August fifth came quite quickly.
The past days turned out to be gloomy and not particularly pleasant. It rained now and then, and this could happen at absolutely any time of the day. But I didn't bother with such things. What was I doing? Thinking. Thinking and feeding the phoenix dark magic. He grew from it like on yeast, literally. Grew right in his sleep. He no longer sleeps on the table—in the corner of the room. Because as soon as he got access to dark magic, which is part of his diet, he grew to the size of a decent peacock, only black. Well, and the plumage, of course, is different—black, the tail albeit long, but narrow, and the whole appearance is predatory. Dumbledore has a phoenix of about this size, but this one—I know for sure—will grow even bigger... Won't be able to carry such a one on the arm.
The main idea and reason why I abruptly started fattening the bird is their ability to use their analogue of Apparition, only it has almost no range limits. Well, that is, wizards have these limits—personal power, depending on brains. After all, magic, sorcery, it is tied to understanding the process that you embody. Yes, this understanding can be expressed in completely different things—from formulas, constructs and other crutches, to conscious understanding of the process, internal understanding that you put in through an image. With Apparition everything is more complicated—almost no one has understanding at all. It's just copying the phoenix's abilities with a small adjustment of the process to at least some model facilitating the perception of what is happening and giving at least some foundation for this sorcery. But how specifically, in detail the process happens—yes who knows? Well, and as is known, the less understandable the process, the more magic is needed. But for a phoenix it is natural, like breathing, and energy costs are minimal. Here, as Archimedes said about magic: "Give me a point of support, and I will overturn the Earth". Although... Maybe it was so?
Why am I doing all this at all? And how do I return from another country? Good thing that it is generally Europe, and not America—didn't need to fly to the other end of the Earth yet. Yes, undoubtedly, can create a Portkey, only who would tell me how it is done. And if it were really simple, then such knowledge could be found in the school curriculum or at least in additional literature, but they are not there and even really not mentioned about such things, and this is sad.
But, aside reflection on phoenixes, magic and so on. Letter from Delacour. He passed a Portkey that will work on the sixth at one in the morning London time. The scene? Spain, outskirts of Seville. Well, not quite outskirts, if I understand correctly... Target—house. Only a house—not land, not a plot, not a plantation. Purely and only a house. Hidden, of course, but the Portkey holder can see it. Mr. Delacour claims that he agreed, and no one will wait for me, and even more—any wizard who finds himself on the territory of the house or near it can be considered by me, or rather, the Plague Doctor, only as an ill-wisher. Okay, let's see if this is so, and whether such a thing is a banal attempt to declare one's non-involvement.
By the right time I left our suburb on my own and, hiding from all possible glances with magic, went into the grove. Walking a little deeper, created the image of the Plague Doctor for myself, hid myself with magic as much as I could generally, took the Portkey in the form of an unusual large coin in my hands, and began to wait—about five minutes remained. While waiting, woke up in the image of myself-phoenix and, opening the window with a beak, flew out into the street.
Strange feeling—flying in the guise of a bird. But I didn't enjoy flying in the night for long—a tiny expression of will, and I-phoenix am already soaring over the dark grove, feeling myself-human below, among the trees. Strange duality of consciousness. Spiders felt exactly like additional eyes and ears, but the phoenix—a full-fledged body, thinking and reasoning simultaneously with me-human.
While soaring over the grove, occasionally flapping wings, reasoned about an interesting moment. I-phoenix quite clearly, albeit subconsciously, understood how I Apparate. But no matter how I tried to realize this by myself-human—nothing worked. As if I don't have the necessary body part. Perhaps it is so—I didn't conduct diagnostics of the anatomical structure of the phoenix body.
The time came for the Portkey to trigger, and I was pulled in by a spatial anomaly. I-phoenix felt this easily, as a sighted person sees something in front of him and can describe details. Immediately catching on the trail, as if all his life only did that tracked traces of movements, I-phoenix "dived" into space following.
A moment, and I stand in front of the house, and in the sky appeared a large black shadow of a magic bird invisible to anyone—I-phoenix watched the situation from the air.
A moment, another, and... Nothing. Clean around. The house—a large mansion in the best traditions of Spain—exactly such colors, sandy-orange, come to mind. Exactly such a combination with white. Exactly such open verandas, galleries, and even a tiled roof. The gates were open, the territory was clearly protected, but by sensations I can say that I had access to it.
I-phoenix looked around the space. Literally a couple of kilometers away quite modern buildings of Seville already began, somewhere in the middle of the way a river flowed, power lines stretched. Yes, it's night outside, but I-phoenix saw everything as in the daytime, except that tones shifted to the blue spectrum.
Slowly moving along the path paved with large stone to the house, I listened to sensations. Yes, the territory is clean, but the house frankly radiated darkness, which even seemed intelligent. This will be a little more difficult, although the principle remains the same—modification of the Lotus to absorb the curse, and that's it. True, will have to show will and fight with the pseudo-intelligence of this curse, but this is not a problem—it is already trying to drag me into its nets and do... Do "something". Don't even want to know what exactly.
Concentrating, I began to form the Lotus, and after a minute of quality labor with all dedication, I "dripped" the spell on the ground. This time there was no drop effect on the water surface—the earth itself was not cursed. But it seemed as if I physically felt how some magical roots stretched along the ground to the house, although there was nothing like that. A moment, and the whole house seemed to be entwined with cobwebs, vines, ivy. Its black veins pulsed, and under my feet a stem grew, black as darkness itself. Here it grew to my waist, a bud appeared on its tip. A second, two, three, and here all that blackness that entangled the house began to gradually seem to decrease. As if this ivy began to grow in the opposite direction.
I-human and I-phoenix felt light mental pressure, slight resistance, mindless attack. The curse resisted, but not consciously, no—it did what it was created for. Attacked. True, somehow weakly, albeit aggressively. Whether the activity of my brain is to blame for this, or something else, but ignoring this attack was as simple as walking against a light breeze—resistance seems to be there, but it isn't.
A few minutes, and the Lotus was in my hand, and the house was clean. As clean from dark magic as possible. But no, I didn't "eat" something besides the curse—there wasn't even furniture in the house. Amusing I considered that the curse hung here clearly for a long time and grew capitally into the whole essence of the house. Now, when this magic was brazenly torn out, drunk, removed, a kind of vacuum was created, and a holy place, as is known, is never empty—the house began to fill with ordinary natural magic of this place, albeit extremely slowly. Owners need to move in here sooner—this will allow to get used to the place faster.
Concentrating, Apparated to a grove a kilometer from this place. How, if I have never been here? I-phoenix saw this place in detail from a height, and projecting the correct image in the head, knowing and understanding the spatial position relative to me—is not a problem.
A couple of seconds later, next to me, standing knee-deep in grass on the very border of the green grove, I-phoenix appeared and hovered in the air, as if on an updraft—even feathers moved. What can I say—if I didn't know what it is, would have definitely crapped myself from surprise and from impressions. Wingspan is definitely more than two meters, even if slightly. Considering that this absolutely black bird can blast an aura around itself like five Dementors... In general, if I want to drive someone to the grave by heart rupture someday, then I know how to do it.
I handed the Lotus to the phoenix, and I-phoenix immediately grabbed it with his beak, threw it up and pecked it in one sitting. That's it, enough adventures for me for this summer. Check for work—twelve thousand. Family estate, clearly ancient, like the curse. It seems the family wanted to return it maybe not as living space, because they obviously have a lot of money, then as a memory—for sure.
Stretching out a hand to the phoenix, I-phoenix grabbed it with paws, light volitional impulse, and we were pulled into a spatial anomaly, throwing back at the point of departure—in the grove relatively close to home. I-phoenix flew home, hiding himself with magic, and I dispelled clothes and went on foot—will reach in an hour, take a walk.
An interesting discovery, albeit quite predictable, was that the phoenix can use wandless magic just like me. It is not particularly strange, because magic itself—is just energy, and sorcery—is a product of the mind's work with energy. Essentially, a phoenix—is a point in space around which magic will be projected and reality changed as my consciousness needs. Pity that such a trick won't work with spiders, no matter how hard I tried. And here is another interesting question—does a phoenix have a soul? Well, in the literal sense of the word. Because he has consciousness—mine. And we are connected. But does he have his own soul? Or due to the process of creating specifically this individual, he is only a projection of my soul? Or something else? Purely theoretically—he has his own soul through which connection with energy dimensions goes. On the other hand, a phoenix should generally not be considered only a biological object, as well as a physical one. Being a kind of embodiment of various energies and concepts, he can exist according to completely different principles incomprehensible to me... And here the elf shard failed—maybe the elf knew details, or maybe not.
Any day now I will pick up the reward from Delacour, and that's it, to rest until September first. Will correspond with Daphne, communicate with family and no adventures. Maybe unless only decide on a weapon for training and create a proper copy. And otherwise—silence, peace and cookies, fortunately the promotion lasts a month.
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