The Serpent and The Bird

I bear it, so you don't have to.

"Where did the princess nickname come from?"

Everleigh's stealthy figure moved through the night, approaching the Rackham castle. She could hear Ranrok's loyalists out and about the terrain that surrounded the now ruins of the keeper's old home. The first location of the trial.

"I'm not sure. It feels fitting to describe you."

Ranrok had discovered the location of the first trial thanks to a journal that belonged to the same goblin that created the repository that contained the Ancient Magic, more than a hundred years ago. Their situation was more dire that she could've imagined. If Ranrok had an inside scoop of all the locations where the memories of the keepers were before she could progress with the trials, he was always going to be ten steps ahead of her.

"Tonight was... intense."

She heard the loyalists talking by the fire, while they stood on watch of the perimeters of the castle. Almost like they expected her to come. They mentioned the journal on their chatter and the only other location they knew of. Oh, that was better than she could hope for. The journal was incomplete. They only had two out of the four locations.

"Did I hurt you?"

She decided against a fight. There was too many of them protecting the castle. It was best to use the Disillusionment charm and sneak through them, like she was never there. The absence of the moon would help her disguise in the shadows.

"You didn't."

She seek the entrance of the castle, passing through the goblin camp at a slow pace, to guarantee being unseen. They kept talking, wizard-kind being the topic of their discussion and their hatred for them. Rookwood's name came up, and she stopped on her tracks. The Dark Wizard was working with Ranrok, that much was confirmed.

"Aren't you going to go out to celebrate Slytherin's victory? I thought Anne and Ominis were waiting for you in Hogsmeade."

But if the goblin's talk was indication of something, was that they had no love lost for wizards, even those that claimed to be allies. Ranrok was using Rookwood as a mean to an end: once the wizard helped him reach the repository, the goblin was going to betray him. Kill him. She almost felt pity. Almost.

"I much rather stay here."

Everleigh walked through the shadows, and finally made her way into the castle in ruins, a trace of Ancient Magic leading the way into the cavernous of the unknown. The last conversation she had with Sebastian replaying on the back of her head.

                                     ********

Well, that was bloody brilliant. She had decided to run away from him. Again. Sebastian thought they were well past that, but waking up alone, in the Undercroft, had showed him otherwise.

She hadn't given any indication of regretting their moment together, he made sure to ask about it.

Then why wasn't she there with him?