A Peck of Owls (Adara)

[Artemisios Snow]

Things were not looking well. Artemisios sat in the heavy chair behind his desk, dark eyes brooding, his only comfort the rumbling purr of the cat laid across one arm. He stroked it absently as he thought over the undesireable events which had been reported to him.

There was little further information on Sota. He had remained in his shop, for the most part, leaving only to attend to unremarkable personal business. However, it was not Sota, but his guests who were worrisome. They had carried with them the quill he had been using to track his daughter's presence in the school.

Until that day, he had believed it in her possession, but the boys...not only had they had the quill, but they had been seen entering the jewellery shop and had not been seen leaving. There were few reasonable conclusions to come to other than that the boys were somehow communicating between his daughter and that insolent junge.

He had sent Cleo to speak with Adara, but had heard nothing from her, and so his patience, already worn thin, had broken. He had sent Adara an owl summoning her to see him. There had been no pretense of politesse, only the simplicity of his demand.

[Adara Snow]

Adara had received the summons and knew it immediately for what it was. It was no request, but a demand, and it has sent a wave of fear throughout her body. She could not forget the things that she had learned beside the lake the day that she had met Michael's friend Dare. And so Adara, for the first time in her life for as far back as her memory stretched, did not obey.

An owl came in her stead, a sturdy barn owl which belonged to the school, with a short roll of parchment tied to its leg, wrapped in a length of ribbon. I cannot come, Father, it said simply, Adara's name signed in a flourish beneath.

[Artemisios Snow]

Artemisios had prickled with a sense of premonition at the appearance of the owl. He released the cat, which streaked off across the office, slipping out through the partially-opened door. Artemisios gathered the letter and allowed the owl to leave him in privacy before untying the parchment and smoothing it against his desk.

As he read, his nostrils flared, and his jaw tightened so that, if his mind had not been so completely focused, his teeth would have ached. All at once he swore, loudly enough that the sound was followed by footsteps in the shop and the tentative opening of his office door. "Leave me!" Artemisios shouted in harsh German. "I will deal with my daughter on my own!"

His associate nodded, then retreated, pulling the door shut behind him even as Artemisios reached for a clean sheet of parchment and penned his reply. You will come to me immediately. The consequences otherwise will be severe. When was the last time he had needed to resort to such words for his daughter? It was infuriating. Artemisios sent off his reply and stood at the window, waiting for the return.

[Adara Snow]

Again, terror had lanced through Adara, but again, she sent only an owl. She trusted the Headmistress implicitly, trusted that her safeguards were indeed in place, and that Emilian could not be harmed. She put all her faith and hope in that one promise, because without it, she was making the most terrible mistake of her life. Her return owl said only, I will not come.

[Artemisios Snow]

When Artemisios read those simple words, fury overcame him. "Will not!" he exclaimed. "Insolent, ungrateful child!" There had been not one word of respect in her brief note, only a blatant refusal he had never before seen in her, and he knew the change was complete, the damage done. Artemisios was not a man of inaction. He wrote another owl in tight, cramped letters and sent it off, then called his associate in and barked his orders. "Bring him to me!" he finished. The owl he had sent read: You will not have time to send word to the boy. It is already too late. Come, and I may spare him.

[Adara Snow]

If Adara had been frightened before, she was terrified now. It is already too late. Come, and I may spare him. What did it mean? Had the Headmistress's spells failed? Or had Emilian left the safety of his shop? Adara's hands had wrung together for the longest time before she had composed another note, praying all the while that she had made the right decision. I will not come.

[Artemisios Snow]

Her note was no surprise this time. The others lay on his desk, but this one was torn in two, then in two again before being tossed onto the flames crackling in the fireplace. "So be it," Artemisios said to himself. If she had forgotten her lessons, then she would learn them again. And for her insolence, she would pay doubly.

Artemisios clasped his hands behind his back as he stood before the windows again. Adara would receive no reply this time. She could wait, whatever curiosity she might feel for Mr. Sota's fate unassuaged, as he proceeded.

* * * magikal05.proboards46.com/index.cgi?board=streetsofhogmeade&action=display&thread=3537&page=1

It was some short time later that the door to his office opened unannounced. The boy was escorted in by two of his associates, one each holding his arms. "Er beschloß, schwierig zu sein, Herr Snow," one said. The third man pulled the door shut behind them and stood guard on the other side.

Artemisios turned from the window, his face set, dark eyes cold with simmering fury. "Ich erwartete nichts weniger," he said to his associates. "Befreien sie ihn." The men released the boy, but did not step back from him, waiting for further orders. "Please, sit," Artemisios said to the boy. "We have much to discuss."


(((Translations, for the interested: He chose to be difficult, Mr. Snow.
I expected nothing less. Release him.)))

[Emilian Sota]

Emilian shook out his arms, glaring at each of the two men in turn, before turning his eyes to the man in front of him. He didn't particularly like the idea of sitting down, he wouldn't be able to move and, in such a position, he wanted to be able to move, needed to be able to move. "I think we can discuss just as much standing as sitting," he said, hoping for at least that much comfort, though he knew it was doubtful that the man would let him.

[Artemisios Snow]

"We are civilized men," Artemisios said. "We will sit." He gave a sharp look to one of his men and both of them, still at the boy's sides, pressed him into one of the chairs, then stood sentinel again. Artemisios waited for the boy to be seated, watching dispassionately, then took his own seat in the large chair behind the desk. He folded his hands atop the blotter and fixed his dark gaze on Sota's. "If you are ready to begin," he said, then proceeded without awaiting a reply. "It seems that some undesirable influence has infected my daughter's mind." Artemisios pushed Adara's letters across the desk toward Emilian. "What do you know of this?" Artemisios watched the boy carefully for any reaction.

[Emilian Sota]

Emilian sat tense as he listened, his hands folded tightly in his lap. "I don't know of any undesirable influences on Adara," he said, not sparing a glance for the papers. It was honest, he didn't think of himself as an undesirable influence, though he knew that that was what the man was fishing for. "Well, there is one, but you probably don't want to hear that," he added as an afterthought, his eyes narrowing pointedly.

[Artemisios Snow]

Artemisios did not need to raise his hand to the boy. One of his associates, poised at Sota's side, thumped the boy hard enough in the head to make a normal person dizzy. Artemisios used the next minute to rein himself in just enough to remain civilized. Still, there was tightly leashed fury in his voice when he spoke. "You will pay for your insolence, junge. Do you think that you are brought so low that there is nothing you might lose, nothing which might be taken from you? You will show respect."

[Emilian Sota]

Emilian grunted with the force of the blow and bent his head down, blinking to clear the stars from his vision, then opening his mouth as a dull throb started from the joint of his head and neck where he had tensed a moment before the hit. It took him a minute to remember how to speak to reply, and a few seconds longer to form a true response to the man. He glared up at the man through the strands of hair that had fallen over his face. "Adara is locked up in the castle and your associates," he flicked a glance up at the man that had hit him, "Are scaring away my customers, what else is there?"

[Artemisios Snow]

The older man's eyes narrowed only slightly at the reminder of his daughter's obstinacy. Then, he lowered his gaze to his desk, searching out another piece of parchment, one which he had received only this morning. He lifted it, and set it atop those which the boy had not read. "You might find that this answers your question," he offered, nothing of congenialty in his voice, only coldness. It was a letter from the Headmistress at Hogwarts.

Herr Snow

I request that you come visit me up at the school. We have several matters to discuss of vital importance.

Your sincerely

Headmistress Hells

[Emilian Sota]

Emilian reluctantly reached out to take the small stack of papers, blinking a few times to clear his vision again, wincing slightly at the low ringing in his ears. He paused at the words from the Headmistress, he knew Adara had spoken to the woman, and that Hells had agreed to help him, but he had no idea that she would go after Snow. After a moment's contemplation he flipped it to the back of the stack and red the letters from Adara, if they could be called that. He smiled, I will not come, and looked up at the man. "That's my Adara," he said, the only words he could think for the moment.

[Artemisios Snow]

Artemisios swore, a harsh sound that had both men flanking the boy shifting slightly on their feet. "You have no claim on my daughter!" Artemisios barked, pushing to his feet. He placed both hands, palms flat, against the desk and leaned forward, dark eyes blazing, shoulders heaving from the tension-filled breaths he pulled. When he spoke again, his voice was low and dangerous. "Either you are stupid, junge, or you far underestimate me. Do you not see, boy, that I have been invited into Hogwarts? Do you expect that I would leave without my daughter?"