Serpent's Bloodline: Legacy of the Basilisk

" There were once three brothers who were travelling along a lonely, winding road at twilight. In time, the brothers reached a river too deep to wade through and too dangerous to swim across."

It had been centuries, since Sal had last been in Britain and maybe he wouldn't have returned, if he hadn't heard rumours about a new threat to the British wizard kind. Even now, more than a thousand years after he had been the prince of Camelot, Sal still felt responsible for the British wizards, who were his subjects by birth right - or adopted right, if you added the fact that he had not only been Arthur Pendragon's future heir but also his son by blood adoption.

And so, Sal had returned as soon as he had heard of the killings of wizards in Britain. Of course, there had been killings before. Just in 1066, William the Conqueror had conquered Muggle Britain and there had been no way for the magical part to not be subjected to the changes as well. But unlike the Muggle part, in the end, everything had stayed mostly the same because unlike in the Muggle world the land-bound oaths to the throne of Arthur Pendragon could not be broken and so there had been no way for another magical king to take over.

It was a common practice in the magical world to bind the oaths to a king not only into the king's blood-line but also into the very foundation of the kingdom - the castle in which the oaths had taken place and the very land itself. That practice led mostly to a complete disinterest in trying to conquer another country. It was simply no fun if the possible new subjects were by birth sworn to another family - something the Romans found out the hard way when they tried to conquer the British wizard kind in 60 AD. It was hard to rule over subjects that could not be bound to your laws and wishes and because of that had no restrictions about killing you in your sleep. In the end the Romans had tried to destroy the natural druidic magic the British druids were practicing. It had helped them for a while but the moment the first of their own kind was born in Britain, they found out that the oaths suddenly bound those children as well. The magic might have changed thanks to the Romans, but the oaths still hadn't - not until the very foundation of Camelot would be destroyed and the very last person of Pendragon blood had died.

And that was more than unlikely to happen.

Still, Sal might not have bothered to return if there just had been a few killings. But whatever was happening in Great Britain, was different. Whatever it was, there was a strange kind of summon in Sal's blood that urged him to return and check on the people that he should have ruled by right and magic.

The road to Britain had been long and dangerous and Sal was quite tired when he finally arrived at the shore of the Isles, nevertheless he continued on to Londinium as fast as possible.

He was still a few days' marches from Londinium, and twilight was descending upon him, when he saw not far ahead on the road, three people. They had set up camp for the night near the river bed of River Thames. A fire was merrily burning in their midst and even from far, Sal could smell the slowly cooking meat in their pot.

Normally, Sal wouldn't stop for the night in the midst of no-where. And if he did, he would leave the road and find a secure place somewhere. But he was weary after his last weeks of travel and the strangers camp ahead on the road seemed like as good a place to stay for the night as any.

Of course, meeting strangers was always dangerous. Nevertheless, Sal had learned over the years that most people were friendly and it was always safer to share a camp for the night, than to camp alone. There were worse things than strangers in the world and feral creatures were more likely to attack a lone traveller than a camp with more people.

So when he nearly reached the group of three, instead of continuing on, he stopped. It was then, that he felt some kind of magical shield surrounding them.

Wizards.

They were wizards.

All the better for him, Sal decided.

"Hail, dear fellows," he greeted them, his hands open and non-threatening. "What a lovely night, tonight."

The three men turned and sprung to their feet instantly. Sal could see two of them reaching for some weapons, which were hidden in their clothes. Weapons, or maybe their wands. Sal couldn't tell and they stopped before they could draw whatever they had been reaching for.

Sal made some further steps towards them.

"Stop, stranger!" one of them called out to him, before Salvazsahar could even reach the light of the fire. Sal stopped, his hands still open in front of him. Nevertheless he saw that neither of the two men who had reached for their weapons, had withdrawn their hands from the place their weapons were hidden. "Who are you and what are you doing here?"

Sal scrutinised the wizard who had decided to speak to him and the other two who were flanking him. All three had unruly black hair and deep brown eyes. They definitely reminded Sal of himself before he had grown out his hair - and they also reminded him of Peverell, his old friend and the husband of Helga Hufflepuff.

"I am a lone traveller, searching for shelter for the night," Sal answered. "I saw your fire and decided to ask if I could resort for tonight."

The speaker blinked surprised and looked Sal over again.

"Take down your hood," he said finally and Sal slowly reached for his hood and pulled it down to show his face. The strangers cool, brown eyes travelled over the features Sal revealed. Sal could see that the stranger especially took in Sal's traditionally braided hair and his old, a little travel-worn and faded dark green robes - but his eyes remained empty of recognition, so Sal guessed that he had no idea what the traditional braiding of Sal's hair for Sal's standing in the magical world meant.

Finally the stranger seemed to decide that he should at least follow the customs of hospitality and said: "I am Antioch Peverell, Lord Peverell. These are my brothers Cadmus and Ignotus. Now tell me your name, mudblood."

Peverell?

"Mudblood?" Sal asked instead, knowing that he would have time to mull over the last name of the stranger later on.

Sal had not heard the word 'mudblood' when he interacted with wizards before, but it had been a while since he last had been in Britain and there was a chance that the word had come up while he had been away.

"You are one, aren't you?" Antioch said sneering. "One of these mundane borns that fear magic because of their god. One of those that believe they have been made of mud by their god…"

Sal blinked. Well, that at least was a different explanation why a mundane born was called 'mudblood'…

"I fear you are mistaken" he finally said. "I am no such a thing."

The answer was a snort.

"Well, you must be, or you would have continued on, without seeing us. There are some temporary wards in place to shield us from any mundane that travels the road tonight."

Sal raised an eyebrow at that.

There seemed to be some new magicks that he had not heard of before. Of course, Sal knew of wards that would keep away mundanes, but until now he had always thought that those wards were permanent and not temporary like those around him.

"I am no mundane-born," he said instead. "I am on my way to the Gathering of the Lords."

The answer was a sneer.

"There is no 'Gathering of the Lords'," the Peverell-Lord said. "It seems your claim of being no mudblood was just falsified by yourself."

Salvazsahar frowned at that.

"What do you mean with 'There is no Gathering'?" he asked. "What else is there to lead our people?"

"The Wizards' Council," the answer came from one of Antioch's brothers. Ignotus, if Sal remembered it right. "We're now led by the Wizards' Council. The name changed to that about a hundred and fifty years ago."

Sal just sighed when he heard that and then muttered to himself: "Now they don't just change the language, they deliberately change the names of things as well. Stupid humans and their short lives!"

When he looked up again, he saw that Ignotus was looking at him with a raised eyebrow. It seemed as if his rant had not been fully unheard and Sal felt his face burn with embarrassment.

"Well, it seems that if there's solely a 'Wizards' Council', then I am on my way to said Wizards' Council," he finally declared and Antioch snorted.

"Why ever should you go there?" he asked scornfully. "Mudbloods aren't allowed to enter the Council."

Sal just frowned at him.

"I told you, I am no mundane born," he said. "I've been a Lord of the Gathering and if the Wizards' Council is still headed by the lords, I will have to take my seat among them."

This time Antioch Peverell laughed at him.

"You seat?" he asked amused. "There are no free seats in the Wizards' Council, so pray tell, mudblood, were do you want to sit? Do you think the Council will give you a seat if you just ask them so that you can spread your believes of being made of mud among our people?"

Salvazsahar saw that Cadmus was chuckling as well, Ignotus instead was looking at him with contemplating eyes.

Sal still raised an eyebrow towards the other two.

"There are no free seats?" he asked interested. "Pray tell - who are heading Emrys and Pendragon at the moment?"

"Emrys?" one of the brothers, Ignotus, asked astonished and Sal could see the wheels turning in his head.

"Pendragon?" the other brother, Cadmus, said, but unlike his brother he was just amused by Sal's question.

"Why do you ask for those two seats?" Antioch said. "Everyone knows that Emrys and Pendragon are extinguished."

Sal just snorted.

"Just because you didn't hear of anyone of my family for some time, you declare my house extinguished?" he asked while shaking his head. "I was abroad, not dead. Why the hell should I stay in Britain just to go to gatherings - pardon, councils now - where nothing is done at all..?"

"Abroad?" Antioch asked sneering. "So you want to tell us that your whole house has been abroad for… how many years?"

Sal shrugged. "For about two hundred years," he answered unconcerned. "The house Emrys has better things to do than to stay in Britain and go to Gatherings. I have better things to do."

"Emrys," Antioch said faintly. Sal inclined his head.

"Emrys," he confirmed.

"And your name is?" Ignotus asked, when Antioch stayed silent.

"Salvazsahar Emrys," Sal answered. "Lord of Emrys."

Ignotus stared at him in surprise when he heard that name. Then he gestured towards their fire. "Then I welcome you on our fire for the night, Salvazsahar Emrys, Lord of Emrys," he said. "Sit down and eat with us."

Antioch and Cadmus just nodded when their bother nudged them.

"Sit and be welcome," Antioch Peverell finally managed to say, then his eyes darkened. "But that doesn't mean I believe your claim. I don't believe that you are Emrys!"

Ignotus just snorted and turned to their cooking pot to look after their dinner. After he had stirred it a bit he returned his attention to Salvazsahar.

"Your first name," he finally said. "Are you named after Salvazsahar Pendragon?"

Sal started when he heard that name.

"How do you know that name?" he asked the youngest brother.

Ignotus shrugged. "There's a witness report about the Battle of the Great North Fields in the library of Haughwards," he explained. "I read it when I was an apprentice."

Salvazsahar started a bit, when he heard the changed name of his academia, but he said nothing.

Haughwards.

It seemed as if the change of the name to 'Hogwarts' had already begun.

It was kind of a frightening discovery, because it showed Sal how long he had been away from Britain and how long it had been since he came to the past.

"And even now, after searching the earth for millennia, there is still no way to get me back home to the future," Sal thought. Not, that he was sure that he wanted to return, anymore. It had been a thousand years since he had last played a child and he had long before that matured to an adult - if not in body, but at least in mind.

"Well?" Ignotus interrupted at that moment Sal's thoughts. "Are you named after Prince Salvazsahar?"

Sal sighed.

"Something like that," he finally answered, then he shook his head. "I never knew that the witness report of the Battle of the Great North Fields is still at Haugh's Wards."

"So you know the story?" Ignotus asked interested. "I loved the story. When I was young I always wanted to be a great warrior like Salvazsahar Pendragon! I…"

"Oh, stop it, Ignotus!" Antioch interrupted his younger brother. "I know you worship the ground the Prince walked on but could you stop talking about him at least for today?"

Sal felt oddly thankful towards Antioch. He didn't know if he would have really been able to listen to Ignotus' admiration if the man had continued. It simply was too embarrassing for him to even think about being worshipped by anyone.

Ignotus meanwhile pouted for a moment, before changing the topic.

"If you are heading to Londinium for the Council, you can travel with us," Ignotus said and then pulled out some bowls for his brothers and himself and served dinner. "Do you want some as well?"

Sal nodded and pulled out his own bowl from his knapsack to be filled. "Yes, thank you."

After he had gotten the bowl back, he returned to the first thing, Ignotus had said. "I would like to travel with you," he said. "I have been away from Britain far too long and it will be easier to get up to date if there is someone I can ask about the changes."

Ignotus just nodded.

"We will cross the river in the morrow," Antioch said. "After that it should take us another three to four days to reach the Council."

The rest of the evening, they talked about their travels and other insignificant things.

" However, these brothers were learned in the magical arts, and so they simply waved their wands and made a bridge appear across the treacherous water. They were halfway across when they found their path blocked by a hooded figure."

They were up at dawn, and Sal watched the brothers transfiguring some twigs into a narrow bridge, so that they could cross the river.

"It's not very permanent, but it should do until we reach the other side," Cadmus said, and led the way over the swaying bridge. Sal was the last to cross and like Cadmus predicted the transfiguration ended just after Sal had set foot on the other side.

Sal had been concentrating on the bridge, so when he looked up, he was surprised to see another man standing in front of the three brothers. He stopped in his track and unshed his wand.

For a moment he tried to make up his mind if he should step up next to the brothers to face the stranger, but then he decided to wait and see what would happen.

The person in front of the three brothers was hooded like Salvazsahar, but whereas Sal's cloak was a dark green, the cloak of the stranger was black.

And whoever it was, Cadmus Peverell knew them - and that was reason enough for Sal to stay out of the incoming conflict for now.

Cadmus was stiff and his hand was grabbing his wand hard enough that his knuckles had turned white. His eyes were fixed on the face beneath the cloak - a face that could be adumbrated by Salvazsahar and the brothers, but not clearly seen.

Nevertheless, the middle brother seemed to know exactly who he was facing.

"What are you doing here?" he asked with hatred colouring his voice.

"Does your question imply, that you don't want to see me, my friend?" the stranger asked, chuckling. "And I thought you liked our last encounter. Didn't you, like I, feel the thrill of a duel of life and death?"

The answer was a hiss and it was thanks to Ignotus honed reflexes that Cadmus did not throw himself at the person in front of him.

"You monster!" he cried. "You killed my betrothed!"

"Of course," the stranger said. "I had to gain your attention somehow, after all. And I still think, I choose my opponent well, after all, you managed to kill me - and that is quite a feat!"

"And yet, here are you! If I truly had managed to kill you, you wouldn't stand in front of me anymore!" Cadmus hissed.

The answer was a terrible, evil laugh that gave Sal goose bumps.

But it was the whiff of the stranger's magic that gave him the creeps. There was something unnatural contaminating the other ones magic. Maybe Sal wouldn't have felt it, but whoever the stranger was, his magic was oddly known to Sal - and because of that Sal was able to pick up the strangeness in it without even trying to do so.

"I cannot die, my dear Cadmus . So, of course, I'm still alive! I'm far too great to die like normal people!" when the stranger spoke, his distaste for 'normal people' was easily picked up in his voice. "Of course, you, Cadmus, are a rare version of the normal people. You, like your brothers, are normal, but unusual in your own right!"

The voice.

A shiver ran down Sal's back.

That voice.

Foreign but familiar.

Cadmus snarled at the stranger. "Whatever you think that you know about me and my brothers, you are wrong!"

The answer was again terrible laughter.

"Oh, I know a lot about your and your brothers' work. Your work about time and time travel was something way ahead of your times! And your experiments with powerful objects and the possibility of immortality! One of a kind!" The stranger exclaimed and grinned beneath his hood. "I had to challenge you! The brightest minds of your age, the most powerful wizards alive today! I couldn't pass this up and not challenge you to see who of us is better!"

The speech pattern - it was something Sal had heard before, but for the life of him he couldn't tell where he had heard it!

Cadmus snarled again.

"So you killed my betrothed," he hissed.

"So I killed your betrothed," the stranger repeated. His voice was oddly calm and devoid of emotions.

The repeat of the sentence felt oddly normal to Sal, as if it had to be like that; as if the person in front of him would always do it and as if Sal knew that habit unconsciously.

Cadmus roared in fury. Ignotus tried to stop his brother, but the man escaped his brother's grasp, pulled out his sword and swung it towards the stranger's head.

"Cadmus!" Antioch exclaimed. "Stop it!"

But the younger brother refused to listen. The stranger just laughed and dodged the sword.

"Oh, Cadmus, Cadmus, Cadmus," the hooded person said. "Listen to your brother, Cadmus! He knows best, Cadmus! He understands your agony better than you, Cadmus! He loved your betrothed more than you, Cadmus!"

The stranger cackled madly.

"Do as your brother says, Cadmus! He knows best, Cadmus! He's more intelligent than you, Cadmus! He's more powerful than you, Cadmus!"

" Have you been naughty, little big brother?"

Cadmus just swung his sword at the other, time after time. But the stranger was fast and dodging Cadmus seemed to be just a play for him.

"Cadmus, stop!" Antioch repeated and when Cadmus started, Ignotus took the advantage and got again a hold of Cadmus.

The stranger cackled.

"Don't stop him, Antioch! He has done nothing wrong, Antioch! You're a bad brother, Antioch! You refuse to give your brother revenge, Antioch!"

" Did mommy punish you, little big brother?"

"Shut up!" Antioch roared and drew his wand. " Shut up !"

The answer was another evil laughter and the first sparks of magic escaped Antioch's wand when the fury also took a hold of him.

"Stop it, Antioch! He wants to goad you into fighting him!" Ignotus hissed while he still held his other brother back.

The answer was manic laughter.

"Do you hear it, Antioch? Your brother is ordering you, Antioch! He's taking away your authority, Antioch! You should admonish him, Antioch!" The stranger said in a high, childish voice.

" Did you have to stand in the corner like an unruly child, little big brother?"

"SHUT UP!" Antioch roared, "SHUT UP!" And again red and yellow sparks came out of his wand and burned away some of the grass to his feet. Then Antioch raised his wand, clearly intending to curse the stranger.

The stranger cackled again.

"Come at me, Antioch! Maybe you'll get me to be silent, Antioch! Maybe you win against me, Antioch! And maybe you will get revenge for your brothers beloved, Antioch!" The stranger said in his childlike voice. "Maybe Cadmus will thank you, Antioch! Maybe he'll kill you, Antioch! For taking his revenge from him, Antioch!"

" Do you know that mommy loves me more than you, little big brother? Do you feel sad because of that, little big brother? Do you cry at night, little big brother? For being only the second in her heart, little big brother?"

And in Sal's mind a little boy was standing in front of him, a sword in his hand, taunting him.

Taunting him like the stranger was taunting the brothers.

That was the moment, a horrible realization flooded Sal's mind.

But he couldn't think of that now. Not with the danger the other three were in right now. Not, when the others reacted to the goading like that. It was an idiotic reaction. After all, it wasn't as if the stranger was saying something true. They shouldn't react like that to the words of the stranger.

But they were still children and where Salvazsahar had never reacted, they tried to counter the taunts with violence.

The stranger cackled gleefully at the end of his taunts - taunts that had riled up two of the three brothers.

Again, Cadmus tried to get away from Ignotus' grip. Antioch instead, lost it and charged at the stranger.

This was the moment, Sal decided to step in.

Without a single word, he pulled out his wand and stunned Antioch before the man could reach the stranger in their path.

The stranger started and then turned to Salvazsahar.

"Curious," he said. "I didn't know that there would be another one in your company." Then he cocked his head and eyeballed Sal.

"I don't recognize you," the stranger said, surprise obvious in his voice. "Take down your hood. I want to see your face, stranger."

Sal snorted when he heard that.

The stranger had stopped his goading, but the voice of the stranger created still a horrible echo in Sal's memory. An echo he had loved and hated all at once.

"Follow your own advice, stranger," he replied coolly, while keeping his eyes, voice and face expressionless. He couldn't think about his guess now. It would break him if his mind deduced his guess as likely. "I can't see your face as well."

The answer was a grin. Even with the hood hiding the strangers face, the grin was heart achingly familiar.

"You don't need to see my face, to know who I am," the man said grinning. "I am Death, who else should I be?"

"Death?" Sal said sceptical. "You don't quite look like Death to me."

The answer was a laugh.

"But I am Death!" the stranger said. "I am Death's Master! I alone have gained power over Death itself! Look at me and believe it!"

And with that the man caressed the cloak he was wearing. Then he snickered and vanished from sight.

"Look at me!" he howled. "I am Death! I. Am. Death! I have its wand! I have its cloak! I have its power over the dead! I. Am. Death!" And with that the stranger was again visible.

Sal felt his heart beating faster after that exclamation.

Death?

It couldn't be, but at the same time, the only other explanation would hurt even more if it was true.

"I don't think that being able to get invisible is an evidence that you are truly Death," he finally said and even if his heart was beating a mile a minute, his voice sounded calm and emotionless. "I have seen people getting invisible without them being Death." That had been in the future, of course, where there were invisibility cloaks and spells that hadn't been invented in the time he was now, but it was nevertheless true.

"But I am," the stranger replied. "You will find out when I finally kill you - just like I will kill them!" And he gestured towards Sal's travelling comrades.

"The man's insane," Sal heard Ignotus whisper, and Sal definitely couldn't object to that statement. The man seemed to be insane - but if Ignotus was right, Sal didn't know if he could stomach it. He wished with all his heart that Ignotus was wrong, but at the same time Sal felt an odd shiver running down his neck; a shiver telling him that there was more to it than simply insanity. Even if the man was insane, there was something… not entirely right with him and Sal wasn't talking about his mental health.

It was the magic surrounding the man. It somehow felt… tainted… unhealthy. Sal couldn't remember to have ever met something so hideous like the magic that surrounded the man in front of him.

It was unnatural.

Perverted beyond recognition.

Sal shuddered and the man in front of him laughed.

Please, no! Everything, but that! Everything!

"Afraid?" the stranger asked.

"No," Sal replied and flicked his wand to get Antioch away from the man. The stunned lord landed next to Sal in the grass and with another flick of his wand, Sal revived him but held him still in a full body-bind.

Let me be wrong!

I beg you, please! Let me be wrong!

Antioch blinked for a second or two; then he frowned at Sal.

"What did you do?" he hissed.

"I stopped you," Sal answered, warily; his eyes not leaving the stranger in front of him. "Whatever he is - you wouldn't have had a chance against him."

Antioch snarled.

"I am Lord Antioch Peverell! Until now I won almost every duel, I ever entered! There is no way that…"

"This would have been a duel you lost," Sal said.

Please, let me be wrong! Let me be wrong!

A child's laughter filled his head, originating in one of his memories.

The stranger cackled.

"Oh, you seem to be a very sly one, aren't you?" the stranger said, still grinning widely.

It was an unnatural grin that spread across the stranger's whole face, but did not even touch his hidden eyes.

I can't bear it if I'm right! I can't!

A child's innocent long gone returned through his memories.

A child's eyes, filled with love, looked at him from a moment long ago lost in time.

"I think, you will make a great addition to my growing soul collection," the stranger said, his grin spreading impossible wide. For a moment the stranger played with a ring on one of his fingers. The ring was made of gold and adorned with a black stone. On top of the stone was an odd symbol to see. It looked like a stylized golden eye with a slit pupil. A trianglewith a circle in it that was parted in half by a line.

" Look at me, little big brother! I'll make you cry, little big brother! I'll hurt you, little big brother! And there's nothing that you can do, little big brother! Because I'm better than you, little big brother!"

" And Death spoke to them. He was angry that he had been cheated out of three new victims, for travellers usually drowned in the river. But Death was cunning. He pretended to congratulate the three brothers upon their magic, and said that each had earned a prize for having been clever enough to evade him. "

And with a final grin, the stranger charged.

Sal flicked his wrist and released Antioch from his body bind, before evading the stranger just by inches.

Antioch instead shot spells at the stranger, instantly.

They all missed.

The stranger was too fast, too agile and too cunning to be hit.

He cackled madly and then just charged at Sal again.

Sal dodged and Cadmus used Sal's move to swing his sword at the stranger, while Ignotus drew his wand and send a spell at him as well.

Both missed and the stranger cackled.

Like an acrobat he flipped on his hands and then swung himself through the air. He landed behind Antioch and his fingers - claws - set out to scratch the man. Antioch dodged, but the long and unusually sharp nails sliced his robes at his shoulders and drew blood.

The stranger licked the blood from his fingers and cackled again.

"Oh, such sweetness! Such strength! Such power !" he said gleefully. "I will love to slice you up and kill you!" And he charged at Antioch again - this time too fast for the other man to react in time.

" I love you, little big brother! I want to be like you, little big brother! You're my hero, little big brother!"

And a child stood with adoration in its eyes in front of him.

The image shattered and a single tear fell from Salvazsahar's burning eyes.

In the air around him he could smell death and betrayal.

"What have you done?" the words were nothing but a defeated, agonized whisper. "What have you done to yourself?"

And another tear joint the first.

The stranger looked up at that. He had taken down Antioch and had been just seconds away from charging Cadmus, when Salvazsahar spoke to him in this broken voice.

"Done?" The stranger asked, still grinning. "I did nothing. They're all still alive, aren't they?"

But Sal just shook his head.

"What have you done to yourself?" he repeated horrified. "The forbidden ritual! What have you done, Medrawed?"

The stranger's eyes widened. He paled.

"Little big brother?"

And when Sal's tears started to fall freely, the stranger - Medrawed - fled. And Sal fell to the ground, burying his head in his hands and wept for the man that was no more and for the monster that took his place.

"Why did you rip your soul apart, Medrawed? Why!"

" So the oldest brother, who was a combative man, asked for a wand more powerful than any in existence: a wand that must always win duels for its owner, a wand worthy of the wizard who had conquered death! So Death crossed to an Elder Tree on the banks of the river, fashioned a wand from a branch that hung there, and gave it to the oldest brother."

Sal entered the great hall of the Gathering of the Lords - now the hall of the Wizards' Council. It had changed since the last time he had been there. The hard, wooden chairs had changed to comfortable ones. The hall itself had been turned in a real hall - more than the cave-like hall it had been before.

Sal looked around interested. The throne still stood at the opposite side of the hall. He knew that there would be a Council today because Antioch had told him, and he decided to join in. Of course it had been a while since he last had entered the Gathering, now Council. The last time he had been in this room, it had been with Godric and Peverell some hundreds of years ago.

When he entered, the most of the Lords were still missing. The Council would start at midday. It still would take some time until the Council would gather. Still, Sal had decided to be early as he was a 'new' face of the Wizards' Council.

So he entered the room and heeded for one of the chairs - his chair. It was the same he had occupied the last time he had been at the Gathering.

"We still have to settle if you truly belong here," Antioch said in that moment, stopping Sal before he could reach his chair.

Sal sighed.

"It sounds as if you don't believe me," he said.

"I don't," Antioch answered sneering. "And I definitely don't trust you - especially after meeting this creature that recognized you!"

Sal just pressed his lips together.

Ever since Medrawed had fled from the battle after recognizing Sal, the others had been wary of him.

"I'm not like him," Sal repeated for the x-ed time. "I'm nothing like him."

"But you know him!" Cadmus said sneering. "That's definitely enough to be wary of you!"

Sal just snorted.

"Of course I know him," he finally said. Until now he had held back with the truth, but maybe the truth would clear the air between them. "Or at least, I knew him when he was still human."

Antioch just sneered at that.

"I don't believe this creature was ever human!" he judged coolly. "He maims, tortures and kills and loves it - that's not human! That's evidence, that he's a monster!"

And Sal could not object to that.

So he finally just turned around and started to look at the changed hall again.

"I know that he's not human anymore," he told the three brothers. "But that doesn't change that he was once a boy like every other boy I met."

The answer was a snort.

"This… creature… plagues our world for at least one hundred years now! You can't tell me you're old enough to remember the childhood of this monster!" Antioch said harshly.

"Antioch," admonished Ignotus softly when he saw Sal stiffen. "Let it go. It hurts him enough as it is."

Sal just smiled at the third brother.

"It's alright," he whispered. "I'm coming to terms with the truth."

"You're coming to terms with what truth?" Cadmus asked coolly in return and Sal shrugged helplessly.

"I'm coming to terms with Medrawed… with… with my baby brother being a monster," Sal answered bitterly. This shut the other two brothers up, while Ignotus sucked in a harsh breath.

"Your baby brother?" Antioch finally repeated. "How? You… you barely look old enough to be in your twenties!"

"I am much older than twenty" Sal said.

"You're lying!" Antioch growled. "There's no way you could be older than twenty! I know how long wizards live and if you aren't one of the few exceptions then…"

"I told you, I am Salvazsahar Emrys," Sal said sighing. "Don't you think that my last name alone should tell you that I could be nothing else but an exception?"

"Well, that might be true if you truly are an Emrys. But like I said before - I don't believe you!" Antioch returned coolly.

Sal sighed tiredly but then went to the stone that invited the new Lords to the Chamber.

There he bowed down and touched it.

"I am Salvazsahar Emrys. I am Lord to my line. I call forth the Lordship I carry. I am Lord Emrys as I was born to my father who was the last Lord of Emrys. So be it, so mot it be," he declared.

Sal could see the three brothers stare at him when a soft golden light surrounded him and gave him the right to enter the Wizards' Council as one of its lords.

"What… how…?!" Cadmus and Antioch exclaimed astonished.

"I told you, I am Salvazsahar Emrys and I told you I am a Lord" Sal said shrugging.

"But… but how? I mean, if that's true - how does nobody know that the line of Emrys is still alive? I mean, shouldn't have your father come here to gain his lordship, and your grandfather and…" Cadmus stuttered.

Sal just sighed.

"Like I told you before: I am old," he said. "The… creature… we met, was once my little brother. I helped to raise him! I trained him! And now you tell me that he has wreaked havoc on the British wizard kind for at least a hundred years!"

And Sal guessed bitterly, that it had been way longer. He remembered the rumours about an immortal Firbolg at the time he still taught at Haugh's Wards after all. And if Medrawed had done what Sal thought he did - and he had done it, even if Sal wished he could deny it - then there was only Medrawed who could be the source of those rumours.

"But… you should be dead if you're as old as you claim! Or, at least, you should be a very old man!" Antioch said surprised.

Sal inclined his head.

"And I would be if I was human," he answered sincerely. "But I am not. My father was a Firbolg-born - a pureblood or whatever you call creature-borns now. He was killed when he was something around seven hundred sixty years old. If he had lived, there would have been a good chance that he would have met the Founders of Haugh's Wards - and he died about seven hundred years before their time. I still have some time to live."

Of course, that was just a half-truth, but Sal didn't plan to tell the brothers more than he had to, to convince them that he had not lied to them.

"You're - you're joking!" Ignotus accused Sal, his eyes big as saucers. Sal snorted.

"I'm not," he answered.

"But… but you are an Emrys… your father can't be a pureblood - I mean, you must be a descendant of Myrddin Emrys and like that you cannot…" Antioch said.

Sal just smirked.

"I am not a descendant of Myrddin Emrys," he answered truthfully.

"Then… then you are claiming a false line?"

Sal snorted.

"No" he said and then decided to add some more truths to his words. "I am the son of a Firbolg-born and I am an Emrys. I am just not Myrddin Emrys' descendant."

"Then how…?"

"Easy" Sal answered and shrugged. "I am his son."

The others stared at him with open mouths.

"But… but… Myrddin Emrys was said to live way before the Founders… !"

Sal rolled his eyes.

"He lived until sixty AD" he finally said and decided to go easy on the astonished brothers. "I grew up on Arthur's court in Camelot." Again - but some words shouldn't be added if you wanted to keep your opponents somewhat sane.

" Then the second brother, who was an arrogant man, decided he wanted to humiliate Death still further, and asked for the power to recall others from Death. So Death picked up a stone from the riverbank and gave it to the second brother, and told him the stone would have the power to bring back the dead."

"Lord Peverell! Is there a reason why you brought your brothers to the Wizards' Council?" a voice said coolly. Sal had sat down, together with Antioch. His brothers were still standing behind him, waiting for the beginning of the Council. One after another, the other lords had entered, but it was the first time, one of them was spoken to since they arrived.

Antioch just sighed.

"I had to," he said. "They have important information for the Wizards' Council."

"Information?"

"Maybe they should speak for themselves," another Lord, who arrived way before the first speaker, suggested. "After all it is their information to share and there has to be a reason why they came themselves and did not just hand over the information to their brother…"

Other Lords nodded and Slytherin said. "Well, go on, then."

One moment there was absolute silence in the Hall of the Council; then Ignotus and Cadmus exchanged a glance before Cadmus started.

"I am sure you all know the rumours all over Europe about an immortal dark wizard, trying to gain influence in different countries. He comes, he kills, tortures and maims and when someone finally is able to stop and kill him, he returns to the living just a few days later and hunts his killers down before he vanishes and turns up somewhere else just a few month later."

Sal was intrigued. So they had come to the Council to speak about Medrawed long before they met him on the way to Londinium.

"These rumours are nothing more but a legend," the Lord who asked about Antioch's brothers said huffing. "There is no evidence that they are real-"

"We know," Ignotus interrupted. "And my brothers and I thought the same until a month ago."

"Excuse me?"

Ignotus sighed and rubbed his forehead.

"Our brother sent us out to destroy the dark wizard that was threatening our lands, like the Council wished it," he said. "We succeeded a month ago in killing him and we thought it was the end - but two weeks ago Cadmus' betrothed was killed-"

"What does that have to do with-?"

"… she was killed by a man we thought dead. She was killed by the same dark wizard we killed just four weeks ago! Cadmus was able to kill him again - but on our way to Londinium, we met him again! This time, he fled, but that does not change the truth! We fought this wizard three times already and he still comes after us! He should be dead by every law of nature but here he is, fighting against us! If he is really immortal he won't stop until we find a way to kill him! We had to tell you that there is someone who cannot be killed normally!"

"There is no way that someone is unable to die! Or that someone can live as long as the rumours exist!" the first Lord that spoke to them, denied.

"But…"

"No! If you find prove that it could be, we will talk about it again - until then don't waste my time!" other Lords nodded their content.

"But we have-"

"We have nothing but your word, and that isn't enough for something like that!"

"So you don't believe our word?" Ignotus hissed.

"In this case, forgive me, but no. Maybe you were given a drug and saw what you were meant to see. We need true evidence to believe you. And immortality is impossible to obtain."

The most of the lords nodded.

Sal stared at the other men. They were wizards, used to a world full of inexplicable things - and they still rejected the idea of an immortal wizard?!

"What the Brothers Peverell said, is not unbelievable" Sal finally decided to speak up. All the other lords turned to him, gawked at him. Sal wasn't sure if they had even seen him when he entered.

"And who are you ?!" the main speaker asked sneering. Sal suppressed a grin and decided to rile the man up - with the truth, of course - just to get him back at least for a bit for his slight against Ignotus' honour.

"I am a member of this Gathering" Sal answered coolly, his face expressionless. "And I see no reason to introduce myself to someone that dares to ask for a name without telling his name first."

Sal knew the customs of the Gathering and he was quite sure that the Wizards' Council had not changed the rules. He had learned them a long time ago and he would not forgo them for some stranger that dared to act like he was an intruder.

The other sneered.

"I am Lord Severus Slytherin, Head of the House Slytherin," he answered arrogantly and Sal thought amused that the man should be grateful that Sal had loved his son - because if he hadn't Myrddin would have never been a Slytherin and the Lord of Slytherin would have never started to exist. Then another thought came to him: now, that he was here, did the lord even have the authority to be here? After all, Salvazsahar had been the first 'Lord Slytherin' - and he had never officially given up his title to his son…

"And now, who are you ?" the Lord of Slytherin interrupted Sal's amused thoughts.

"Your ancestor," Sal answered, still thinking about Myrddin. His words snapped him out of his thoughts.

Maybe that was something he shouldn't have said…

Lord Slytherin blinked, gawking. Then he sneered.

"I am quite sure that my ancestor is dead," he said coolly.

Sal just smiled, not correcting the man. He had said more than he wanted to, to begin with, after all.

"I am Salvazsahar Emrys," he told them instead. "I am the Lord of Emrys."

The answers were whispers and distrustful looks in his direction.

"You… you…" Lord Slytherin turned red with fury. "How dare you to…?!"

"He spoke the ritual words and was accepted," Antioch Peverell interrupted quietly. "Just ask the obelisk which lords are at the Council today."

Slytherin was still red with fury, but he turned to the obelisk and, touching it, asked for the lords who had entered the Wizards' Council today.

One after another golden fire wrote the names of the lords in the air above the obelisk. As soon as one had been written fully, if vanished and made space for the next name.

Sal looked at the names with interest.

McGonagall - no surprise there, the family had existed when he was last in a Gathering.

Bones - that was a new name. It seemed another known name from his time had finally started to exist.

Ollivander - again a name he had expected. Ollivander's name was at least as old as Emrys after all.

Slytherin - this one was written in blue fire to indicate a proxy.

So Sal was still the Head of House - even if the ruling powers were in the hands of another now…

There were others Sal knew and others he didn't. Some of the new names he had heard in the future, some not.

And then a name Sal new all too well emerged the obelisk in glowing, golden letters.

Grim. Peverell's last name.

"Grim?" Slytherin asked, looking a little bit lost. To Sal's amusement Antioch turned red with embarrassment.

"Er… that's mine," he said with red cheeks. "We just don't call ourselves 'Grim' anymore. Not our fault it was just that we were known for a long time as 'Peverell's sons' until… well, until no-one but the family knew our real last name anymore. At that time we finally started to go by the last name of 'Peverell' - we had to, just to be recognised…"

"So you are Peverell Grim's descendants" Sal concluded smiling. No wonder they had reminded him of Peverell…

"Er… I guess" Antioch Peverell said. "Also even if we are - I do not know anything about this man."

Before Sal could answer, the next name emerged from the obelisk.

Emrys.

Slytherin hissed and then turned with huge eyes to Sal.

The others also stared at him.

"I told you I am Salvazsahar Emrys" Sal said and turned away from the last few fading letters of some names that emerged after his own. "Now… back to what we were talking about before you questioned my lineage: I know you said that there is no way for a wizard to be immortal - but I know that this is false. There are ways to be immortal - not that they are good, but they do exist."

"Stop!" Lord Slytherin held up one of his hands. "You come here, being the true heir of Emrys and after your claim is verified you simply want to return to the previous discussion?"

Sal just raised an eyebrow at the other man.

"What else should I do?" he asked him. "After all, it is no news to me that the line of Emrys is still alive."

"But… but there wasn't anyone to claim that line since at least the times of Camelot!" Slytherin returned heatedly. "I, for once, would like to know how there can still be a Lord of Emrys!"

This time Sal snorted.

"Just because the House of Emrys wasn't interested in mindless chatter every other month, it does not mean that there wasn't a Lord of Emrys all along," he finally answered the stumped Lord. "Now back to the topic of immortal wizards. Like I said, there is a possibility of immortality. It might be dark and obscure but it is still existing…"

"But," Lord Slytherin started to say, but he was interrupted by another lord. This lord at least decided to speak of the topic at hand and not of Sal's lineage.

"There is no known way to live forever, lad," Lord McGonagall, like the crest on his chest proclaimed him proudly, said huffing. "I know, you are still young - but Haughwards should have taught you at least that much."

Sal just raised an eyebrow.

"The last time I was at Haugh's Wards, I was teaching there," he said. "I cannot remember a time in the past where I was a student at that school."

This time Lord Slytherin sneered. It seemed he had recovered.

"So where were you taught, Lord Emrys? I cannot believe that a lord like your father rejected the idea of his son being trained at Haughwards, lad!"

Sal just smiled and returned to the original discussion.

"There is at least one way to become immortal," he said. "… Two, maybe even three if you can reproduce the second and third way I know of… even if those ways are no true immortality, just something alike to it for some time…"

Lord McGonagall snorted.

"You sound inexplicably sure, Lord Emrys," he said. "But tell me - have you ever seen someone who has reached immortality?"

Sal hesitated.

Of course he had seen Medrawed just days ago, but seeing him alive did not tell anyone if the other man had really found a way to live forever. There was also the fact that Sal had seen Medrawed dead as well - killed by the goblin blade that had been smitten for Salvazsahar.

But it wasn't Medrawed he thought of the second he heard the question.

It was another man, an evil lord, who came to his mind nearly immediately. It had been Sal's first brush with immortality and the Sickness that was known as the Dark, or like Sal preferred, the Evil Arts of Magic.

Even after over a thousand years he still shuddered when he thought about the night Voldemort had regained his body. It wasn't that he was suddenly afraid of Voldemort - no, he just felt sick, thinking about it… especially after he had been taught blood-magic by his father and godfather and had started to truly understand what kind of evil Voldemort had invoked that night. And it hadn't just been the ritual. No, the evil had started way before, even way before the day Sal had been entered in the Tournament and it had reached its peak when Cedric had been killed and Sal had been used for the ritual.

Someday Sal would destroy the man for what he had done. Some evil could not be forgiven. And line-theft was one of the evilest magic known to mankind.

"Yes," he finally said. "I have seen it. It might have been a twisted kind of immortality, but it was immortality nonetheless."

Lord McGonagall sneered. But the sneer wasn't directed at Sal but at the possibility that Sal's words implied.

"And how was it received?"

Sal shuddered.

"By splitting one's soul," he answered sincerely. "You will lose a part of yourself if you try it and you will slowly lose your sanity after you have done it - but you will be immortal. Unable to die until what you have done to yourself is undone. It is nothing you want to archive, believe me."

And in his mind he saw that twisted smile that once was the kind smile of his little brother Medrawed.

A child's smile, lost forever to the perverted magic that allowed Medrawed to return from death.

"Splitting ones soul?!" this time there was more than one lord who asked with disgust in their voice, unbelieving.

"Yes," Salvazsahar said. "I don't know when this path was invented - but if the wizard, you are talking about, truly used this way… kill him. It's definitely mercy."

"You seem to have forgotten that killing him would be the problem," Lord Slytherin sneered. Sal just sighed and shook his head.

"I didn't forget what I told you," he said softly. "I just told you what you had to do if this wizard truly did what I fear he did."

And Sal knew for a fact that Medrawed split his soul. Sal couldn't explain the taint he felt in Medrawed's magic in any other way. Sal could not explain the cry of help he had received through his magic as the Prince of the land in any other way. Nothing but the evilest kind of evil would have him summoned with so much force that he had abandoned everything he had been doing, just to hurry back to Britain.

But it was not all Medrawed did.

There was still something foreign to his magic that did not fit to the taint of a split soul.

"You must find the container of his soul-part and destroy it. Then you will be able to kill him," Sal explained aloud.

One of the other lords snorted.

"It's not as easy as you try to make us believe, lad," he said. "Until now I have never heard about a way to split one's soul, but if there is one and this creature found it, then I don't believe that it will be easy to undo it again."

And the lord was right.

Sal remembered his lessons in the Dark Arts from his mother. He had hated them with passion, but it was part of the inheritance of a LeFay. The LeFay-family had always had a great knowledge of the evilest of magic. Even Godric, who had been a light sorcerer to the boot, knew about them. Sal had never spoken with him about them but the fact alone that Godric read some of his family-texts and knew about the darker side of blood-magic - the part that could be used to destroy and kill - was evidence enough.

And Medrawed had been taught by Morgana LeFay herself. As much as Sal had loved the woman and her ability to heal, he had never been blind enough to the fact that his mother had known the darkest magicks and had taught them to her offsprings.

Still, the difference between her and Medrawed was nevertheless mind-blowing. While Medrawed obviously had done away with his mother's warning and had started to use those magicks instead of working against them, Morgana had used her knowledge to gain a deeper understanding of the nature of magic and had mostly counteracted the Evil Arts.

Sal had chosen the same way and even now, days later, he could not believe that Medrawed had turned to the darkest of magicks at one point of his life. He was still unable to believe that he had lost his brother to the ritual their mother had forbidden them to ever think about using.

And Sal still wanted to cry because of the loss of his brother.

"It won't be easy," Sal answered the lord, with a bitter tone of voice. "But it's the only way to stop him. And he has to be stopped, he cannot continue with what he is doing at the moment! He will never stop the killings if you refuse to destroy him! You can't reason with him anymore. Whoever he was once, the person he was is long since gone."

"So you prefer murdering him just to stop him," one of the lords asked coolly.

"There is no other way," Sal answered while he refused to even think about the result of his proportion. His little brother would be killed by them - and Sal would not even try to stop them.

Salvazsahar knew that he would create his own nightmares for the next thousand years with his decision.

He loved his brother, but the ritual Medrawed did, had killed Sal's sibling long ago. The only thing that was still left was a mockery of his loved one - an empty shell, a puppet for the evil in the world.

"There is no other way," Sal repeated. "Even if he would be one of us, even if he would be my own child - I would nevertheless say the same."

"And yet, you're just guessing that the man you met was truly immortal," one of the lords said coolly.

"He might be guessing the method," Antioch interrupted the lord. "But it's nevertheless true that this creature is immortal. And I truly don't care how it archived it - be it by splitting its soul, uniting the legendary Death's Gifts or any other method. As long as we decide on how to stop this monster and find a way to do so, I am happy with everything you come up!"

Sal frowned when he heard that exclamation and while Lord Slytherin and Antioch started to argue about the possibility of immortality, Sal quietly repeated the foreign phrase that Antioch had used.

"Death's Gifts?" he whispered. He had heard stories about the so called 'Death's Gifts'. The last time he had heard about them, it had been shortly before he had returned to Britain where he had met Lancelot was brought to Arthur's Court. He had never been interested in rumours like that and had long since forgotten about them.

"A fairy tale," Lord McGonagall, who sat next to him, explained. "Nothing but rumours about a wand, a cloak and a stone that once belonged to Death. Whoever collects them all, is rumoured to be the next immortal Master of Death. Like I said, nothing but a fairy tale."

" I am Death! I. Am. Death! I have its wand! I have its cloak! I have its power over the dead! I. Am. Death!" Sal heard Medrawed howl in his mind.

A fairy tale?

Or was it the truth and Medrawed had them as well?

And if he had them, would it be more complicated to kill him or would it somehow ease their job?

"You shouldn't think about that myth," Lord McGonagall added in that moment. "It's far less likely to be true than your idea with the split soul."

But Medrawed's soul was split, Sal knew it. Sal could feel the taint.

But did that make Death's Gifts real as well?

Did Medrawed's insane chatter make him the Master of Death?

"If they were real, how would you destroy a Master of Death?" Sal whispered.

Lord McGonagall shrugged carelessly.

"Take over the Gifts," he said. "If you have them all, you would be the next Master of Death and the old would lose his title. But like I said: it's nothing but an old fairy tale that was brought to us by the Romans."

Sal carefully kept his face emotionless.

"Of course," he said.

It was in that moment that the argument between Lord Slytherin and Antioch reached its peak. Both lords were clearly enraged but Lord Slytherin was the Chief of the Wizards' Council and because of that had the last word in their discussion.

"Well," Lord Slytherin said sneering. "If you think that you know how to get rid of your 'immortal' wizard - do it. We, as the Wizards' Council, have more important things to do than to listen to fairy tales!" Little did he know, that the decision he would make that day, would end his era within the next year. Instead of him, Barberus Bragge, later on famous for the introduction of the Golden Snidget into Cuadich -known in Harry's time as Quidditch - would take the seat of the Chief of the Wizards' Council.

"We met him on the way to the Council," Cadmus cried furiously. "He. Is. Real! And we have to stop him! And we need the Council to do it! You can't brush us of, simply because you don't want to believe us!"

But the most lords just shook their heads and refused to listen to the arguments of the Peverell brothers.

Not that it surprised Salvazsahar. Politicians had always had the tendencies to ignore things that could be a threat to their perfect little world. It had been like that on Arthur's court and it had been like that in the Gathering of the Lords. So why should it be different now?

Only the Lord McGonagall - a different one than the Lord that Sal had known back at the founders' time - looked as if he believed the Peverell brothers. He was the one who frowned at the other lords of the Council, but when he opened his mouth to object, Sal shook his head.

"They won't listen," he told the man. "They don't want to believe us."

Another lord, who sat next to McGonagall, nodded.

"The Lord Emrys is right, McGonagall. They won't listen," he said. "The Lord Peverell and his brothers will have to find a way to show them the truth if they truly want to be believed by them - and that won't be easy."

"And yet, you, Lord Bones, who don't like the Lord Peverell at all, believe him and his brothers," the Lord McGonagall remarked.

Lord Bones shrugged.

"I might dislike him," he said. "But I know that the Lord Peverell would never lie in a situation like that. Lord Peverell might be a selfish… person… but he would never set himself up to be ridiculed if there wasn't a danger to his family."

Then the Lord Bones shrugged helplessly.

"Alone knowing that fact means that, even if I hate it, I'm forced to believe his story," he concluded gravely. "If I even had the slightest way to disable his credibility, do you truly think I wouldn't have taken it?"

The answer was a sigh from the Lord McGonagall.

"And like that you just shook up my hope that there are more sane persons in the room than insane. It seems that if even you can see that there has to be some truth to this story, then the others have to be insane or blind because they don't see it. That they were able to find the entrance to this hole they call a hall means that they could see it - and that leaves me solely with insanity. Lovely."

Sal snorted.

"And there they are asking why the Emrys family keeps away from the Council."

Two muffled laughter answered his statement.

" And then Death asked the third and youngest brother what he would like. The youngest brother was the humblest and also the wisest of the brothers, and he did not trust death. So he asked for something that would enable him to go forth from that place without being followed by Death. And Death, most unwillingly, handed over his own Cloak of Invisibility."

It was the evening after the Council and Sal had been invited to the rooms the Peverell brothers had been given.

"Even if the Council does nothing, we can't let that go!" Cadmus exclaimed in that moment. He was pacing up and down the room while his brothers sat in their chairs and watched him. Sal had leaned against the wall next to the door and his gaze flickered between the brothers' faces.

"So, what do you want to do?" Sal finally asked.

"Find him and kill him!" Cadmus growled. "There has to be a way to do so!"

"If you find the object in which he contained a part of his soul and destroy it, you should be able to do so," Sal answered with an emotionless voice. Inwardly he felt sick by just thinking about killing the child he helped to raise.

"So… how do you find it?" Ignotus asked him. Sal sighed.

"By searching," he answered truthfully. "If you know the person who went through the ritual well enough you will be able to guess, what he could have used." Then he contemplated his brother and his wishes, hopes and obsessions.

"Of course if you don't know the person who did it, you'll have to use different means to find out," Sal added to what he had said before. "It's definitely far easier if you know the person but there are ways that would help you to find out if you don't."

"Well, but you do," Ignotus said. "So we will be able to use the easier method, won't we?"

This time Sal pressed his lips together. Of course he knew his brother, and of course he could think about things his brother could have used or would have liked to use but that didn't mean that there weren't other possibilities that Medrawed could have chosen.

"I might have an idea what he would have used," he answered the brothers. "But there are still a lot of other possibilities I might not know about."

"But at least you know some things that could be it," Ignotus said sighing. "Now, how do we find out if you're right with your guesses or if you're not?"

The answer was a helpless shrug from Salvazsahar.

"I think you'd be able to feel it if you encounter it," he said. "It reeks of dark magic and if you aren't a dark wizard you normally would refuse to touch it instinctively - or you would be compelled to touch it if there are wards on it to hide its true nature. I guess that the most obvious thing is that it tries to influence you somehow… at least that's what mother said."

Sal pondered on it a little bit more.

He had after all never encountered anything like a Horcrux, had he?

It was then that a flash of memory brought him back to second year all those life-times ago.

The Diary.

Ginny.

Horcrux?

The question was easily answered.

Horcrux.

"They try to draw you in, they try to get used by you so that they will be able to gain power over you. If you use them, you will lose parts of your memory. You won't remember what you are doing for the Horcrux - but other than that I don't think that Horcruxes are easily to recognise," he finally said. "But then, other than as a child I never had an encounter with one of those and so I might not know some ways to recognise them."

He couldn't help them further, so finally the others started to debate if one of them had seen or felt something like that.

Sal was quite certain that not one of them would have had.

Medrawed was no idiot.

He wouldn't have hidden the Horcrux anywhere anyone would know. There was just one chance: he had never thought that there would be someone who knew him in the future. Maybe, just maybe Salvazsahar would be able to figure out where Medrawed had hidden his piece of soul.

Then Death stood aside and allowed the three brothers to continue on their way and they did so, talking with wonder of the adventure they had had, and admiring Death's gifts.

In due course the brothers separated, each for his own destination.

They weren't lucky.

Wherever they looked for the Horcrux, they found nothing.

Not at the home, Medrawed had once grown up in, not at Haughswards, not anywhere on the Isles. Sal soon started to suspect, that Medrawed had hidden the Horcrux away somewhere on the country, somewhere Sal had no clue about.

"Is there some place else, he could have hidden it?" Antioch finally asked. They weren't far away from Haughswards, the last location they had searched.

Sal sighed and then shrugged helplessly.

"I guess that he could have hidden it somewhere on the country," he answered simply. "The problem with that is, that I don't know where to look. I don't know where exactly he was over there."

"So, simply put: you're no help at all," Cadmus snorted.

Sal just frowned at the other man.

"It's not as if I was following my brother anywhere he went," he answered coolly, "I had other responsibilities than watching him leading his life - not adding to the fact that I thought him dead for the last few centuries !"

Cadmus just pressed his lips together.

"You show remarkably little interest in the life of your brother," Antioch said in that moment. "I would never have gotten away with such a behaviour."

"I buried him! What else should I have done? By wind and fire, he was dead!" Sal cried. "I at least don't make a habit out of watching graves, just for the chance that the one buried is still alive! And I am a healer, I normally know when someone is dead! I checked before I buried him! Don't you understand? He shouldn't be alive anymore! He shouldn't !"

But he was - and that was the entire problem.

"He's right, you know, I shouldn't be alive anymore," another voice said suddenly and when Sal and the others turned, they found themselves facing Medrawed. "But I'm surprised that you checked on me after you returned to your time. I never thought I was that important to you, little big brother."

The grin on Medrawed's face broadened with every word he spoke.

"You were my brother, Medrawed, of course you were important," Sal answered bitterly. "I helped to raise you. Whatever you want to say about our relationship, don't you ever try to imply I didn't love you!"

The answer was a snort.

"And yet, here you are, ready to kill me."

Salvazsahar just smiled a bitter and sad smile.

"I might love you, Medrawed, but the oath I took as a guardian force me to work against you. I can't let you roam the world like you are just now. I am sorry."

The answer was a snort.

"You're just like father," Medrawed hissed. "You do nothing but cast me away for others!"

"You're acting as if you think that's easy for me to do!" Sal said heatedly. "I once swore to protect the innocents! I never thought that this oath would mean that I once would be forced to go against my own little brother! I love you, Medrawed! If the circumstances would have been just the slightest bit different - if you just hadn't gone against everything I stand for - I would have chosen you! But as it is, I can't. Not with the knowledge of what you have done!"

"What I have done? I?" Medrawed hissed. "I didn't do anything! It's all father's fault! It -"

"You killed, Medrawed! You decided to use a ritual that uses magic in an absolute perverted way! That wasn't Arthur's doing! That was yours - yours alone!"

Medrawed just scoffed.

"As if you ever understood me, little big brother," he said, then he grinned. "But well, at least this time I will finally be allowed to kill you - and don't worry, I will kill you. I won't let some goody two-shoes like you stay alive - not with your determination to kill people for your own 'greater good'!"

Another smile spread over Medrawed's face.

"Let's see who's truly the better of us two! Let's see how long you and your little friends will be able to hold me of!"

The first brother traveled on for a week or more, and reaching a distant village, sought out a fellow wizard with whom he had a quarrel. Naturally, with the Elder Wand as his weapon, he could not fail to win the duel that followed. Leaving his enemy dead upon the floor, the oldest brother proceeded to an inn, where he boasted loudly of the powerful wand he had snatched from Death himself, and of how it made him invincible.

Sal watched his brother intendedly.

The other one had been roaming up and down in front of them like a caged predator, but he hadn't attacked them - yet.

"Don't try to charge him by yourself!" Sal hissed in a warning tone of voice to the other three. "Don't react to his goading!"

All three brothers looked at Sal in disgruntlement.

"We know how to act," Cadmus admonished him. "We're not stupid."

Salvazsahar just pressed his lips together but decided that answering that statement would just end in a disagreement - and that was something they didn't need now.

"We're not children," Antioch added.

To Sal they were exactly that.

Children.

All three of them.

But he said nothing.

Medrawed instead grinned.

It seems that he had just waited for an opening like that, and he took it instantly with a look of glee on his face.

"But you are children," he told them, grinning madly. "All four of you. Little, stupid children!"

Antioch was grinding his teeth when he heard that.

"We're not children, monster," he hissed. "Whatever you think about us, don't you dare to call us children! We're all three middle-aged wizards!"

"Antioch!" Sal hissed, trying to get Antioch Peverell's attention.

Medrawed's gin just broadened.

"Of course you are children!" he countered. "Look at you! Barely out of your nappies! And you need Salvazsahar to tell you what to do - like a mommy tells her baby what it's allowed to do and what it'll be punished for! Little children, all of you! Come on, babies, cry for your mommy!"

Antioch snarled at him. "We're not babies!"

"But that's what you are. Stupid little babies who are still listening to every word your mummy says!" Medrawed replied. "Just look at the way you're listening to Sally!"

"Don't listen to him!" Sal hissed.

The answer was a frown from Cadmus.

"He's right. You're not our mother, Salvazar! We don't need you to tell us what to do!" he returned heatedly.

"Like I said before, we know how to act," Antioch added, also frowning at Salvazsahar.

Ignotus just shook his head.

"Don't you see that you are doing exactly what this monster wants you to do by talking back to Salvazsahar?" he asked his brothers.

Those two just scoffed.

"Shut up, Ignotus," Antioch said. "I know exactly what I am doing."

"Are you?" Medrawed asked grinning. "Don't you want to confirm your strategy with mummy Sally first? I meant, you couldn't beat me the last time without him, either!"

"Antioch, no!" Ignotus cried, but he was too late.

His brother had long since charged the monster known as Medrawed in front of them.

That very night, another wizard crept upon the oldest brother as he lay, wine-sodden, upon his bed. The thief took the wand, and for good measure, slit the oldest brother's throat.

Medrawed did not even give Antioch a chance to get out his first curse.

He simply waved his wand and Antioch sailed through the air and landed on the ground a little bit away with a sickening thunk.

Then for good measure, Medrawed spoke another curse and Antioch started to scream with agony.

That was the moment Cadmus entered the battle and fired his curses at Medrawed, Ignotus following after him immediately and it was just for Sal's own reflexes and his knowledge with rune-based shields that rescued both brothers from the deadly curses that Medrawed shot at them.

"Ah, it seems my little big brother doesn't like to watch," Medrawed grinned. "But you're still standing so far away, little big brother. Don't you want to join us in the heat of this battle?"

And with that he pulled out a sword and switched his wand to his off-hand.

"Let's see how good you are against me," he grinned.

The following minutes were a massacre.

Sal had not even tried to watch the whole scenes from the side-lines. He knew of Medrawed's abilities with a sword and knew that neither Ignotus nor Cadmus would be able to deal with him - not that Sal himself was up to it. As good as he was, Medrawed had always been better.

In the end, Ignotus had lost a finger and was lying next to Cadmus, both of them unconsciousness and Sal would have joined them there if he hadn't had a lot of practice fighting Medrawed. Even with centuries between their last fight and now, Sal could still predict a lot of Medrawed's moves.

That didn't mean he was unharmed.

He had lost his knives and was bleeding out of several wounds. It just meant, that he was still standing.

Not that he would be standing for a lot longer.

Sal had always been a good knife-fighter, but his brother was a natural and had bested him ever since his brother had been eleven winters old.

So Sal wasn't surprised to see that his brother's long knife was just inches from his chest.

"One move, Salvazsahar, and I will kill you," Medrawed said, grinning evilly. "And believe me, I will do it. I won't mind your death at all."

And so Death took the first brother for his own.

Meanwhile, the second brother journeyed to his own home, where he lived alone. Here he took out the stone that had the power to recall the dead, and turned it thrice in his hand. To his amazement and his delight, the figure of the girl he had once hoped to marry, before her untimely death, appeared at once before him.

Sal did not react to his brother's threat.

He had known since the first time he had met Medrawed again, that the boy from the past was long since dead and that the monster who took his place would have no qualm to kill his own family.

So there was just one thing he could do now: Ask the question he had wanted to ask since he found out what his brother had done. His brother would answer. He liked to boast even now.

"Why?" Sal asked his brother, bitterness evident in his voice. "Why did you do it? You already were the Master of Death - why did you have to use the forbidden ritual as well?"

"Because I wasn't sure if being Death's master was enough," Medrawed answered grinning. "And I had to survive! I am the King, after all! I just need Camelot and the lands that should have been mine by birth will finally truly belong to me!"

"Yours? Yours?! " Sal repeated disbelievingly. "Is that what you think? That it will be yours if you're just able to enter Camelot again?"

"Of cour-"

"No, Medrawed! No! " Sal interrupted him heatedly, not caring that the knife sliced his tunic slightly when he interjected his brother. "Camelot was never yours! You weren't born Arthur's heir! You simply weren't! The land is bound to him and his blood-line but you need to have his magic to make a claim and while you were lucky enough to at least have magic, you weren't born his heir! You were born of his blood - but blood isn't enough to make a claim on Camelot!"

"I was his only child! I had every right -"

"You weren't, Medrawed!" Sal interrupted heatedly. "You weren't! Don't you understand? You have always been the second born to Arthur!"

Medrawed just scoffed.

"That's what you say, but you didn't live it, so you have no idea, little big brother," he said coolly. "Like you have no idea what I have gone through in the last centuries!"

"But that's where you're wrong," Sal said bitterly while sparing a glance at the still unconscious brothers. "I know it because I lived it as well. I wouldn't lie to you. And even if I don't know how you felt for the last centuries, I can imagine what it has been like for you."

Medrawed snarled.

"You have absolutely no idea!" he cried furiously. "You have no idea how it was, Salvazsahar! Waking up in a foreign world with rules you cannot even think about being able to follow! Waking in a world that has moved on from your death as if it was nothing as if -!"

"I know what you felt, I understand you - but that does not explain away your deeds, little brother!" Sal interrupted Medrawed with hard eyes. "You aren't the first one to wake up in a world you do not know the rules of! I, too, woke in a world a lot different from the time I knew!"

"That does not count," Medrawed said, shrugging. "You planned to go to mother to be trained. You planed your trip! That's completely -"

"I definitely did not plan my trip, Medrawed. Don't even think about deluding yourself about that! The truth is I was gripped and ripped away from my time without even being told a reason! I had no more preparation then you did!"

Medrawed snorted.

"You, little big brother, have no idea!" he hissed. "I woke up in a world which had forgotten about me! In a world where the mighty castle of my father was nothing more but an academy to house apprentices! They had customs I have never seen before and they talked in a language I never heard be -"

"It told you, Medrawed. This. Is. No. Excuse for the crimes. You. Committed!" Sal hissed, fury tinting his voice with the hissing language of the snakes. "Don't you dare to try to excuse it! It was your choice that let to your crimes and not you waking up in a different world!"

Medrawed just shrugged this time.

"Maybe you're right, little big brother," he said. "But then, I was buried in the earth for about a thousand years, unable to do anything while my immortality healed my body from the wound I received. If it hadn't been a with goblin magic infused weapon I would have healed faster but father had to use one to stab me! You would have gone insane like I have if you had to endure being buried in the ground for such a long time!"

Sal shuddered. Medrawed was right. He possibly would have gone insane lying there for a thousand years. But then, he also knew that it had not only been the goblin magic that had worked against his brother.

"I might have gone insane," he said. "But I would never have become as twisted as you are. Don't deny it, Medrawed. Whatever you did before you fought with Arthur, I really don't know exactly what and how much and I am not sure if I want to know, was part of the reason why it took you so long to return. Not even talking about you returning from death when you clearly should have been dead after the wound you had!"

Medrawed shrugged disinterested.

"I somehow had to make sure that I wouldn't die in the fight, so I looked into it. I found two ways and finally decided to use them both - just to be sure, you know."

Sal shivered when he heard those words.

"You split your soul," it wasn't a question. There was no other way to explain Medrawed's insanity - not that being unable to die but also being unable to move for a thousand years would have helped, but then, Sal suspected that Medrawed did not remember every day buried. Sal even suspected that Medrawed might have come back to consciousness shy of leaving his grave. Medrawed had always been the one to exaggerate and to lie to gain sympathy from others.

"And if I did - what will you do?" Medrawed said, shrugging uncaringly. Sal shivered again.

"I still cannot believe you did a ritual mother warned us about!" he said. He didn't know how often he had said this sentence to Medrawed, but he just couldn't believe it, even now.

Medrawed shrugged again.

"Mother was weak. She never understood that some things have to be done to come closer to our Firbolg-inheritance. This ritual is one of them - after all our ancestors are immortal, so that just tells us we should be immortal, too."

Sal stared at his brother. Then he sneered.

"Don't try to reason with me, brother . I am a healer. I would not understand what you are talking about."

Medrawed just shrugged.

"You were always more like mother," he said. "No! You are like my father. Too blinded by your need to look out for others to understand an opportunity like that!"

"I think this time I am proud that you think I am like Arthur," Sal sneered. "I wouldn't even want to be like you!"

"And that's the reason why I am immortal and you just a little, lost boy!"

Sal's sneer just deepened.

"Don't you dare to tell me about immortality," he hissed. "I was living on this world long before you were born and I will live long after you finally die!"

Medrawed just laughed.

"There is no way that you lived before I was born because we are in your time now and mine is long gone!" he said laughing. "And believe me, you won't outlive me. You don't have the meanings. Look!"

And with that he held out his wand. Sal stared at it. He had seen this wand before - but not in the hands of his brother when they fought the last time… so where?

Of course, Sal knew thanks to the legend what want he was looking at, but that didn't explain the familiarity of the want itself.

Where had he seen it before?

"This is Death's wand," Medrawed said in that moment triumphantly. "I found this and its other pieces - the stone," he held up a stone with an engraving on it. "And the cloak," he pointed at the open cloak he was wearing. "They are the reason why I have still my body. They stop it from ageing and they healed me! They are the ultimate way to be immortal forever!"

Sal stared at the artefacts.

"What are they truly?" he whispered, while his senses hummed when he looked at them. Whatever they were, the magic embodied in them was foreign and powerful.

He had known the legend, but it was different being so close to them, feeling their call.

Whatever they were, they weren't wizard-made.

At least not by magic Sal had been in contact with.

"They are the Artefacts of Death," Medrawed said grinning. "I found them in Egypt. There even is a legend about them: The one true owner of them will live forever and ever! I am their owner! As long as they are in my possession I won't die!"

Sal snorted.

"You died on the battlefield with Arthur. You might have been resurrected later on but you still died on the battlefield first."

Medrawed just shrugged.

"A minor setback I will circumvent with time, I am sure," he said disinterested. "As long as I have them when I'm dead I will return. And now, dear brother of mine, it's time to die. After all I don't want you to squeal my secrets to all your little friends."

And with that the icy steel of a short blade bored itself under Sal's rips in his lung. Sal gasped for breath. His vision swam but he knew he could not let Medrawed get away. He knew he had to stop him.

So he did the only thing he could.

He opened his eyes.

Medrawed's dying scream filled the air, then he slowly but surely turned into stone.

Yet she was sad and cold, separated from him as by a veil. Though she had returned to the mortal world, she did not truly belong there and suffered. Finally, the second brother, driven mad with hopeless longing, killed himself so as truly to join her.

In the same moment an Expelliarmus was heard behind Medrawed and the wand - the Death Stick - he was holding sailed through the air and vanished out of Sal's view.

A second later Medrawed's skin turned grey.

Sal staggered back, the long knife leaving his body.

As soon as the blade had left his body he lost his footing and fell. The weapon, as painfully it had been had been the only thing to keep him standing before.

Black points were flickering in Sal's vision and Sal knew instinctively, that his brother hadn't missed. The knife had pierced his lung.

Sal was dying.

Again.

What a hassle.

And then a still shaking Antioch was by his side, falling to the ground next to him.

"Salvazar!" he said and this time Salvazsahar hadn't the energy to correct him. His vision was slowly but surely degenerating.

Soft, blood-strained hands started to support his upper body and then another pair of blood-strained hands - Ignatius', Sal recognized when he saw the missing little finger - carefully parted his robes and lifted his tunic to look at the wound.

"He won't make it," Ignatius said sighing to Antioch. "The blade entered his lungs. There is no way for us to heal him."

This just triggered Sal to laugh - not that he could laugh at the moment. Instead painful wheezing sounds emerged his body.

"Don't… worry," he gasped. "I survive."

Antioch frowned at him.

"Salvazar," he said. "He pierced your lung."

"I know," Sal answered wheezing. "Can't die. Unable."

Antioch's eyes widened.

"You're immortal?" he asked astonished with a slight fear tinting his voice. Sal managed to shake his head.

"No. Just… can't die," he said.

Antioch frowned but it was Ignotus who stopped him from saying more.

"Alright, Salvazar," he said. "You'll explain if - when you are able. Not now, later, yes?"

Sal attempted to nod but he wasn't sure that he still had enough control over his body to do it right. Then another thought occurred to him.

"Antioch," he said, still gasping for air. "Cloak. Stone. Way from Med… him . Ignotus touching. Not you!"

Antioch frowned down at him.

"You want us to take away the cloak and the stone from the… statue - but I shouldn't touch them?" he clarified.

"Mustn't," Sal insisted.

"Alright. I won't touch them. Tell us later, yeah?" Sal could hear in Antioch's voice that he doubted Sal's claim that he wouldn't die. Sal didn't mind the doubt. He would have doubted it, too, if it was him.

So he said just one word as an answer.

"Good," and with that he let slip himself in unconsciousness.

And so Death took the second brother for his own.

But though Death searched for the third brother for many years, he was never able to find him. It was only when he attained a great age that the youngest brother finally took off the Cloak of Invisibility and gave it to his son.

When he woke up again, he was lying in a bed, fully covered with a blanket.

He sighed.

At least they hadn't buried him - yet.

He sighed again, then he carefully raised his hands and uncovered his face.

His eyes fell on the ceiling. It was a tent-ceiling.

In that moment the entrance of the tent opened and Ignotus stepped in. He stopped mid-step when he saw that Sal was looking back at him. His eyes widened.

"So you truly are immortal," he said surprised.

Sal sat up.

"Something akin to that," he answered bitterly. "Tell me, were are the others?"

Ignotus' gaze darkened.

"They left," he answered. "They didn't believe your claim. If it were for them, you would have been buried days ago."

Sal frowned.

"So… what are they doing?" he asked hesitatingly. "Are they looking for the Horcrux?"

Ignotus just shook his head.

"They're studying the artefacts they took from your brother," he answered sincerely. "They've been at it since you died five days ago."

"And the Horcrux?"

Ignotus shrugged, but his face told Sal everything he needed to know.

"They won't start looking for it again," he hazard a guess. The answer was a bitter smile.

"I'm sorry, Salvazsahar," Ignotus said finally after a few seconds of silence.

Sal just shook his head. "I should have suspected something like that," he answered truthfully. "So, they are studying the artefacts?"

"Or using them," affirmed Ignotus. "Antioch said something of finally settling a dispute and Cadmus said something about apologising for having a daughter with another woman - not that he ever acknowledged that child."

"What about Medrawed?"

"Your brother? He's still stone and we thought it prudent to hide him away in a warded room in Haughswards. Don't worry, no one will be able to enter it except of us or you, I made sure of that."

"Thank you."

Ignotus just smiled for a moment, then his face darkened again.

"Not that my brothers truly need access to that room. They're now far too interested in those artefacts to even consider helping you."

"And you?"

"I've been waiting for you to wake up, Prince Salvazsahar," Ignotus answered with a smile. "I'll have to check on my wife and son from time to time, but I'll do everything to help you with finding that soul-piece you've been looking for."

Ignotus would long since dead when Sal finally would find the place Medrawed had hidden away his Horcrux. It had been hidden away in France, and confronting it would be the last nail in Sal's coffin. After all this time, he finally broke from the strain of being forced to live his life alone and without any support.

He would never be able to continue on, with the guilt of his brothers dead weighting on his soul.

And then he greeted Death as an old friend, and went with him gladly, and, as equals, they departed this life.