"Why are you trembling? Are you afraid of me?" I asked the girl whose tender little hand I took in mine while riding in the taxi. Surprisingly, the girl was extremely surprised by the sight of the automobile, though she said nothing. Don't they let them out of isolation at all?
"I'm afraid that I'm unworthy of you, sir. You took me despite my ugliness!" Heh, if only you knew that it's precisely me who's using you and this is worthy payment...
"You may not be beautiful in face, but you're beautiful inside," I repeated myself. "I'll have only one request for you — to bear and raise my child. Forgive me for asking you for something so shameful."
"No, no, I understand everything. We all heard that you might die soon. It would be an honor for me to carry a child from such a noble and kind man!" Yet despite this, you continue to fear me.
"I'm not as good as you think. But I'll help you with something else. In England, you'll have nothing to do with my offspring. Despite freedom, they'll still try to drive you back into the coven. I've decided that after conception, you'll go to France. So starting today, you'll begin learning French."
In response, I received only an incoherent squeal and attempts at embraces from the girl, which caused her veil to shift aside, and I saw the girl's true face. Well, you could put her in a freak show. I don't know what kind of magic hit her there, but she looked as if she'd been doused with hydrofluoric acid. Due to her impulse, she became embarrassed and kept herself in check from then on.
…
Already at home — or rather, in the rented apartment I'd leased on the outskirts of London — I drew a minor healing ritual in chalk. Ariel watched my actions with growing fear.
"Do you want to sacrifice me?" the girl suddenly cried. "I knew you couldn't be so good!"
"Of course, that's exactly why I bought you for three thousand galleons instead of taking a homeless person from the street," I nodded, then shouted: "Fool, I want to heal you!"
The tension of recent days was finally breaking free. "So lie down and slowly pour mana into these signs."
"Why are you undressing?" I already covered my face with my hand, thinking about who I'd taken. Maybe a homeless woman from the street really would be better?
"It's for the ritual..."
"Lie down clothed, it doesn't require nudity."
Finally, the girl lay down and poured in mana, after which the figure glowed — and this light flowed onto the girl, illuminating her contours. Magical beings instinctively understand how to control their mana, unlike mages who have to learn this.
When the light disappeared, before me appeared a girl of unprecedented beauty, even better than other veela. And yet, by what principles does veela heredity work if they all look similar to each other? Dominant genes? No, unlikely — most likely magic is involved here too. However, her improved appearance wasn't surprising, since minor healing not only heals but also rejuvenates and has a cosmetic effect.
When she looked in the bathroom mirror, she froze before it for half an hour, incredulously feeling her face and body. Meanwhile, I lay down on the ritual circle myself. I had to ask Ariel for help — after all, I'd only recently awakened my Nous and wasn't even capable of such a primitive thing as releasing mana.
After a similar flash, I felt as if I'd shed ten years. And not just in feeling — externally I'd also grown younger, my nose broken in a fight was fixed, and the scar from appendix surgery disappeared. Even birthmarks vanished from my entire body.
…
"Well, have you looked enough, beauty?" I approached the girl from behind, who was still admiring herself. She snapped out of it and literally blazed with joy — so much so that she overwhelmed the protection amulet as if it weren't there, and my mind plunged into a haze of admiration and lust.
The next morning I woke up completely broken, squeezed like a lemon, with an unpleasant pulling sensation between my legs. Scenes from last night — or rather, this morning — began appearing in my head.
Who would have thought that in this fragile seventeen-year-old girl with a sweet face hides such a sex machine? Five hours of continuous sex, and surprisingly, my Viktor Jr. didn't give up until the very end! I'm ashamed to admit it, but that night I wasn't the one in charge. Ariel took complete control, leading every moment with an intensity I never expected from someone so seemingly innocent. Now I understand why veela are so valued as lovers. Especially since thanks to empathy, they know how to give even greater pleasure.
But now, when I stroked her back and Ariel — who had proprietarily thrown her leg over me and nestled into my chest — woke up, I was looking into the eyes of a beaten kitten.
"Forgive me, sir, I don't know what came over me — my charms have never been so strong," she apologized and shrank as if expecting a blow from me.
"Enough with the 'sirs' — after all, you're the mother of my future child," and mine as well, which you don't need to know. "So call me Viktor or Vik, and about your powers — I'm to blame for not foreseeing such a side effect of your treatment."
"Vik, why didn't you say you were such a great mage?" she asked me and squirmed, but I didn't react at all — the girl had drained me completely. I wonder, don't veela have, say, succubi among their ancestors?
"What makes you think so?" I was surprised.
"You were able to rejuvenate yourself and heal me, and only great mages are capable of such things. At St. Mungo's they couldn't help me when Head Ida brought me there, because dark curses can't be healed."
"Is that so?" I'm only beginning to study modern magic and don't know what it's capable of and what it isn't. "Don't worry about it, just be glad I healed you. And in a few days, when I leave, you'll be free."
"No, don't leave! Please! Why can't you heal yourself like you healed me?" And the girl is physically stronger than an ordinary person too — my ribs nearly crunched from how she embraced me with her seemingly weak and fragile hands. A consequence of the second hypostasis? Interesting.
"Would you prefer to watch me die in agony? I can't deal with this problem — and hardly anyone can. And if someone could, they wouldn't help me. That's it, I don't want to talk about this anymore. Oh yes, if you don't stop hugging me like that, you'll see my death much sooner."
She sweetly gasped and freed me from her tenacious hands. I looked at the sheets and saw a notable red stain, the sight of which made the girl blush in embarrassment. I said nothing about it, just rolled up the sheet and threw it in the dirty laundry basket.
What am I supposed to do now, offer her my hand and heart because of taking her virginity? Ridiculous. Though it's pleasant that I'm her first.
But I wasn't deluding myself — there are different ways to satisfy a man, and considering what she did at night... However, I don't care, her aura is clean — and fine, let her have serviced a thousand men, though with the appearance she had, that's unlikely. Damn, why does this even concern me? Am I jealous? I shook my head and threw unnecessary thoughts out of my head.
…
"Today we'll go buy you clothes and other things necessary for a girl. I don't understand these things. We'll also need to go to the pharmacy in Diagon Alley and buy potions for conceiving a boy and fetal development, and it wouldn't hurt for you to become healthier too. Then we'll go through a complex of rituals like yesterday's. Just after each one, please don't lose control of yourself."
And so, with a tomato-girl, we went shopping. I also wanted to take her to the hospital for diagnostics, but if modern wizards couldn't heal such simple wounds for Sumerians, then there was no point in taking her. Only arousing suspicion with her miraculous healing, as if I need Gaunt's attention.
We were only free by evening. Money-wise, I had only two thousand galleons left. I'd earned money for ten years and spent it in less than a month. However, my intuition told me that all this wasn't in vain. And if the intuition of such a weakling as me signals problems, then it's time to order myself a coffin and a cemetery plot.
About intuition, by the way. Sumerians considered this not speculation or foolishness, but the connection of a person's subconscious with the infosphere. That is, in theory, even an ordinary person or other intelligent being with developed intuition really foresees the future or its variants, and in mages, due to greater sensitivity, quantity and strength of energies, this feeling is even stronger.
However, let's return to Ariel. This time she voluntarily and calmly underwent rituals and drank potions, trusting me completely to such a degree that it even became shameful. For a couple of seconds.
All the rituals were directed in one way or another at the girl's safety — such as flesh severance — or at her health, for example, cleansing the aura of various astral parasites or minor curses, which accumulate quite a lot in any mage who doesn't perform these things. And also for the birth of specifically a boy, because being born a girl doesn't appeal to me at all.
I didn't neglect myself either, and since the girl had more mana than me and recovered many times faster, I used her as a battery. Amazing — a seventeen-year-old girl who never practiced magic possesses such a reserve of power!
I questioned the girl about her past:
"I don't know who my father was, sir... Vik," she caught herself, remembering how I asked her to address me.
"However, in our coven it was customary to care for all children as our own, because for our people, they are the main treasure. So I didn't feel deprived, despite having only my mother, Arvina. Especially since we were all like that, because if a girl was taken in marriage, she left the coven."
"Wait, are only girls born to you?" I was frightened by the prospect of losing Viktor Jr.
"No, if our husband's or... partner's seed is strong, then either a wizard boy or a half-blood girl can be born. If the mage is much stronger than the veela, then even a quarter-blood can be born," Ariel explained to me, continuing to be embarrassed. What's wrong with you, woman — when it comes to riding me at night, that's normal, but now you're blushing?
"Wait, what's the difference between quarter-bloods and half-bloods?"
"Half-bloods can't transform into birds, and quarter-bloods lose the ability to throw magical fire. Though it's all quite complex and there are exceptions."
"Good, and if the mage's seed is weak?" As I understood, by seed she means the mage's own strength.
"Then a pure-blood veela girl is always born." Well, there you have it. So I'll be a woman? Never! I hope the potions and ritual will help avoid such a sad fate, because I have neither time to look for another way out nor almost any money left.
"By the way, where is your mother now?" I remembered she'd said something about Arvina.
"She killed that... man who disfigured me, and was sentenced to the Dementor's Kiss," she said sadly, and I simply hugged her. Even though I'm a rational bastard, even I have a sense of pity.
After all, if I understood correctly, Dementors are something like undead or demons, or both, that feed on souls. English mages are completely insane because they use them to guard their prison, feeding them those they can't destroy if necessary. One necromancer student who seizes control is enough.
However, I'd long ago decided to flee from here — one reason less, one reason more? Though I wasn't planning to "avenge" the evil mages of England who treat intelligent beings like cattle. I have neither the strength nor the desire for that. Maybe in the future, if I possess power and strength, I'll do something for the oppressed, purely to please my ego. Or maybe not — I still need to survive.
…
The next day I woke up as tired as the previous time. This time I was thanked again, but already for clothes and potions. I'm afraid if Gaunt doesn't find me, this sweet creature will torture me to death. Well, at least the death would be pleasant.
This day was the last in my plans. Tiny changes appeared in the girl's aura that I could barely see, but this means the egg is already fertilized and I can proceed to the final actions.
"Today I'll teach you two things that will be useful to you in the future," though this is the only thing I know.
"This is true sight, which allows you to look into the essence of things, and meditation — for accumulating energy from outside."
"Do you really want to teach me this?" No, damn it, I'm just mocking you.
"Yes, so listen..." I wasn't telling her about this for nothing — the stronger she becomes, the stronger her child will be, my possible vessel. I'm risking my gender, but strength and potential are worth it. In the worst case, I'll become a metamorphmagus or cast spells from biomancy on myself and become a man.
If it works out and my paranoia doesn't prove justified, I'll simply return to her — and everything will be long and happy with a beauty and son, in whom the emblem will eventually dissolve and make him stronger. And if not... then such enhancement will be useful to me too.
I also warned her not only not to teach anyone except the child my lessons, but not even to hint that she knows this, for her own safety. Otherwise they'll give her truth serum, extract information, or wash her brains, and throw her in a ditch.
After I told her the theory and practically verified that she remembered everything and was doing it correctly, we went to the French magical embassy, where for another five hundred gold we got temporary citizenship rights for Ariel and a Portkey. Lucky that veela were offered political asylum. But alas, not for free, and you still have to try to get to the embassy, because veela collars interfere with their teleportation.
…
In a small empty warehouse reeking of fish, dampness and mold, on a floor cleared of dirt and dust, surrounded by many bloody geometric lines composed of a dead language forgotten by people several thousand years ago, lay a beautiful naked girl who belonged on the covers of the most popular magazines.
Outside the figure, pressing both hands to it, sat a man whose forehead streamed with sweat, trying not to drip on the lines. He looked exhausted, his teeth grinding, his mind on the edge.
Damn, magical exhaustion is so unpleasant. I underestimated the ritual's costs and now have to rape my soul and give all incoming energy for two hours. Fortunately, the figure could extract energy without the mage's control.
And all because I underestimated the time for its passive filling and it didn't manage to gather enough ether, which I couldn't predict. No, the girl also helped me for the first hour, but she needed to recover before the beginning, because Ariel herself must be at full reserve for everything to go smoothly.
However, this is an annoying inconvenience, nothing more. The main thing is that I did everything I could, and the fact that I can become my own father is actually good. There will be fewer compatibility problems between soul and body.
When I finished, I replenished my reserve after brief meditation. Also stripping naked, I stood in the circle designated for me and looked around one last time to ensure not a single symbol was erased or smudged. Making sure everything was in order, I raised my hands and began reading the spell in the ancient language, pouring my mana into the words, subjugating reality with my will:
«Lahm Jasdium…»
«Dam min Damium …»
«Akbil Ruhvi …»
«Kuna Abnau …»
«Tusbih Li...»
The words carried, resonating with my soul and the surrounding world, surrounding free ether was drawn into the circle and disappeared into it like a bottomless barrel. Because of this, there was no need to isolate the room from etheric emanations, since all energy would be put to use.
With the last word, something like a string snapped in me and I began literally screaming in pain, writhing on the floor. Fortunately, an already launched ritual is hard to disrupt physically and requires no additional control. From me, a probe glowing in true sight seemed to tear out part of my soul with flesh. In the end, I couldn't stand it and fell into merciful oblivion.
When I came to, I felt as if the wound inflicted on my soul had been cauterized, and though I felt aching pain and loss, and an accurately cut piece was missing from my astral body, I was satisfied. After all, I felt how the emblem merged with the fertilized egg, the zygote, and the invested abyss of energy changed it, strengthening the kinship and connection between us. Not only blood kinship, but spiritual.
Removing all traces — for which I had to cement over symbols burned into the floor by magic — I carried sleeping Ariel to the rented apartment, leaving her a thousand coins, a bracelet with expanded space sealed with a code word combination, my wand, and a letter.
The bracelet contained translation sheets, and though I was risking by leaving it to her, not greatly. I buried another copy deep in an ordinary forest twenty kilometers from London — I hope I won't forget where that place is later.
…
Ariel woke up late in the morning and, seeing the empty bed and absence of Vik's clothes, cried bitterly. She didn't want to believe until the last moment that he would abandon her.
Despite a hard life full of pain and pity for herself both from others and from herself, she still dreamed that a prince would come and take her away. What joy she felt when it actually happened!
Kind, polite and... tender, he accepted her despite her ugliness. She couldn't believe it! And then he even performed a miracle, healing her wounds, both spiritual and physical.
She understood that something was wrong with the last ritual. But was it really so important if the person had essentially given her everything? Love, money, freedom, health, beauty, a chance for a better future and... a child who would remind her of him.
These were three chaotic but happiest days of her entire life, and she would do everything to fulfill Vik's last will — to raise his child. Even if he had lied to her and made it all up, it didn't matter to Ariel.
Suddenly she noticed a stack of books, a bracelet, a magic wand, and a letter under them, which she opened with trembling hands.
"Ariel, forgive me for leaving without saying goodbye — it had to be this way. Farewells wouldn't bring good feelings to either you or me. You would have tried to convince me to stay, and I would have made excuses that I couldn't.*
You're a wonderful girl, both externally and in soul, and I would like to live my entire remaining life with you. But alas, in our life it rarely happens that everything goes as we want. Maybe I'll see you in the next life and we can start everything from the beginning.
The bracelet is my gift to you and our future child — please take care of it. I'm also leaving you my magic wand — I'll buy myself a new one, textbooks for seven years of Hogwarts with additional literature, and almost all my money — it should be enough for you at first.
And don't show foolish pride — I won't come back for the money, and you'll need it, this is also my request. Practice what I taught you and be happy.
«With love, Vik.»
The girl sobbed even harder and stopped her hysteria only by lunch. She did as he wanted — she would have felt disrespect for his will if she acted otherwise.
Packing all things in a suitcase, she took the Portkey to France in her hand and said: "Portus." And a few hours later, the apartment burned to the ground for unknown reasons.
***
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