A Story of a Short Ending | T.R

Chapter 21 - The Triptych III

Dxrk ダーク - RAVE

The third and final day of training wasn't quite what the women in the Manor were predicting, physical fight and healing alongside the mastery of potions made sense from a practical point of view, so when they all were summoned to the library their confusion only grew. Were they going to have to read books on some skills the Dark Lord assumed they didn't possess? That would be quite a humiliating hit to one's ego as the Death Eaters were also present.

The women took their seats, some on the fashionably vintage sofa, some in the armchairs and some preferred to stand on their feet. The library was silent, even the fire was put out to either let them focus on the more important matters or because the summer day was already warm enough, which was quite a rarity in their country. A table was put in front of their seats, a wide piece of parchment stretching from one corner to the other, seemingly something to be filled out during their day as it was now fully empty.

To the disappointment of most Malfoy was standing by that same table, leaning his hip on it with arms crossed on his chest as he waited for those arriving to settle down. Avery walked inside the room hand in hand with Dirca and that for some reason didn't sit right with Abraxas as he watched his fellow Death Eater make his way to his side after leading his wife to sit down on a sofa next to Angeline and Emily.

"We can start," Avery half whispered to Abraxas who watched him with an expression of displeasure. How dare he spend more time with his wife than being devoted to their tasks? That's something Malfoy would never understand.

Abraxas turned to face those present in the library, giving one long and somewhat displeased look to those watching him and Avery, deciding it was time to begin. After all the sooner they start, the sooner they finish.

"You learned how to fight, what to do when someone is down and all those poisons and kicks and punches. It all is great ... but useless," Abraxas looked over those in front of him, the confused looks being returned in his direction as he didn't yet make sense to any of them, "It is all useless unless you know when, how and for what reason apply all those skills you learned in those two days. When, how and what for are the key questions that all fall under the category of strategy. Exactly what you are going to learn today."

If silence could get even more silent, this library and its audience would be the perfect example of that. Dirca exchanged glances with Angeline who had a questioning look on her face, the topic of the day was surely chosen very specifically. Was their work in such a dangerous setting that they needed to learn strategic planning? It was something army commanders were educated on, not those who served a wizard with a Merlin complex. Or so they thought.

That marked the start of another full learning day that many of them surprisingly found useful. Who would've thought waving wands around with no particular order might not be the best thing to do if an attack does happen? Physical exercises and the ability to fight an opponent are important and everyone present understood that the more they knew the better their chances of winning, but they couldn't allow themselves to make mistakes when their lives were at stake.

They weren't born yesterday and surely knew various things about combat physical or magical, but they were people who were yanked out of their usual daily lives and dragged into a Manor with those they remotely knew or barely remembered from their studies in Hogwarts years ago. The realisation of what the situation meant was heavy for each one of them and they had to come to it sooner than later.

Most of them hadn't seen Avery speak as much in one time as he did that day, his strategic mind was one of a kind and he was in place to tell them what he knew if that gave them at least a slightly better chance of positively executing missions and tasks they surely were going to get soon. Safe to say Malfoy didn't share the same desire for teaching and when a house elf appeared to tell him about some mail that arrived personally for him, he took the opportunity to excuse himself. Everyone knew he had no intention of coming back, so Rosier took it upon himself to take his place and help out Avery with what was planned for the day.