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Hawthorne Manor
–Damian Hawthorne–
Holding onto a gift basket of sorts, he flew on top of a vast range of forest, hidden from the normal population, even from the overhead satellites, by some clever magic that the ICW managed to uncover that could interface easily with technology, without slowly destroying the tech in the process.
It was all hidden under multiple levels of secrecy with no single person being totally aware of how it properly worked, but as far as he could tell, they did not have a hold over every single satellite launch in the world, which would be basically impossible since the things that could look down from high up in the atmosphere were not just satellites.
People had hooked up cameras to hot air balloons and just let them loose in the air, waiting for them to pop and the cameras to come falling down, secured in extremely tough housing, allowing the camera to be destroyed but the memory to be secured. Try as they might, the secret would have come out anyway.
Since they could not control what went up, they controlled what they could see from that far up. Designated magical zones that the Ministry hid using a clever combination of rituals, charms, and some unique relics they found in the Ancient Ruins, allowing them to stop a place from being seen, recorded or even heard by non magical people.
As one might expect, it was an extremely powerful tool, one that could easily upend the balance of powers between nations, and yet, nothing of that sort happened even when the relic was in ICW's custody.
It kind of gave credence to his theory of the Ancient One being the magical ringleader, the one who pulled all the right strings in the background to make sure that the magical world did not set fire to the planet.
Shaking his head, he dismissed the thoughts that would have every single conspiracy theorist on the planet pissing his pants, either in excitement or fear, and focused on the valley that came into view. It looked natural, but it was evident that parts of it had been cleared using magic to create such a smooth structure, a hole in the ground really.
He spotted the butler on the ground, waiting for him as he slowly floated down, making sure that the gift basket made it past the detection wards without lighting up every single alarm on the property. His limited understanding of them made him coat the basket in his magic, and since he was one of the authorised users, the wards let him in without any fuss at all.
The ward structure was top tier as well, structure without much clutter, which was common with almost all old wards he had seen so far, with new features and security measures added haphazardly without thinking of synergising with any previous feature, adding unnecessary load on the ward matrix.
In contrast, this one was old as well but someone skilled had clearly been the one to work on it, using synergistic wards to not just increase their potency but also reduce energy usage when most of the high tier energy defenses were offline. They also had enough oomph behind them that even he would have trouble without resorting to his more AoE moves that resulted in just a devastated landscape all around him.
He really needed a targeted weapons system, but the ones he had worked most of the time and the time they did not work meant he needed something really powerful, and in that case, the extreme kinetic explosion worked really well. He hadn't really encountered something in the middle of all that, but he refused to be someone who would be caught with their pants down, like the disintegration curse of Wakanda, which is why he needed to build something for that as well.
Mentally noting that, he finally touched down in front of Arthur, the butler of the Hawthorne family, someone who had supposedly served the family for generations, being almost a century and a half in terms of age. In his book, that was borderline elder abuse, even if said elder consented to the work and was being paid handsomely, but then again, when magic came into play, almost all conventional trends could be thrown out the window.
"Master Damian, welcome. Everyone is waiting for you," He nodded at Arthur, not knowing what to say to the person who had likely seen him grow from a child to a slightly bigger child when he disappeared.
The man was lean, wiry and tall, over 6 feet easy, and yet, the man didn't need to crane his neck to look him in the eye, despite him being only eleven years old. Man, he was going to be the odd one out based on just his height, let alone his magic and other extracurricular activities.
"May I?" Before he could step into the house though, Arthur stopped him, gesturing at the gift basket that was totally covered, and also magically expanded from the inside. "It's spatially expanded," he warned the man before handing it over. Arthur nodded and moved to place it to the side as he kept watch over it, just in case the wards rejected it, aggressively.
There was nothing really dangerous inside it, but the wards in this place were designed to keep any unauthorised magical relic out of the property that was not covered in the family's magic or kept on their person.
The differentiation feature in the wards was exceptionally smooth and accurate, capable of reading not just the distance between the magical relic and the people but also their magic and body languages. Based upon that data, it might potentially decide if the relic was being brought into the house willingly or not.
As he said, an exceptionally skilled person worked on this ward scheme. Even now, the more time he spent in this place, the more he(and the Hawthornes) let his magic poke and prod at the ward all around him, the more he learned and the curiouser it made him about the one who did all of this.
They must be really famous, but all the really good ward breakers(and builders) were either under the direct employ of the Gnomes, Dwarves, and the Goblins or working for their respective governments. It was really difficult to get any free lancing ward breaker who could do work like this.
He was an outlier because of his gifts, and even then, he would love to exchange notes with someone who could build such an efficient and frankly beautiful ward system. He could not really admire it the first time he came here, but this time the skill of the creator was clear to him.
"Master Damian, shall we?" Arthur asked him as he nodded and together, they entered the dining room. In stark contrast to the last session, the only ones in attendance this time were William, Richard, and Thomas, the one who used the magical artifact to determine that he was Damian and also not. His departure was rather abrupt as well so he had a hunch that it might be related to that.
A bad feeling emerged in his heart as he steeled his heart and sat down, ready for any trap they might spring on him. He had expected to meet the sisters only since they were really going to go out of their homes and maybe William, since he was the only sibling who worked in the country.
Thomas being here, based on their little interaction, could only mean something had happened in regards to that artifact that he used to ascertain his identity. It was likely something related to the Ancient Ruins and the relics within.
"Damian, nice to see you," William greeted him with a sincere smile on his face. He smiled back as he looked at Thomas, who was looking at him with a critical gaze. Whatever, it was not like he really cared about them if this whole thing blew up.
He would just have to take some drastic steps to ensure their silence. Aside from that, he had nothing to lose and they had everything to lose, though perhaps they don't know the real extent of the damage they would be inflicting on themselves if they tried to pull something on him at the last moment.
"I apologize." He blinked as a voice cut through the tense atmosphere that had been building up, "For my rude statements the last time we met. I am sure your survival did not come without cost, and it was not my place to comment on the circumstances."
Looking at Thomas, whose face was carefully neutral and he could feel that the words were not totally sincere, but he still took it in stride, even though he could practically see the words that were written on a paper and given to Thomas to memorise for this occasion, "I accept your apology."
Thomas' eyes narrowed at him, as Richard spoke before Thomas could, "Excellent! We are really sorry for that, Damian. I hope you don't hold that against us. Also, the girls and their mother are out today so it's just the three of us. Arthus, set the plates, please."
"At once, Master Richard." He blinked as a veritable tapestry of magic unfolded in front of him, as plates practically danced, glasses tinkled, and napkins wrapped themselves in origami shape as the table was set within moments.
The rest of the dinner was spent in silence, as the table manners apparently demanded. The food was, as usual, great. 7 course meal as well, with the highlight being the dessert. A soft, creamy cheesecake.
As soon as the dinner was done, and the dessert plates were taken from the table, Thomas disappeared from the table, having teleported to his room because as far as he could tell, the burst of magic was miniscule so he couldn't have been aiming for someplace far away as the telltale signs of that happening was a large burst of magic as more magic was needed to cross longer distances.
No such logic applied to Dimensional Energy portals apparently, as just imagination was needed to open the portal, with the theoretically infinite energy coming into play.
"Thomas is….complicated." William tried to explain it, but he waved it off with a smile, as he talked to them about the gift.
Two magical full body forcefield suits, keyed to their blood and magic samples, capable of creating a skin tight forcefield, running off the user's magic, and also capable of short range flight using the user's magic as well. Now, brooms also used similar principles, but they were woefully inefficient, as they were unable to use propulsion in a three dimensional manner, wasting energy on maneuvers.
His version, whoever, was much superior to those. He suspected that the design and enhancements for most flying brooms have remained the same for decades at this point.
"Consider it an apology for leaving early last time," He told Richard, who smiled as William, however, over the box, vibrating in place as he barely restrained himself from claiming the suits for his own use.
Sucked to be him. He had already installed safety mechanisms, so no wizard whose magic was above a certain level could bond with them, guaranteeing the girls would become their first user.
"See you next time!" He waved them off as he flew into the air, straight up. Once into the clouds, he teleported back into his lair, ready to research a few things that he'd seen for the first time in the ward scheme of the Hawthorne manor.
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