Chapter 16
Roughly a month after the acquisition of the tablets, Harry was walking to the library when he was suddenly pulled into an abandoned classroom. Before seeing who had ambushed him, he twirled his Bound Dagger into being, whirling around as he did, seeing Ron and Hermione.
“Whoa mate, it’s just us!”
“Well, it appears we have a new topic to broach.” Hermione said, in lieu of reassurances.
“And the prior topic was?”
“Well, we-“ Rona replied, gesticulating at himself and Hemione. “Had a discussion and we figure that if whatever you’re tied up with has you committing crimes, we want to know more.”
“But then you… summoned a ghostly dagger, somehow.” Hermione continued. “Which seems like something we also ought to discuss.”
Harry sighed to himself as he dispelled the blade, taking a seat at the same time.
“I knew this was coming.” He sighed. “Alright. What’s the first thing you want to know?”
“The main thing is what you’re tied up with.” Ron answered.
“That would be… I’d be playing a lot of my cards. But there would be upsides. Like being able to be honest with them.”
“I take it you wish for my council, little mortal?”
“In a word, yes.”
“If phrased correctly, it would be rather advantageous, for the both of us.”
“So that is your plan. I had hoped otherwise.”
“I had been wondering if you had deduced my intentions. One cannot deny the practicality of their positioning on the board.”
“But does it have to be them? Don’t they get a choice?”
“An Anuic influence and energy signature is vital, and of those that you know, which would be likely to follow along?”
“…Ron and Hermione. Maybe Neville if I manipulated him for a while before asking him.”
“Precisely. It’s rather more fortuitous that it happens to be a dyad.”
“Well, I guess it’s time to make a few more moves.”
“Harry? Are you ok?”
“Sorry, yeah. I was just… figuring out how to tell you guys.”
“So… what is it?”
“It’s… complicated. What do you two know about the Many-Worlds Interpretation?”
“Not much.” Hermione replied. “Just that it’s an interpretation of quantum mechanics that, if true, would mean every possible choice that has ever been presented was made in a different universe.”
“Oh, kinda like the Planar Split Theorem!” Ron exclaimed.
“The what?” Harry and Hermione asked in chorus.
“It’s an old theory about magic that Bill mentioned. Boils down to this: Magic has ambient, residual effects when cast, classified as Reality Sub-Planes. The theory says that dimensional neighbors to our world exist where different spells were cast at flux points, making different Sub-Planes, leading to different magical flora and fauna. Apparently understanding the theorem and its proof is handy for cursebreaking.”
“Huh. That is… oddly relevant.”
“So, how does this relate to your current situation?”
“It goes back to the first Blood War, and how Voldemort lost.” Harry replied giving up some points to Hermaeus Mora. “I wasn’t the one who beat him, nor was it my mum.”
“Then who was it?” Ron asked.
“My mum had some contacts in the Ministry.” Harry began, ignoring the question. “A friend named Dorcas Meadowes. She worked in the Department of Mysteries, in the Planar Room. When my mum learned that Voldemort was targeting our family because of a prophecy *I’ll be getting to that later*, she asked Dorcas for help. And received documents on rituals in return. Most of them referred to them as outdated, and unrefined. Except for one.”
“One of them was a reconstruction. Which my mum performed on Halloween. It wasn’t a person that defeated Voldemort. It was an entity that beat him. A Daedric Prince called Hermaeus Mora.”
“And a Daedric Prince is?” Hermione asked, clearly intrigued.
“And this is where my earlier question comes in. There’s a… a realm, reality, universe, dimension, or whatever you want to call it that’s… not quite parallel to ours, but close enough. It’s called the Aurbis, and it’s mostly made of three planes of existence. Mundus, or Nirn, Oblivion, and Aetherius. There’s… a lot of cosmology and cosmogony that I won’t get into, but there are sets of… beings, that are worshipped in different pantheons. The Aedra, and the Daedra. There are eight, or nine, of the Aedra, and about… seventeen of the Daedra. Both set’s respective members rule over specific domains, and I… sort of serve two of them. Hermaeus Mora, the Prince of Fate and Lord of Secrets, and Nocturnal, Lady of the Night, Mistress of Shadows, Patron of Thieves and Queen of the Nightingales.”
“That… is quite a bit to take in.”
“That’s a bloody understatement!”
“Well, that explains the shadow magic then. When were you first made aware of these… Daedric Princes?”
“You remember the Mirror of Erised?”
“Of course.”
“Lord Mora made his presence known the first time I saw it. It was through a trade that I was informed about Quirrel and the Stone.”
“Huh.” Ron said. “What about the dagger?”
“That… is more complicated.” Harry sighed. “Prior to… certain events, I was acting as the sole dimensional anchor and nexus point for our world and the Aurbis, bar extenuating circumstances. As a result, I’ve been… suffused, I suppose, with Padomaic energy, the same type that the Princes are suffused with. A side effect of that, along with acting as a nexus, is that I’m able to channel something known as magicka, which is a sort of magical energy that allows life, and magic, to flourish in the Aurbis. Thus, the Conjured dagger.”
After his explanation, a silence fell over the room. Waiting for the next question, Harry examined Ron and Hermione. They clearly believed his explanation, which was relieving. Beyond that, he couldn’t discern much of what Ron was thinking. He was rather more closed off when it came to his expressions than Hermione. Hermione, however, was clearly contemplating the idea of a form of magic that she couldn’t perform because of circumstances beyond her control.
“Are Luna and the Twins involved?” Ron asked, breaking the silence.
“They are.” Harry began. “The Twins, along with myself, are this world’s Nightingales, whereas Luna is involved with a separate Prince, Sheogorath.”
“Did the Twins get involved on purpose?”
“No, they were accidentally dragged into this mess.”
Clearly pleased with the answers he had received, he turned to Hermione, which prompted her to look Harry directly in the eyes.
“How would one go about contacting one of these beings?”
“The rite my mum used is powered by human sacrifice, so that’s out, but… there is another route.” Harry started tentatively. “The Princes that have dealings with this world are all spoken for, but… well, it’d be more complicated, and a good deal harder, but I could try and find a method of contact for the Aedra?”
“And why not one of the Princes?” Hermione asked, her tone edged with combativeness.
“The Princes are… unpredictable.” Harry replied, fiddling with the strap of one of his gloves. “Lord Mora, Lady Nocturnal… they’re more predictable, more stable, as far as that goes for the Princes. Sheogorath… the Lord of the Never-There usually just does whatever entertains him, he’s called the Mad God for a good reason. The other Princes… they’re either cruel, duplicitous and malevolent at their core, or vacillate between doing benevolent things, or plotting to absorb the life force of another plane. Bar a few other exceptions, like Sanguine or Hircine, and even then, they’re more apathetic to plotting than anything else.”
“And you think I couldn’t handle that?”
“Not at all! You have a mean streak that Boethia would revel in sharpening, if the Snape Incident last year is any indication. No, it’s just… I wouldn’t want you to serve a being that you would revile. I wouldn’t want to condemn you to that sort of fate.”
“Well, I suppose that’s a logical reason. I suppose I’ll go along with that route.” Hermione replied.
“Great!” Harry said, sighing in relief when Hermione didn’t push the point further. “I’ll get a guide to the Aedra for you and Ron sometime this week.”
“Wait, why me?”
“We can’t be leaving out one of the Guild’s co-founders, can we?” Harry asked. “That’s just bad form.”
“Guild? We aren’t a guild, are we?” Hermione asked.
“Well, it’s what we’re in the process of becoming.” Harry said. “We’re all devoted to helping further each other’s goals, we all have a similar code of ethics that we act on, have similar values, and we even gained new members in the Twins and Lovegood.”
“Huh. Guess we need a name then. What d’ya think about the… uh, what did you say that other realm was called?”
“The Aurbis.”
“How about The Aurbisal Explorers?”
“Hm, it’s missing a little something.”
“Yeah, you’re right.”
“The Order of Aurbisal Envoys?”
“Sounds good!”
“Now we just need an emblem…”