The Eye of the Storm

Half asleep, she dreamed of spells being screamed out, colourful flashes, wooden boards breaking into splinters, the suffocating smell of smoke. Run, run again, never stop… Never be distracted, never let your guard down… Run again. Her attempts to cover her head with a pillow to shut down these too-vivid, naturalistic visions didn't give her any relief, on the contrary, it only got worse. Now, the images were indistinguishable from reality. Elissa groaned and fumbled around, trying to grope the precious vial. She should have drunk a normal dose of sleeping potion, not that nominal half a teaspoon. There was no sense in these palliatives, but what else could she do? Always stay alert, never relax even for a second… She should force herself to calm down and fall asleep. Tomorrow, as any other day, she would need her head cool and her muscles rested – her main advantage… The intensity of a loud thud somewhere below was so big that even brick walls seemed to tremble. Right after that, the shattering of glass, a rumble, and the hasty steps from the wooden stairs reached her ears, a woman screamed somewhere on the first floor – the dream suddenly materialised in a very concrete way, coming from the imaginary world to the real one. For a moment, she froze, like a wild animal, listening carefully to the so far distant sounds of intrusion and shaking off the remnants of sleep. Her mind cleared up rather quickly and her body started to act by itself, not waiting for the conscious orders of its owner – to throw away the blanket, to take her wand from under the pillow in the right hand, to use the left one for putting on her shoes. A clasp-knife was still fastened at her ankle, two sharp barrettes were in her hair… Because of the tightly drawn curtains, there was stifling darkness in that tiny, cheap hotel room somewhere on the outskirts of Braganza, but turning on the light wasn't an option. Passing the bedside table and the splintery chair at the window from memory, Elissa silently stepped towards the door, throwing her cloak on, then taking her bag with Extension Charms on it, where all her few belongings were. A chain with the amulet was hidden under the neckline of her singlet. Beneath the cloak, Elissa wore Muggle jeans and a singlet – she and the guys were used to sleeping in their clothing so that they wouldn't waste precious seconds in case of a potential attack. At the door, she froze, listening. Her thoughts cleared up completely, her mind got rid of the drowsy stupefaction and was again sharp and bright. The sounds of fighting already echoed from the stairs and the corridor – that meant these unwanted visitors passed the first floor without any obstacles but, upstairs, came across anticipated resistance. She hoped the hotel owners were alive. Without wasting any time, she shoved the door to the corridor open, there was already full-strength combat, a cloud of dust wrapping around her immediately. Elissa had literally a couple of seconds to assess the situation, and then she waved her wand, a massive fragment of the wooden bannisters flew down in the stairwell and was followed by a man in a grey cloak, yelling. Matteo shook his thick black hair and offered Elissa a momentary smile. 'Grazie!' Two purple flashes, they barely had time to cast a Shield Charm from, whizzed by, but the new figures – no less than three – were already breaking their way to them on the stairs. Downstairs, on the second floor, according to the sounds, was a fight as well – that meant Alex and Benji woke up successfully and greeted the guests properly. 'Fractus!' 'Cogitatio' 'Incarcerous!' 'Protego!' 'Confringo!' 'The girl is here!' one of the attackers suddenly screamed in English with a heavy accent as he bounced one step lower to leave the line of fire. 'She's upstairs, with the others!' Elissa didn't even have time to react – the voice from the left roared 'Expulso!' and the too-talkative man was flung into the wall with his chest torn. Carter, his face angry and tense, kept on attacking people who managed to get up to the third floor – a slew of unconscious bodies on the stairs formed congestion, making it hard for an opponent to use the way up. One of the spells hit the curtain on the window, starting a fire. Fighting back, Elissa hadn't noticed a thing at first, until a very definite smell of smoke struck her nose. The curtain was burning lively, flames threatening to spread to the curtain rod, but right away, Troy's calm voice said, 'Aguamenti!' There was a hiss, and the corridor filled up with a hot, white steam, nothing to be seen in it. However, this fact didn't bother their enemy much and they continued to do magic blindly. Taking a step back and barely dodging a stray red jet which shot dangerously close to her neck, Elissa commanded, 'Folachan!' A smokescreen, through which spells continued to fly, appeared on the stairs, as Elissa caught Carter by his forearm and, with a wave of her wand, pointed at one of the open doors. He was just waiting for her sign so he grabbed Matteo and turned him back to the corridor. Troy didn't need to be told anything; as always, he understood everything without a single word. All the company quickly entered one of the rooms, Troy sealed the door busily. 'You sure it's the right place?' Matteo asked. 'Won't we miss?' 'We calculated it all last night,' Carter grumbled. 'There's no time to talk.' Usually, Matteo would surely start bickering but now he only aimed his wand at the wooden floor. That was exactly why Elissa loved them all – in normal life, they could quarrel, be offended, duel, but when the situation was critical, she could always rely on them. ‘Bombarda!’ The floorboards and wooden slabs exploded, spreading the rain of splinters and sawdust on everyone on the second floor. The fight went on there, but it was sluggish – most of their enemies were trying to break through to go upstairs as they had heard that talkative fellow of theirs, though Elissa and the guys didn’t waste their time, either. Flexible Matteo was the first to jump in this formed hole to join the battle, the others jumped one by one right after him, Carter catching Elissa down there. In the corner of the room, she saw a sprawled body, above which Benji stood, pointing his wand at it – apparently, he was already busy interrogating the man. The hood of this man fell, revealing his face, and she could see the fear in his eyes looking at Benji bent over him. The face was completely ordinary, human, with no vampire pallor in it. Elissa looked away, not quite interested — in this situation, Benji’s methods didn’t bother her. Though Alex's condition made her feel concerned — he stood, leaning at the wall, his hand on his bloodied head, his fingers still clutching the wand. Drop by drop, the blood spilt down on the floor. ‘They’re going to escape!’ someone bellowed above their heads – obviously, he managed to pass through the sticky smoke into the hotel room on the third floor. Without a word, Troy extended his hand, Benji immediately grasping at it. Following their longtime, well-established scheme, the six of them formed their usual chain everyone had their place in. Alex swayed a little, Matteo helped him steady. Benji couldn’t get the bloodthirsty smirk out of his face. The next moment, Elissa felt her body jerk somewhere far away, her stomach twisting and twirling, her feet losing the ground. A whirl took them away from the destroyed hotel, the attackers in the black capes, and into the unknown. When the Apparition ended, the warm air reached her face. A still, August night was filled with the fragrant scent of flowers, not a single person on the dark street with two-story houses and cobblestone pavement. Muggle store signs were off. No wonder why, though – what time was it? 1 AM? 2? ‘Let me guess,’ Matteo asked, a keen curiosity on his face as he looked around. ‘We’re still in Southern Europe, non è vero? I’d know familiar places anywhere!’ ‘Santarem. Sixty miles from Lisbon,’ Troy answered sparingly. ‘I’ve told you!–’ ‘Enough talking,’ Carter snapped at them in irritation as he looked around and waved his hand at all of the group, pointing at the small two-story house, the farthest one on this street. Judging by the sign, it was a hotel – just like the one they had stayed in before the attack. How many of these hotels and motels had they passed for all this time…? A hundred? More? ‘You’re not at the club party. Fawley, how are you holding up?’ ‘I’m f-fine.’ Matteo gave Carter a disgruntled look of his black, burning eyes, but shut up obediently. Elissa glanced at Alex – he was anything but fine. He staggered from side to side, stumbled at every step as if he was drunk, and besides, on an intuitive level only she could have, she felt how bad he was. Was it a simple concussion or something worse? Well, it didn’t matter – they just needed to get to some accommodation, and then she could finally help him… Everyone in the hotel was asleep, of course, so Troy unlocked the bolted door with a spell. Inside, Matteo instantly headed towards the desk with the owners’ ledger, as Carter and Benji started to set protection charms on the doors and windows. Elissa kept Alex steady, Troy disappeared in the darkness of the house – he examined the layout and the emergency exits. He didn’t use Lumos for some light: Troy could see in the darkness as well as in the daylight. ‘They have less than ten guests here. Three rooms on the first floor are free,’ Matteo informed. ‘I’ll take the keys from the cupboard. What about the owners…?’ ‘We’ll change their memory tomorrow,’ Elissa decided. ‘And we’ll pay them then, I believe we still have some Muggle money… Which are the rooms? Alex needs help.’ ‘Dieci, undici, dodici!’ As she entered the small room at the end of the hall, she groped the switch. The dim light (only one light bulb of the four turned on) illuminated two identical beds with flat pillows, a carpet faded with time and dust, and a small TV on a table in the corner. Elissa sat Alex down on the chair and, without hesitation, leaned over his head, carefully parting his wheat-coloured curls to get direct access to his wound. Poor lighting wasn’t a problem for her; Elissa didn’t need it at all now. She put her fingers on the dissected edges still oozing with blood and closed her eyes. The amulet on her chest, which slipped out of the neck of her singlet while she fought, started to glow with soft, warm light, and the incredible feeling of holding someone’s life in her hands washed over Elissa once more. Keeping her eyes closed, she could now distinctly feel all of Alex’s injuries: a concussion… a laceration in the occipital part of the head… and also a hand and an elbow badly cut — had he fallen on shattered glass or what…? The shining of the pendant on her neck brightened as Elissa channelled a flow of life-giving magic into Alex. He flinched in her hands perceptibly and relaxed, and Elissa suddenly felt perfectly clear his torn flesh pushing the stuck shards of glass out of itself, his wounds starting to heal, his pain subsiding, his vision and hearing coming back to him, the noise, nausea and dizziness fading away… She felt, with every passing second, the new strength, as if after a long, sound sleep, poured into his body, tired after the fight, his fingers starting to hold his wand tightly again… ‘Thank you, Elissa,’ Alex breathed out barely audibly as he opened his eyes – familiar, bright blue. Elissa knew well how they could become turbid with pain, losing this rich blueness — she saw that many times after battles. She felt someone was standing behind them but she kept pouring the healing magic into Alex until she saw with her inner sight that he was totally fine. The amulet went off, and Elissa, without turning around, asked, ‘Who was that? Istwan’s men?’ ‘Mhm,’ Benji responded from the door, and she immediately heard the steps muffled by the carpet – everyone started to move at the same time once the healing was over. Elissa always found it a bit funny how reverently all these battle-hardened fighters were about her healing magic and how they tried not to distract her, even though they watched a scene like that a million times. Though, if she was being honest, she always was delighted with all this happening as well. No potions, no spells or tricky manipulations with a wand – but in a matter of mere minutes injuries would fade into nothingness. Although, of course, it depended on the injury – the worse it was, the more time it needed to be healed. But if we’re talking about a deadly wound, for instance, a little waiting was more than worth it, wasn’t it…? ‘Does anybody else need my help?’ Elissa inquired as she turned around and looked at her friends, who were already settling in their new abode, one by one. Through the open doors, she could see Carter and Matteo in the room across the hallway. Carter got her special attention – on the same intuitive level, she felt he was hurt. It was his left side, but his ribs were alright, and there was no blood… ‘Carter, come here. Alex, you can go,’ she instructed. Fawley sprang onto his feet eagerly – not even a memory left of his concussion – and started to clear the blood with his wand. In the meantime, Elissa quickly inspected Carter who, at first, tried to protest saying there was nothing serious, but he soon understood the futility of these efforts. It appeared he had a severe burn – moreover, it was not from that curtain in the hotel corridor but the one apparently caused by some curse. ‘Benji, what’s with the man you interrogated? Found out something?’ ‘No’ he lowered his head guiltily, which looked a bit ridiculous performed by Benji – because of his massive physique, along with his tallness, his sharp features and the scary look of very light, almost transparent eyes, Benji Gordon usually gave quite an intimidating impression on people. And his combat skills with his passion for Dark magic only made this impression stronger. ‘Hadn’t enough time for a real interrogation, I’ve only managed to find out the basics. I’m sorry, Elissa.’ ‘It’s alright,’ she leaned against the edge of a table, thinking. ‘Istwan wasn’t there with them himself, of course, was he?’ ‘No, he hasn't accompanied these search teams for a long time…’ As she raised her head, she found Troy at the doorstep who seemed to materialise out of thin air. He caught Elissa’s eyes and reported, ‘One back door in the kitchen, leads to the backyard. One staircase to the second floor. Hallways are very narrow, spaces are small, inconvenient for fighting.’ ‘So we’re not staying here for long,’ she rubbed her face wearily and absent-mindedly slapped her shoulder to check the safety of the bag with her things. ‘Then I suggest we'll rest till tomorrow, and in the morning, with a fresh mind…’ Saying that, she took a few steps towards the door but instantly felt that the silence in the room became too grave. Elissa raised her head slightly. ‘What is it?’ ‘They’ve found us again. It hasn’t even been three weeks since last time,’ Alex pointed out quietly. He settled down on the windowsill imposingly, pulled out a crumpled pack and lit a very thin and exquisite cigarette, a sweet, fragrant smoke wafting across the room. Yet, Benji and Carter, for some reason, didn’t try to ask him to stop or to send him out into the hallway, as they usually did, and kept silent instead. ‘I understand,’ Elissa agreed. ‘It took no less than two or three months for them before. We had time at least for considering a possible confrontation and even hatched some plans. But all we do now is run. Apparently, they get the hang of their Search Ritual…’ ‘I’ve noticed that, too.’ ‘Well, then maybe we should finally do something about it?’ Alex suggested carefully. ‘We can't spend our entire lives in these pointless chases and fights… Plus, for all these years, we’ve drastically thinned the number of both the Istwan’s mercenaries and de Coligny’s vampires. Has that changed anything? No, they merely recruit new ones! And it’s obvious we can’t take down all of them!’ Sighing, Elissa glimpsed at the faces of the others – of her team, her friends, the only family she had. Carter and Benji, stern and frowned, said nothing but it was clear they concurred with Alex. Slim and spry Matteo nodded at his words every now and then. Troy, as always, stood with an absolute nonchalance though his gaze was highly attentive, serious. She hesitated for a moment, asking herself if she really should start this hard and painful topic right now, in the middle of the night, after another battle. But the guys – all of them at that – were clearly ready for this conversation, and her own nightmares, along with insomnia, waved at her mockingly around the corner, so… ‘The Heart of Isis radiates magic too much, and they’ve learned to detect this magic even at very large distances,’ Carter said quietly, light lines on his forehead seeming sharper. It appeared that his eyes were glued to her face all this time. ‘They’ll just hunt us down like prey. We can’t hide forever, girl…’ Ellissa glanced down unconsciously at her pendant which now looked just like a simple trinket you could buy in any antique shop, even in a Muggle one, before she plopped down at the skew chair, showing that she was ready to listen. ‘In cahoots,’ she stated, eyeing between all five menacingly. Matteo sent her back a crooked grin, Carter smiled apologetically. ‘Any particular offers?’ Alex nodded eagerly. She raised her brows – judging by the lack of any surprise from the others, the whole group had managed to confer behind her back and even come up with something. ‘As the Heart radiates the magic so powerfully that our enemies have learnt to distinguish it from the other end of the mainland, we should hide with the magic radiation even more powerful so that their search charms couldn’t detect it. Doesn’t matter if it’s Dark or Light magic – both of them would do. With Light one, the Heart would just merge, while the Dark magic could safely conceal it,’ Carter started thoroughly and Elissa nodded impatiently, watching as Benji cast a Bubble-Head Charm on himself, annoyed, to get rid of the smell of Alex’s cigarettes. ‘We’ve already discussed this possibility half a year ago. But we came to the conclusion that this would need us to buy up at least half of the black market in a single city!’ she turned to Matteo for support – he was their team’s chief specialist in the artefacts and nodded readily. ‘Making such powerful dark radiation would require a bunch of dark magic artefacts! And first, we will be like a mobile museum of Dark Arts, which is illegal in many countries, and second, we will be suffering from the curses on these objects ourselves. Third, we simply don’t have enough money for such a bunch of artefacts… More precisely, not we but Troy. It’s at his expense we are all having fun here.’ ‘The last one is not actually a problem,’ Matteo commented lazily, earning a glare from Carter, the ex-Auror of New-York Department of Magical Law Enforcement. ‘Carbone, we will not rob the dark artefact collections!’ ‘You will not’ Matteo agreed easily, looking at his nails carelessly in the light of a table lamp. ‘But I can. And, unlike you, I don’t have to deal with my conscience or moral issues. Besides, it’s for a good cause… Though,’ He added after some consideration and shook his head, ‘with your help, it would be much faster and safer…’ But Elissa didn’t want to hear their bickering, the only purpose of which was to annoy Carter. ‘So what have you come up with?’ ‘It’s very simple,’ still, Alex kept looking straight at her tensely, making it obvious that their idea was dangerous, unpredictable and even partly crazy. ‘We can’t get such a powerful artefact or collection of artefacts. So, we need to find a wizard who could hide the Heart from the search rituals of our… old friends.’ She bit back a sigh of disappointment, took out her wand and conjured a glass, using Aguamenti to fill it with water and draining it in one gulp. ‘A great idea. And the plausible one, I see,’ Elissa didn’t want to get angry or confront and tried to make a joke of it, ‘So, we are not going to steal artefacts. Then, we’ll take a whole group of powerful wizards hostages and make them travel with us? We'll hide in their shadow?’ ‘Not hide,’ Benji suddenly interjected, breathing fresh air blissfully; from the outside, it looked as if he was wearing a goldfish bowl on his head. Matteo and Carter forgot about their skirmish, glancing at him with the same envy and definitely thinking if they should follow suit. ‘And not a group. One wizard could be enough – but they must be really strong.’ ‘And how mighty must that wizard be for his power being able to hide the Heart from any prying eyes and search spells so that no one would suspect anything at all?’ Elissa laughed incredulously. ‘There are no more than one or two such wizards in the world!’ ‘Not one or two. But not many indeed, you can count them on your fingers,’ Troy said, deadly serious, opening his mouth for the first time in this discussion. Had it been told by anyone but him, Elissa would have started arguing right away, but Troy always spoke rarely and sparingly and if he did, he never wasted his breath. So now she stared at them all, even speechless with surprise, slowly starting to realise that these adventurers never thought to mock her and were absolutely serious about their completely insane offer. Elissa placed her elbows on her lap, resting her chin on her locked hands. ‘So what?’ ‘We need a wizard… A very powerful one, Dark or Light – it doesn’t matter, anyone would be fine, even if they’re dark with light stripes. It's true, there are not many of them, our choice is severely limited, so we’ll consider all the candidates. And, of course, we’re not going to kidnap anyone… they’re out of our depth, no match for us,’ Carter spoke softly, admonishingly, immediately getting into the role of a ‘good Auror’. ‘So it’s you… the Heart that will have to be in close proximity to this wizard. And we’ll certainly be nearby.’ The idea was reckless… well, just crazy, no less. Elissa already, outright, saw a whole heap of flaws and weaknesses in this, so to speak, offer and was ready to protest but… at the last second, she stopped herself and looked at her companions again. She saw their tired, unshaven faces, their old scars. There was no relaxation in their wary poses, each of them holding a certain position – so that they could keep an eye on the door and the window, and be ready to react to the sudden threat at any moment. Shabby cloaks in patches, worn-out shoes – even the ones of Alex who cared about his appearance the most. Let alone herself – Elissa was perfectly aware that her divine look would delight only a completely twisted maniac. Carter was right – they were running for too long. And there was no easy way to change the situation, they had learnt it over the past years. ‘What about the light wizards?’ she finally asked. Alex let out a sigh of relief, put out the stub in the ashtray resolutely, and reached into his backpack. Matteo settled back in the chair at more ease, Carter plopped down on the bed. Benji still had a sullen look on his face, though. Judging by the noise of survey work Alex made, he was intensively searching through the books, warm clothes and store of dry ration. There was a distant, rustling sound, a guilty look on Alex’s face. ‘Stupid Extension… It seems our food has all mixed up, I'm sorry… Accio The Great Wizards of the Twentieth Century!’ Proudly, he pulled out a battered volume with a dark blue cover and started to flip through it impatiently. ‘There’s a lot about the inventors, the Potion masters, even the Quidditch players… But that all is not what we need,’ Carter clarified meanwhile. ‘The powerful wizards, however… We could merely find three of them. And only one is Light.’ ‘Who?’ ‘Albus Dumbledore.’ Elissa nodded knowingly. She had heard a great deal about this character at the lessons in Beauxbatons and had seen his name in the books many times, too. ‘We can say that it’s a perfect option, and Alex insists we should choose it exactly. Many believe he’s the greatest sorcerer of our century. He holds the Order of Merlin, moreover, First Class, he’s an inventor, a scholar, and almost the Minister for Magic as well. Now, he’s a Headmaster at Hogwarts.’ ‘He was the one who defeated Grindelwald, wasn’t he?’ ‘Yes,’ Carter nodded. ‘At first, we thought this option was the best you could ever imagine. You could go to Hogwarts, pretending to be a final-year student. Matteo and Troy would have made up such a pitiful story for you.’ ‘But…?’ ‘You don’t know what Dumbledore looks like, do you?’ Elissa shook her head, and Alex handed her an open book. At the sight of a portrait depicting a white-bearded wizard wearing the half-moon spectacles and smiling mischievously, she felt her face turning pale and her stomach twisting in a disgusting, gooey knot of fear. And that seemingly wise smile, understanding gaze, respectable look were so familiar to her that it made her feel uncomfortable… ‘That’s why we thought that Dumbledore’s candidacy wouldn’t please you,’ Matteo’s compassionate voice reached her ears as if from a distance. ‘I see,’ holding back the trembling in her hands diligently, she gave Alex a lifeless smile and extended the book back. ‘What do you think, perhaps they could be distant relatives…?’ ‘Unlikely. Yet, the type is identical,’ Alex looked at her appraisingly, then, with regret, at Dumbledore's portrait, and flipped the page. ‘Who’s next?’ ‘Next are only the Dark wizards, and that's where it gets complicated. The first one is… Don’t freak out… Well, Gellert Grindelwald.’ Under Elissa's ominous stare, Alex got confused, embarrassed and began to read someone’s biography with excessive interest. ‘Have you lost your mind?’ ‘Elissa, we don’t have a choice!’ ‘Not enough to ask Grindelwald for help! Do you even remember what he did in France just fifty years ago?! Is he at least alive, by the way?’ 'Very much so,’ Matteo ‘calmed’ her down. ‘Imprisoned in Nurmengard, but alive. And if we choose him, we’ll have to arrange his escape from the castle, though it’s only the next step…’ ‘Matteo, are you crazy? You’re from Italy, you know what he’s capable of! Troy, why are you saying nothing, too? How can you actually offer something like that?’ Troy seemed unconcerned, but Matteo responded, unexpectedly cynical, ‘Italy wasn’t affected much by his actions, nor were yours or Troy’s countries.’ ‘Benji, at least you tell them that this is… not even madness, it’s stupidity!’ ‘The plan sucks,’ Benji, keeping silent until now, said willingly and made Matteo, Carter and Alex stare at him indignantly as they had not expected such a betrayal. He stretched his neck with a crunch and added solidly, ‘But we don't have a choice. Kill or be killed. We’ll have to take risks and sacrifice. Our strengths are not enough, that much became clear a long time ago.’ For a few seconds, she kept quiet, looking at the book in Alex’s hands resignedly. ‘You said “Dark wizards”. Plural. Who’s else?’ ‘I have to say – I strongly opposed,’ Alex stated suddenly sharply as he quickly lit a cigarette and took a drag forcefully. There was something nervous, cautious in his movements. Elissa watched in surprise, and Matteo rolled his eyes, taking the book away from Alex decisively. ‘Now that’s an interesting case,’ Matteo flipped a few more pages. ‘Interesting because there seems to be a lot of information but, at the same time, it’s almost nothing. Have you heard about Lord Voldemort? Although books more often call him He Who Must Not Be Named…’ Elissa nodded slowly. Even though she and her friends had travelled almost all over the entirety of Europe in these years, had crossed the ocean, visited China and Japan, the British Isles were the place they somehow had not graced with their presence so far, but some stories had reached her ears even in the days of her carefree childhood in Budapest. And she guessed she now understood why the reaction of Alex – the only British man in their group – was so strong. ‘Broadly. He had been terrorising Britain fifteen years ago, then he sort of died, and there also was a boy named Harry Potter who survived the Killing Curse. Or you mean to tell me that he is, like Grindelwald, alive and well?’ ‘The goblin knows,’ Carter said. ‘All we’ve managed to find out from the books is that he tried to kill a one-year-old baby but disappeared. There’s no reliable information about his death which gives us the right to think that he is… still alive. And judging by the things we’ve read in the sources, he has taken the title of ‘‘the most dangerous Dark wizard of the century’’ away from Grindelwald a long time ago and is far beyond him in his power. The difficulty is that no one has seen him for many years now, so we have no idea where we are supposed to look for him…’ Elissa nodded, stood up and started to pace around the room reflectively. ‘So, we decide on the latter, right?’ bored Benji asked. ‘Why then did we need to mention Grindelwald, in the first place? I agree with Elissa: it's not worth it to mess with Grindelwald…’ ‘I’m not sure Lord Voldemort can be called a ‘safer’ option, Benji,’ Elissa shook her head, feeling that she had to make this difficult decision and live with this burden for the rest of her life anyway. Alex’s countenance was gloomy as never, constantly drawing her eyes to itself. ‘Can you imagine what could the man have done, what could he be capable of to make people actually afraid to say his name? Even Grindelwald escaped such fate, although he’s done a lot! While Lord Voldemort’s actions were limited by the British Isles and he probably just didn’t get time to reveal the real extent of his possibilities…’ She kept on pacing back and forth. The guys, familiar with her habits, remained silent and tried not to disturb her. Choice, choice, choice… Her entire life was made of such choices. She made them all thoughtfully, carefully, with a clear head. She was responsible for all of them. Well, no, not for all. The most important one – the one which had determined her entire life – wasn’t a choice given to her, but who was to blame? A higher power? Fate? God? ‘So, we have two dark wizards seeking to seize power and recreate the world their way with terror… One of them was imprisoned for decades, the other has disappeared for fifteen years but is still hiding somewhere. And if we are to carry out our plans, we have to return one of them to their former power which means another wave of terror, a war, human sacrifice… Are we willing to do this? To put our lives, our chance to survive above the lives of many others?’ Elissa knew that one particular voice would answer her and she was right. ‘We’ve done this a long time ago, Elissa,’ Troy noted quietly behind her back. ‘We've had blood on our hands for years. And we never seemed to rank ourselves as noble heroes to sacrifice our lives for the greater good.’ She twitched her shoulder, recognising Grindelwald’s motto. ‘If it makes you feel any better, think of what will happen if Istwan or the Prince de Coligny get their hands on the Heart…’ Elissa nodded slowly. ‘Then we’re done for today. Get to your rooms for some rest. For the next few days, we’re doing nothing. I'll be thinking.’