章節 125: The End of Nidavellir
The cloak didn't understand words; it lived in a world of impressions, feelings and images. From what Oleandra understood, it had no society, language or values. Its home world was plunged in eternal darkness, where it was pleasantly warm and humid. It liked to feed on live flesh and to slowly smother its prey, in order to drink in its fear. It disliked bright things and happy emotions.
This particular cloak had been bred in captivity and assigned a Dusk Elf. Elf magic bound them together for life, but it was willing to accept a replacement partner in case its former partner left it. The magical contract was still in place, but it could be overwritten if the cloak was separated from its partner, in which case it only needed a drop of blood from its new partner.
Under the effects of Oleandra's spell, there could be no lies, deceit or omissions, which meant that what it had said was worthy of trust. Oleandra was already covered in wounds, so she simply grabbed the cloak and rubbed it against one of the worst ones. And just like that, the contract was sealed. The cloak belonged to Oleandra, now.
"By the way," Oleandra asked it as she put it on. "What even are you?"
The cloak regurgitated a memory of the Dusk Elves calling its species Lethifold. Oleandra was surprised; the fact that her translation earrings translated the name into English meant that this creature existed on Earth as well. Perhaps, just like House-Elves had been imported to Earth from Alfheim by the conquering Asgardians, the Dusk Elves had left some of the creatures behind on an expedition long ago?
As soon as Oleandra wore the Lethifold, she felt their minds connect. From now on, through thick and thin, they'd be together. Surprisingly, its consciousness retreated into a dark corner of her mind; it wouldn't alter Oleandra's behaviour in any way, unlike the Helm of Awe, which was dark magic.
Oleandra didn't know the first thing about Lethifolds, but on Earth, they were classified as dark creatures with a Quintuple X danger rating by the various Ministries of Magic for being notorious Wizard Killers, as well as being supposedly impossible to domesticate.
However, everything was relative: Hagrid had successfully managed to raise three types of Quintuple X danger rating creatures: two Acromantulas, at least one Manticore and very briefly, a Dragon. (It was debatable whether or not Norbert(a) had accepted Hagrid).
The term dark creature was also a question of perspective: to a human, eating another human would be evil, but to an Acromantula, it would be as a natural as eating a mouse. The Lethifold wasn't evil, and thus it wouldn't affect Oleandra's mind negatively, other than making her rather partial to steak tartare.
"You need a name," Oleandra decided. "I'm going to call you… Cape. No? Suit? What about Cloak?"
Oleandra felt its approval. The Lethifold had become an extension of Oleandra's body; just as one didn't need to think in order to move their limbs, so had the use of Cloak become natural to her. Instinctively, she knew all of its capabilities: it could allow her to fly at low altitudes, it could change shape, and it was impervious to nearly all magic.
And so, with Cloak covering her, she took flight. Lethifolds really only had one singular weakness: being subjected to a full-power Patronus Charm. It offended their senses and made them go crazy, which is why the Dusk Elves had lost control over their Lethifolds when Oleandra had attacked them, thinking they were Dementors.
To avoid being confused for a Dementor and being subjected to the same fate as the Dusk Elves she had killed, she made her Lethifold change into a cape. After all, nobody would attack a human with the Patronus Charm; it was simply pointless to do so.
Oleandra had now attained the perfect balance between practicality and defence: her battle dress left her back and shoulders exposed, but add a cape to the outfit, and they were now covered. Even better, Oleandra could still easily tap her shoulders and back to activate magical tattoos by reaching under the cape!
Wearing her Lethifold, Oleandra streaked across the sky, doing a few loopings. After doing some limit testing, she found that her speed was inferior to both Nimbus 2000 and 2001, about the speed of a Comet 290 broomstick. However, flying manoeuvrability was leagues above even the best racing brooms on the market!
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After an eight-hour flight, Oleandra finally reached the dwarven city. Now, she just had to find Ginny and tear her a new one. The first part turned out to be easy, as Ginny flew up to her by herself, but the second proved to be more difficult.
"What took you so bloody long?" Oleandra hissed at her. "You said it wouldn't even take an instant. I got captured by some bloody Elves while I was distracted, keeping the gate open for you!"
"In my defence," Ginny argued, "I made the Invisibility Booster 2.0 works really well. The car resists most attempts at detection in stealth mode. Do you know hard it is to find the keyhole on an invisible car?"
"Why couldn't you just shrink it first and then turn it visible later?" Oleandra asked angrily.
"When the car's running, its magical defences are up," Ginny explained. "Which means I couldn't shrink it right away. Look, I'm sorry, okay?"
Ginny really was genuinely sorry. After all, she'd been the one to curse Stacey in the first place, after learning of her existence in Oleandra's memories when she'd still been in her diary form. She was the one who had discreetly got her the job at the Three Broomsticks by using the Imperius Curse during the summer. This had all been groundwork to show herself off to Oleandra, to get invited on the trip to another world.
She had also been planning to kill Stacey while in the other world; as a Slytherin and as the girl's friend, Oleandra would have had been the one to take the blame for the Muggle girl's disappearance. Of course, she wouldn't have had been charged due to lack of evidence, but she would have had to live with the stigma of a murderer, and Ginny, the righteous Gryffindor, would have had been the only one on her side, just the two of them against the world…
Oleandra would have had been putty in her hands, easily manipulated, but unfortunately, Stacey had left Nidavellir before Ginny got the chance to eliminate her. And then, Oleandra had got herself kidnapped! Ginny had been preparing to come rescue her and become her knight in shining armour, but Oleandra had managed to unkidnap herself on her own, which made Ginny look really bad.
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