgot how she had drawn it completely. It was even more magical, mysterious, and fascinating than anything Darcie had learned so far. The entire night had passed away like that, trying and trying, failing and failing. When the black of the night had turned blue, and Dobby had woken up, Darcie had made him try the same as well. Alas! The results had been worse. Dobby couldn't even trace one of its arms properly on a blank paper. The house-elf had never held a quill in his life, and even if he had, Darcie doubted it could've changed anything. A restless morning had turned into an anticipated afternoon, but Darcie had found nothing that could point her towards the origin of these runic letters. She had stored the original documents in the library, hiding the flaky parchments in the book, Magical Drafts and Potions. One by one, the books kept piling up, becoming columns. As the evening approached, and her time to leave the library finally came, Darcie knew it was time to order the books that she had avoided before — Ancient Runes Made Easy and Rune Dictionary. Ancient Runes Made Easy was a beginner's level book on Ancient Runes written by Laurenzoo, Darcie recalled the detail on it as mentioned in the Books' catalog. It provided translations for twenty-one thousand different runes and symbols. On the other hand, the Rune Dictionary was a dictionary used to aid witches and wizards in the translation and understanding of runes. Students who took Study of Ancient Runes at Hogwarts used these books to decipher the meaning of runes. Now Darcie needed these books more than anything. With her father's new post as the governor, she would get to see him less and less in the home, Darcie knew. So she hastily penned down a letter, demanding the said two books, to the manager of Flourish and Blotts, Mr. Pigplanter Hillam. She found her father in his study room, reading the congratulatory letters that hadn't stopped arriving since morning. "Father," she said, knocking gently on the opened oaken door as she entered the room. "I need these books." Lucius beamed at seeing Darcie. He had credited Darcie as part of his success in becoming the governor. The minister's visit last night was unknown even to him, but it had played out perfectly. The rumors did help him gain a reputation with the minister, it seemed. "Of course," her father laughed, opening the letter in the setting sun's light seeping in through the windows. "Oh?! Why the sudden interest in runes, Darcie?" Darcie had already thought of an answer. "A major part of Magical History is derived from runic texts, father," she told him. "I think I should have a basic understanding of them." Lucius nodded, already signing the letter. He faced Darcie and smiled. "Can't you tell me for what reason the minister visited you last night?" he asked, not unkindly. "Or is it a secret between friends?" Darcie looked thoughtful. "No," she said, shaking her mind. "It's not some secret, father. If it is, it won't remain for long." Lucius looked puzzled. He gestured for her to sit by his side and put down the letters off his lap on the table. "What is it?" he prodded. "Milli and I were working on the nature of the Dark Arts, father," she said, looking out the window at the dark greenery and purple sky. "I have been having some thoughts based on the books and case studies I have read and analyzed, and I have been sharing those thoughts with her in the correspondence. "It's only yesterday that I could finalize my thoughts and put them on paper. Milli had come to take a look at them in person, it being a festival and all, and she looked ever so enthralled. If it works out, Milli told me we could publish it as an Argumentative Research Paper." Lucius' puzzled and cheerful expressions had vanished. Now he looked plain, observing, and shrewd. "You are the smartest Malfoy, Darcie," he stated as a matter of fact. "And by smartest, I mean in the entire history of Malfoys' ancestry. "Your only weakness is, dear, that you don't know when to hold back. We Malfoys have always remained in the shadows and look where we are now. If it wasn't the right thing to do, we wouldn't have been enjoying the luxury of being wealthy and powerful. "Sigh! I know you must have given the minister proper reasoning on how you came to possess the books and other materials. That much intelligence is in our blood itself. But you must remember from now on that other than family, you can trust no one. Promise me." Darcie looked down at her feet. "Yes, father," she said meekly. "I promise." Lucius guffawed. "Come here, you little monster!" he shouted, pulling Darcie on her lap. "We won't have much time to practice on potion-brewing from now on. So don't do it yourself. And next time you write something, show me or your mother first. What do you think? If you were to shine like a sun in the wizarding community, would we stop you? "You are a Malfoy, Darcie, and that much is expected of you. Now go on, wash up for dinner. And keep an eye out on your brother for me, will you? I think last night's attention is getting to his head." Darcie nodded, some of the tiredness washing away from her heart. There was just one thing in her mind as she left her father in his study room, only one more defiant thought. What if she didn't want to shine like the sun? What if... she wanted to be the Sun? Anything below that wasn't Greatness, Darcie reflected. No one would understand her reasoning, her aspirations, and her actions. Not even her family. * * Wednesday, 5 November 1986 01:00 am ... Experimental Log - #23 Date: 30 Oct 1986 to 5 Nov 1986 ... After scribbling down Darcie's life from two different points of view, Kai put the Journal back into his MRB and took a deep breath. He went to the basin, washed away the sweat, dried his face, and sat down back on the floor. Not much had changed about his routine in these last few months. That's one thing that was common about Darcie and Kai. Discipline. Kai crossed his legs, straightened his back, and took a meditative posture. His breathing softened. One long breath through the nose was followed by a longer exhale through the mouth. Three more times and Kai found himself in the optimum state to dive within himself. Beginner as he was in the ways of magic, for the magic within oneself, he wasn't even on the level of being called a rookie. But he was learning. And there was a reason that the entire world in his previous life had proclaimed him a monster when he had just started reading and learning. A monster with the combined mental prowess of his parents. Kai learned fast and remembered faster. All he needed was time. Time was the only thing he had been having trouble with in this timeline, despite being probably the only one in the history of Chaos' Valley who had the access to unobtainable knowledge and resources. Kai focused on the magic within him, an endless sea of yellow mist. Though he could see it stretching endlessly, he knew acutely that this yellow mist represented his tiny MP. An entire 200 points of Mana were coursing through his body as uncontrollable vortexes. Yes, he could access it. Yes, he could use it to give his imagination a substance. But Meg and the Chief Bishop of Byagoona both had told him that no Contestant had ever controlled its flow within themselves, for humans lacked anatomy to support such a flow. And if there was an alien species who could, they lacked the knowledge about them. Nevertheless, Kai's aspiration, though boundless, was perfectly in his control. For now, he was satisfied at the sight of this foggy ocean, his playground. Suddenly, pillars of fog shot up, curled around each other like thinner threads making rope, and when the churning stopped, a room appeared, floating over the mass of the yellow sea. Inside this room, which was completely white with white walls and a closed window, another Kai materialized, sitting in the same posture. His eyes snapped open, then. Kai made himself have a particular thought. This thought, in turn, generated memories, a collection of many pathways, spanning the last four days. Kai willed, poured imagination into his memories using magic, and two books appeared in front of him, hovering mid-air. These books were — Ancient Runes Made Easy and Rune Dictionary. By restricting Darcie's study plan to only these two books, 3 days had been more than enough for Kai to remember the contents of these books by heart. Alas! If remembering could help him with his goals, then there was no need to go about such a roundabout way to handle such things. As the two books hovered in front of him, his another thought fired the second set of pathways, triggering one more memory. Now, a single page materialized between the two books. This page was one of the tales Kai had copied from the Tales of Beedle the Bard after his reincarnation in Harry Potter World. Kai stood up, brought his palms together, and the two books and the page pressed against each other, following his gesture. Then Kai threw his hands outwards. With an unheard explosion, the books and the page burst apart. Surprisingly, what had exploded out of them weren't pieces of torn pages, but runic letters. Around twenty-one thousand runes and symbols from the book, Ancient Runes Made Easy, even more from the book, Rune Dictionary, and the incomprehensible letters from the unknown tale filled the entire space of the room like drops of black rain. Now Kai concentrated more, his hazel eyes narrowing into slits. All the black raindrops flashed, going in and out of existence, hammering at each other, and getting repelled. Some runes from Ancient Runes Made Easy melted into the runes from Rune Dictionary like they were drops of water. Some shattered on the impact, their corners breaking away, gaining new strokes until they too fused at last. But all the runic letters and symbols that collided the runes from the tale got repelled as if they were two ends of different magnets with same polarity. This fusing, shattering, and restructuring of runic letters, and the repulsion wasn't without a basis. Every single thought, thing, and action in this room signified the ongoing calculations in Kai's mind, his analysis, and his logical reasoning. It was almost like adding 2 and 2 in mind and getting the result 4. One didn't need to think to get the answer in this case. But when one had to solve an entire mathematical problem on an unprecedented scale in one's mind, the mental capabilities required in those cases were inhumane, to say the least. His mind and imagination fueled such method, saving Kai uncountable days of calculation, and bringing out results not even the brilliant minds could hope to get. More, he needed more. Outside, in the bathroom, Kai's body shook, his closed eyelids pressing into themselves even further. Veins popped up on his forehead, and the sound of his teeth grinding met the silence in open defiance. Inside the white room made of Kai's imagination, and shaped by his Mana, the fusion, shattering, and restructuring of runes sped up exponentially. It continued for long until the white walls cracked, and dense yellow mist came seeping out of those cracks. The entire white room trembled as if its foundation had met an earthquake, but the hazel in Kai's eyes had deepened. The Blood Demon had stumbled upon something. In one corner of the room, one restructured rune was getting closer and closer to one of the many hideous lettering which had been used to write the tales. Chips over this restructured rune kept breaking apart with every next repulsion, and when new strokes got added to it, it became closer to the rune from the tale. Just when it seemed they wouldn't come any closer, the restructured rune and the original runic character from the tale kissed. The first contact! With a bang, Kai's eyes shot open outside. They were bloodshot. Blood was dripping down his nose, ears, and mouth, painting quite an insane picture. In this scene of unhinged madness, the corners of Kai's lips lifted, his smile demonic. "Hahaha." Kai's low laugh made it sound like the snarls of an imprisoned monster. "Soon," he told himself, licking the blood off his lips. "Very soon." *************** AN: Now you can access 15 Chapters of Chaos and Order ahead of Webnovel on Patre0n (including up to 60 montly Chapters). 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