The Tale of the Black Knight: The Mark

The Silver Rings

He is still baffled to this very day of such a ludicrous possibility come true.

At times, this tangled bond business left them both in a bad way. It was to the point that the mere thought of losing her life somehow was unthinkable. He had to rid himself of numerous thoughts in order to keep his Occlumency skills at top-notch. It was difficult at times. He was able to nullify the weak spots over the years but there were moments he had to take in order to build the skill up again. He had to confess it, years ago, that this child had grown on him like a screaming mandrake. Little fawn as he would sometimes call her, was precious to him.
She was just as small and just as helpless she was since that horrible night. Now, the chance was coming in only a couple of hours. It was time for her to become what she was destined to be...

For the newly proclaimed Lyra Prince, once she knew that she had all that she had packed into her handed down travel case that happened to have been used by her Sire as well when he was just her age. His words dancing through her memory along with ones from her own mother and father, Lyra held on hard to her faith that the changes she was about to see were simply irrelevant, or they should have been. The doors were opening for her and all she needed to do was grab her courage and step through them. She was leaving soon, at any given minute actually, and it would leave her on her own for a little while, meeting new people in the next few hours.

Felix chose to perch on her back as she shut the case up, after doing multiple checks through it all to be sure that she had all that she needed for the year.

Upon going to her vanity, Lyra took a good long look into the mirror. Without a doubt, with a different name, she wondered how other magical children would take her. Her Sire was a grave man, yet the truth shared between them was as pure as fresh, spring water compared to some of the mysteries she peeked into these past few days. Especially the words of the Wandmaker...

As cryptic as they were to her, did they hold honest truth? The one who hurt both of them, she had the same core in her wand as they did, she wondered if learning more was even a wise idea with this wand. Kneeling beside her packed case, she studied the wand, worriedly. It had a sort of wavy look to it, fairly brown and it had a curious handle that almost had a flora and fauna style carvings on it. It was beautiful and so different from her Sire's that was almost as black as night, just like he, with a mass of strange Chinese writing along with the small handle. Completely, with all meaning of the word, different. Her worry over the whole ambiguity of the entire tale had blinded her to the object's appearance, that it, in a way, suited her?

It was before she could dig further in, there was a fragile knock at her door.

"Morning, LouLou," Lyra sighed without even looking.

"Master awaits for you downstairs, ma'am..." the little elf spoke from the doorway.

There was no need to wait anymore, as much as a shock it was to her, but for now, she could barely hide her excitement combined with nervousness. She could swear that a bird would be popping out of her mouth at any given second, it was so intense. The time came though when she had to face the truth that change was knocking right at her door. As soon as her travel case appeared in the hallway before the door, she happened to come down to be greeted by the tall figure who remained almost in shadow. He drew his arm out to her, solemnly inviting her to finally take her next steps. Felix hovered about the usually darkened home in this old suburban town, but there was a new air in it. After she leaves through that door, from the place Rosie grew up in so protected, to become Lyra... a future witch in this new, wild world.

Having been told that this was going to be a final moment until she would arrive safely at the great castle itself, Lyra could not help but tear up... just a little bit. The conversations, the late-night encouragements, the fresh smell of endless amount of lemongrass and soil, the home here held so many lonesome but precious memories... It felt wrong to leave it.