Evelyn Potter and the Army of Shadows

Chapter One - The Meeting in the Woods

He walked through the forest with the child in his arms and a wand in his robes. Out of the haze he came, bearing a trimmed beard and brown shaggy hair that stuck out from the base of his tipped, pointed hat. His name was Edimus, and every time the ground crackled beneath his dark boot, the fog dispersed around his heel, as if the mist that shrouded the wood was terrified by his very touch. The girl he was carrying was just past her first decade of youth, and her jet black hair swung as the sorcerer marched on and on through the lonely green thicket, in search of the perfect place to put her.

When he was sure he was deep enough into the trees, Edimus let go of the girl's body. Instead of falling, she slowly sank down to the ground, until she gently came to rest beside a bed of mandrake roots.

The screaming will be enough to wake her, he thought. When they sprout, that is.

Now standing upright once again, the sorcerer removed his wand from the confinements of his black attire-as black as the coming night-with a silent flourish.

"What are you doing, Edimus?" came a voice from the shadows. From behind a tree, a wizard emerged, dressed quite similarly to the man he was addressing. His eyes were a light chestnut color, glinting calmly but questioningly at Edimus's dull gray. Their hair, however, was exactly alike.

"I could ask you the same thing, Aximus," replied the sorcerer. "Following me, are you? Did Mother send you?"

A smile snuck itself to the sides of the newcomer's face. It wasn't a happy smile, but a bitter one.

"Like you, I have not spoken with her in years, Edimus. You know that." His eyes came to rest on the girl, lying unconscious among the twigs and leaves. A raven cawed from above, and landed on the limb of a nearby tree. The two brothers gazed at one another in its presence, until Aximus finally drew his own wand from his robes. He raised it, and there was a flash of bright green light as the bird dropped to the ground.

"His watchers are everywhere, Edimus," whispered the wizard, glancing at the deceased creature. "You must understand how dangerous this is."

"I do," replied Edimus. "I understand many things, Brother. Some things...more so than you, yourself." With his wand, he gestured to the one lying between them. The girl's breathing was slow and steady. She was at peace, but it wouldn't stay that way for long."And that is why I must deliver the girl tonight. I don't expect you to recognize...the weight of what I am-"

"Do not patronize me-Brother. Let us not forget, it was I who made you a part of all this. It was I who prompted the Mistress to accept you. My mistake, clearly. You couldn't get out when you had the chance, you were weak. I left because it was right, but you....You found all the wrong reasons to stay. Still, if anyone, I blame myself."

Edimus' eyes lit up at the richness of his brother's ejection. "Do I detect your envy, Aximus? Surely, I would know. This wouldn't be the first time you've found yourself at odds with my own success. I pity you, Brother, truly."

Aximus laid his hand on the tree and leaned in a bit, whispering, "Then you pity yourself, by default. Everything you are...you are here because of me."

Edimus regarded his brother calculatingly. "And why are you here, tonight, Aximus? To hinder me? To try?"

His brother sneered.

"You know why I can never do that. The vow still holds. Nineteen years, it has been," Aximus then declared, "and I still fear for you, but I cannot touch you. Please, Brother, there is still time. We can find another way to end this together, without taking her life away from her. She will be an outcast to them. And the Potters! Merlin's beard, the Potters, what of them?"