99 AC / 54 HA
Hermione
Hazkar calmly dusted his ruined garments before raising his gaze to meet Father's. Slowly, he walked forward as a wide smile began to gleam upon his stony face. "I had an inkling you were no mere man, but to think I would meet a newborn in this mist. Tell me, young one, how long has it been since you awakened? Where were you born? How is the world outside? Do you know a path away from this prison? How can you conceal yourself with such excellence?" He parroted away as he drew closer to us. His eye, which had always been so incredibly calm, now seemed to reflect a manic glee I had only ever seen on religious fanatics.
Father summoned his massive broadsword, placing it firmly between himself and Hazkar as a strict warning not to approach any further. Father did not answer his rapid questions. Instead, green lightning began to violently race down his armoured arm and into the dark steel.
Suddenly, Hazkar halted his approach and raised his cracked hands. "Peace, young one! Peace!" he exclaimed in a frantic manner, though his one good eye displayed none of that actual agitation. He focused his gaze directly upon the humming sword. "A fine crafting, that," he noted, his voice instantly returning to the manic glee he had displayed moments before. "I do not think I have ever seen this material before. Exquisite." He almost reached out to touch the blade, but Father immediately vanished the weapon into thin air.
"Why did you abduct my daughter?" Father demanded, his tone dangerously low.
"What?" I blurted out in utter confusion.
Father did not move his glowing gaze from the elder. "I have been actively searching for you for close to ten days."
"WHAT!" I nearly shrieked, completely unable to hide my profound shock. "But I have only been gone for a few hours!"
"No, you have been missing for the past ten days. I know not what happened, but I returned from the dark lake to find you had not come back. I waited deep into the night, yet there was still no sign of you. So, I forcefully read the minds of the villagers and found you had headed into the mist with him. I have been relentlessly searching ever since. By my estimation, it has been nearly ten days since I began my hunt." Father spoke with cold, unwavering resolution.
"Father, time could have been skewed here," I objected quickly, before he could continue.
"I have been keeping count. It has been over eight hundred thousand seconds. I have been tracking it every single day I left for my search and returned. The magical clock in our hut and my own internal count were identical."
"Marvellous," Hazkar spoke up, immediately drawing our attention back to him. "And yes, you were wandering with me for the past ten days, Hermione."
My mind was violently reeling from the betrayal Hazkar had just casually revealed. His crusted face carried no remorse whatsoever, only the exact same calmness he had projected throughout our entire journey. Father abruptly raised his gauntleted hand and fired a silent Stupefaction charm directly at his chest. It had minimal effect, but Hazkar was forcefully pushed back, almost falling into the mud before he swiftly gathered his footing.
"Tread carefully, old man," Father warned him ominously.
"I have no quarrel with you, young one." Once again, he addressed Father by that strange, condescending appellation. "I merely believed your child to be carrying divine blood, so I brought her to the temple in hopes of ascertaining her true origin. The conversations I shared with her, and the gentle displays I made of my own divinity, seemed to indicate that she was entirely unaware of her heritage. I merely wished to awaken her latent power within the temple. I knew she would be highly suspicious, so I had to use some rather crude methods to bring her there. I do sincerely apologise, Hermione," he said, bowing his head respectfully toward me. The sincerity was certainly evident in his posture.
I did not know how to respond to that. Father simply continued to stare him down.
Hazkar straightened himself before continuing his explanation. "I should have known it was a mistake. It was not her, but you who carried the spark of divinity. I would not have known if you had not attacked me just then. It is most strange to see a newborn godling who keeps his divinity so tightly concealed."
"Why?" Father asked him sharply.
"Pardon?" Hazkar answered in genuine confusion.
"Why care if there is divinity here or not? What purpose does it serve you?" Father pressed on relentlessly.
The unnatural calmness in his eye was swiftly replaced by something far darker. "I only wished to commune with a fellow deity. It has been ages since I have met one."
"You could have simply revealed yourself. Spoken truthfully. Why go through all these elaborate schemes if not to conceal your malicious intentions?" Father said forcefully, manifesting his massive broadsword once again. "Besides, you have been slowly moving the vines and trees closer to us since we began talking. Not a very peaceful method of negotiation, is it?
"A sharp one, aren't you? Certainly, you shall be quite useful in my grand search, unlike the last one," Hazkar sneered.
Just as the words left his lips, massive vines and thick roots violently erupted from the damp earth, lashing directly toward Father and myself.
Hazkar bounded backward with unnatural agility, leaping nimbly away from the immediate danger. At that exact moment, the massive, thick vines surging toward us were suddenly engulfed in roaring, unnatural flames.
Father sharply turned his head toward me. "Make some distance, Hermione! Can you protect yourself?" he shouted over the crackling fire.
I simply nodded my head, tightening my stance.