There is Another

The sun was beginning to rise over the horizon; Oleandra needed to finish this fast. Once the rest of the villagers had woken up, they would surely encircle her, and that would be the end of her adventures in Paimpont. And she had no doubt that tourists would then take pictures of the magical lights flying everywhere, and then it would be Azkaban for her when the British Ministry got wind of her survival…

Oleandra dashed across the lawn, each footfall kicking up showers of the morning dew that glinted prettily on each blade of grass of the mansion's huge law. Then, she cautiously entered through the mansion's side entrance. The burly woman had just entered the building from there a few seconds before her; the last thing she wanted was to step into a trap…

Oleandra couldn't see her anywhere, and she definitely had no time to stand around and admire the tasteful decorations. The gorilla woman was quite light on her feet, for a woman of her size; Oleandra had tried her best to catch her before she hid inside the mansion, but now, she could be hiding behind any corner.

!!!

Oleandra sneaked up the wooden stairs, having just heard someone walk on a loose floorboard above her. She held her sword at the ready in a two-handed grip; the woman might be able to shrug off a Thursaz, but Arondight's sharp blade was sure to leave a mark!

But instead of finding the gorilla woman as she came up the stairs, Oleandra came face to face with a small girl of no more than seven, playing with her dolls. The little girl froze in surprise; a stranger armed with a sword had just invaded her home in the small hours of the morning; and Oleandra was just as surprised to see a little girl in a mansion that had visibly been refurbished into an administrative building.

Had Oleandra still possessed a functioning wand, she would have cast a Silencing Charm on the girl before she screamed, but to her astonishment, the girl's eyes lit up with recognition upon seeing Arondight. In Oleandra's Mystic Sight, a glint appeared in the girl's eyes— a small light that then intensified into beams of torchlight, that seemed to shine a light on Oleandra's very soul: the girl had just activated her own Mystic Eyes in response to Oleandra's.

"How…?" Oleandra whispered.

Oleandra had never met a single other person who possessed Mystic Eyes in all her years at Hogwarts, so she had begun to think she was the only one. To think she would find another bearer of these eyes here, of all places…

And then, footsteps— followed by a door slamming open.

"Get away from my daughter!" a female voice shrieked.

Startled, Oleandra turned towards the voice, freeing her left hand to cast a spell if needed. The woman raised her hands above her head, looking warily at Oleandra's sharp blade. Just as Oleandra was beginning to feel like the bad guy in this situation, she heard a loud crash originating from downstairs.

"Madame!?" the gorilla woman's panicked voice shouted from downstairs. "Are you all right?"

Visibly, the gorilla woman hadn't expected anyone to be in the building this early in the morning, and from her tone, it sounded like this madame was somebody important…

Oleandra's eyes narrowed; was this the woman who had ordered her drugged and attacked in the middle of the night? But… she couldn't be their leader— while Oleandra could see that this woman possessed magic in her blood, it was turbid and stagnant: she was a Squib. A Squib couldn't make it rain Thief's Downfall over an entire town, could she?

But her daughter— she was magic; Oleandra's eyes didn't lie. Usually, a child's magic was chaotic and unpredictable, but the flow of magic through her Magic Circuits was calm; if only the slightest bit unruly.

"Tell the gorilla to stay downstairs!" Oleandra hissed at the woman.

She didn't bother threatening her with her daughter's safety; she didn't intend on attacking the child no matter what, so she was unable to verbalize her bluff. Luckily, the woman read between the lines for her.

"Julianne, don't come up!" she cried.

Oleandra continued observing the mother-daughter pair.

"You're a Squib," Oleandra said matter-of-factly. "Who's your leader? Why did you have me, of all people, attacked in the middle of the night?"

"Typical Wizarding arrogance," the Madame sniffed. "Just because I cannot use magic, you assume I am incapable? I am the leader. And as for why my subordinates entered combat with you, I do not know, as they are not here to explain any of this to me. But they clearly failed to neutralize you; since you are here, and they are not."

Upon seeing Oleandra's darkening expression, she quickly added, "the Thief's Rainfall triggered when you entered our village; it only happens when magic wielders that are unaffiliated with us come into town. That is why we took action against you."

She was telling the truth.

"I'm amazed tourists still come here if you kill them all when it rains," said Oleandra sarcastically. "Someone incredibly powerful must have been the one to make it rain Thief's Downfall when I arrived— are you trying to tell me that person's not leading your little group?"

The woman nodded, but Oleandra wanted to know for certain if a Dumbledore-level threat was coming her way in the very near future.

"Yes or no," Oleandra snapped.

"Yes," the woman responded.

She was still telling the truth.

"What is all this?" Oleandra asked, gesticulating with her free hand. "The magically enhanced Muggles; the way they're trained to fight Wizards. Do you all have some sort of grudge against the Wizarding World? Why try to kill me?"

The woman kept her mouth tightly shut.

"I won't ask again," Oleandra said menacingly.

"Military strength is required to achieve anything of note," the woman said arrogantly. "But you are wrong about a few things; we do not hate Wizardkind, nor did we try to have you killed. We count multiple Wizards and Witches among our group."

"I was shot," Oleandra said, twisting her head so that the woman could see the bloody cut on her cheek.

"Our operatives are well trained," the woman said. "At no point would Enora have attempted a killing shot. As for why you fought to begin with, I simply do not know. You should have slept throughout the entire process of our investigation: you would have been brought before one of our Wizards to have your memories examined, and then you would have been released. We've done it many times before without issues."

She was telling the truth.

The only reason why Oleandra had woken up from her drug-induced sleep in the first place was because of her runic spell alerting her to intruders. And then, the three Muggle operatives had underestimated her due to her young age, and the fact that she did not have a wand; their training had probably taught them that Wizards were harmless when disarmed. Oleandra had then taken them by surprise by fighting back, and thus they had responded with equal force. Even then, their markswoman had taken care not to shoot her in the head when she had the chance.

"Why have my memories examined?" Oleandra then asked. "What is it that you're trying to achieve here, with all of this?"

But before the woman could answer, the door she had come from creaked open; and a young girl poked her head through the doorway.

"Mother, what's going on?" she asked, rubbing her eyes tiredly. "Why's everyone shouting?"

Oleandra's eyes widened: the little girl with the Mystic Eyes had an identical twin.