Chapter 99 — Negotiations
Chapter 99: Negotiations
"Very well."
I gave a slow nod.
"I... our Order will find it difficult to turn from one enemy to another. But we, the senior Inquisitors, understand perfectly well that an external threat can bring even mortal enemies together, because if it doesn't, our chances of survival become far slimmer."
She was right. The chances of surviving a war fought simultaneously against the Grimm, against terrorists who would inevitably declare them some kind of divine retribution, and against Inquisitors would not be impossible, but it would be extraordinarily hard. And the same was true in reverse. The Inquisitors would struggle to survive if the wizarding world remained one of their declared enemies. I was glad she understood that.
"But we will manage the transition, gradually. Right now, we simply need to survive: all of us, you and us both. And I am here to offer a mutual exchange."
"What kind of exchange?"
"We open a school of the spirit on your grounds..."
Bella couldn't contain herself and let out a barely audible snort.
"No, this is not an Inquisition branch or a church. It is a school of combat arts developed by ordinary people. They allow anyone who completes the full course of training to multiply their capabilities many times over. And while mastering the discipline fully requires starting at around six years old, even partial training, which is possible at any age, will make your defenders stronger, faster, and more resilient."
I sighed.
"I cannot hand Summer over to you; she is a person, not a commodity. But I cannot ignore a gesture of goodwill either. So I propose this: find..."
I thought for a moment.
"...five individuals from your Inquisitors, and please, let them be the most open-minded and reasonable among you, and we will add them to the group of beginners that will shortly be assembled for training. This will be a mixed group of ordinary people and Squibs, whom Summer will begin teaching at the Hunter Academy when it opens."
"And when is 'shortly'?"
I glanced at my mother.
"The first session is planned for the first of September. In the meantime, we can exchange manuals. Summer has compiled a manual covering the Grimm and how to fight them, in return for your manual on the spiritual combat arts."
"A tempting offer. But five Inquisitors..."
Angelina shook her head.
"Isn't that rather few?"
"I'm afraid we cannot offer more."
Now it was my turn to shake my head, doing my best to convey something resembling regret.
"You must understand, she is one person, and we need to train ordinary citizens, people sent by the Queen, Unspeakables, and those groups are mixed because every country wants at least one individual who can then pass on the skills and knowledge to others. I could go on at length, but the bottom line is that she simply will not have time for a larger number of students."
"Then what are we to do?"
"Wait, and identify another five to ten reasonable Inquisitors. The full course Summer teaches will take no more than a month. In that time she will unlock Aura in her students, teach them the minimum they need to use it, and that is all."
"That's all?"
"Well, setting aside the knowledge about the Grimm, yes. The thing is, according to Summer herself, Aura is primarily suited to defense and personal enhancement, and that is largely where it ends. It is extremely rare to find someone who can apply it to any active techniques. She cannot do so herself, which means she cannot teach it. There is also something called a Semblance, but that manifests on its own after Aura is unlocked, or it doesn't, and it is even more individual than Aura itself. Only constant training and sparring will develop it. The one thing she has promised to do, working with the Unspeakables, is to build a device that can measure Aura volume."
"What for?"
"As she put it, in her world the Academies conduct sparring bouts until Aura drops to ten percent. They call this the red zone, a threshold below which you shouldn't let it fall in ordinary sparring. But she will explain all of that better herself, in the sessions."
"I... very well."
Angelina gave a slow nod.
"Let us do it this way. We send you our manuals, and in return you send us the manual on Aura. Then, by the first of September, you will have prepared premises where the spiritual combat arts can be practiced, and we will send both instructors and students."
"Agreed."
I rose from my seat and, after a brief hesitation, extended my hand to the young woman. Every muscle in my body was coiled tight, my magical energy driven through my limbs, I was ready to throw myself aside, to strike with one of my spare wands, with the knife, or simply to go for her throat with my teeth.
Very slowly, and with an expression that made it clear she could hardly believe this was happening, Angelina rose and extended her hand in return. She was clearly braced for some kind of reaction from me and equally ready to retaliate, but...
When her hand met mine, I did something I had not expected of myself. I turned our hands slightly and, bowing, pressed my lips to the air just above her knuckles.
"Ahem."
She didn't snatch her hand away, though for a moment I thought she might. She waited until I released it, and then withdrew it calmly.
"I am glad we have reached a mutually beneficial agreement."
"A common enemy compels it."
I shrugged.
"Agreed."
"Shall I see you out?"
"Only as far as the front door..."
The moment I opened the door, I used my free hand, hidden from our guests, to signal to Bella, hoping she would understand that she needed to send a Patronus to those stationed outside, telling them to disperse as quickly as possible.
"So then..."
Angelina decided to fill the brief walk with conversation.
"...what was it that drove someone so young to take on something so thankless, accepting responsibility for the lives of the people around him?"
"Well, I haven't accepted it yet, strictly speaking."
I shook my head.
"I am still only preparing to."
"Preparing? Everything around us rather suggests otherwise."
"That is precisely what preparation looks like. We don't yet know whether our wards will hold through the Convergence. We expect them to, and we've calculated that they should prevent small rifts from opening within the district's boundaries."
I fell silent for a moment.
"You mean you don't know what will happen when the final stage of the Convergence arrives?"
"Precisely."
I nodded.
"Which is why everyone who comes here receives some degree of combat training. Even just the basics, even simply learning to fire a pistol."
I sighed.
"And we tell them all. No one knows how the Convergence will end. I am only doing everything within my financial means to keep at least some people safe. No more, no less."
"You are already doing more than most. But what drove you to it in the first place?"
The thing to understand is that a title of Lord means not only privileges but also responsibility. The Queen has not formally confirmed the titles of the ancient magical families for a very long time. Many of those families have faded, having forgotten that a title carries obligations alongside its privileges. But the important thing is that the title was never revoked, and I know that the responsibility it carries rests on me.
"Ah... if only all wizards were like that. Perhaps there would never have been a witch hunt."
Angelina shook her head.
"There would have been regardless. In those days, it had nothing to do with the noble families. They caused trouble, yes, but they always cleaned up after themselves. It was the new generations, those born with magic outside the old families..."
I shook my head.
"...they were the ones who most often ran wild. Power and ability went to their heads, and they went out to settle scores with those who had wronged them, or simply to take what they wanted."
"Perhaps."
She sighed. By then we had reached the door.
"Goodbye."
I opened the door and took my leave of her.
"Until we meet again."
She said her farewell and stepped out onto the perfectly ordinary street, then set off towards the district exit with her bodyguards. It was fortunate, at least, that the residents we had gathered here were reasonably level-headed, none of them made a move against three people openly walking through with the visible markings of Inquisitors.
"Bloody hell."
The moment the door closed, I slid straight down the wall and sat on the floor.
"Not perfect, but well done."
Bella gave me an approving nod and ruffled my hair.
"You didn't yield. You secured reasonably equal terms for the exchange of knowledge. Well done."
"I agree."
Cissy nodded. It was plain to see that my mothers had been worried too.
"Right."
Using the wall for support, I hauled myself to my feet and conjured a Patronus, which I sent to Fleur and Penny, simply to reassure them that they could leave the room, that the danger had passed, and to promise to explain everything shortly.
"I'm going to get changed and wash. I rather overdid it with the nerves."
"Of course."
With that, my mothers and I went our separate ways, and within a few minutes I was lying in a warm bath that had been infused with several potions, blissfully doing nothing at all.
Right up until a small towel came flying through the bathroom doorway and landed directly in my face.
"Cover yourself."
I recognized Fleur's voice and, with a mournful sigh, lifted the towel and tied it around my waist.
"Girls, there's really no need."
"There is."
A moment later, Fleur and Penny slipped into the water on the opposite side of the small pool that I habitually called a bath.
And a couple of seconds after that,
"Yaaahoo!"
Gabrielle launched herself into the pool. I barely managed to close my eyes in time as I heard her bare feet slapping across the floor toward me.
"Gabrielle, what on earth are you doing?!"
"What? What's the big deal?!"
"What's the big deal?! Go and cover yourself this instant!"
"Hmph, hmph, hmph..."
The sisters' argument continued while I sat there with my eyes firmly shut, listening to their squabble.
"You've completely lost all sense of decency!"
"Oh, come on, I only—"
"You only! He is my fiancé! And even I came in here wrapped in two towels! And you?! What were you thinking?! Not only did you soak the entire bathroom floor when you jumped in, but you came in with nothing on! Thank goodness Draco is a decent and perceptive young man and closed his eyes the moment he heard you running."
"He didn't see me jump in?!"
Gabrielle's voice was pure wounded pride.
"If he had, your father would have twisted his head off."
Penny decided to join the conversation.
"And yes, Gabrielle, go and get a towel and cover up. We did not come here to seduce him, for the record, he's already ours. We came to find out what all the commotion was about."
"Hmph, hmph, hmph..."
But despite her grumbling, from the sound of it, Gabrielle climbed out of the pool and came back a moment later.
"There, much better."
Fleur's voice was now satisfied.
"Where do you think you're going?!"
Oh, no, I was wrong. She was in righteous fury now. I could have sworn the water temperature rose a degree or two as she instinctively began channeling heat, not through Fireballs but simply by releasing the fire magic of her second nature.
"Ow, ow! Fleur, you're going to shift!"
"I'll shift you in a minute! Where are you going, you shameless little...?!"
"Me?!"
"It is not becoming for a young lady to sit pressed against a boy in the same bath. You'll never find a fiancé of your own if you carry on like this."
"But I already have a big brother..."
Gabrielle spoke in a tone of complete bewilderment.
I could only sigh.
"Draco, you can open your eyes. Gabrielle is covered now."
"No, she is not!"
Fleur shrieked. I simply smirked and opened my eyes, looking first at the two sisters, who were standing in the pool clearly on the verge of open warfare, then at Penny, then specifically at Fleur.
Though even as I looked at her and Gabrielle, I noticed that the lines of Fleur's face had begun to blur at the edges, and she was very close to shifting.
"Fleur, you don't have to feel awkward. I've already seen your other form, and it doesn't repel me in the slightest. You are admittedly somewhat less distracting in it than you are as a rather striking blonde, but..."
I shook my head.
"You're awful."
But despite the disapproval in her voice, her eyes told a different story: my words had clearly pleased her, and she was starting to calm down.
"Right, you..."
Gabrielle stood firmly between Fleur and Penny.
"Sit there. And you..."
Fleur directed a pointed look at me as she settled down beside her sister.
"...what in the world was all of that? Who were all those people surrounding the house, and who were those armored warriors who just left?"
"Do you really know your history so poorly?"
"Apparently not."
She shook her head.
"But no. No, tell me I was imagining things. Those weren't actually Inquisitors."
"They were."
I nodded and began telling the girls what had been negotiated.
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