Late morning. The Blighted Eel on Knockturn Alley.


He thanked the bartender for his drink, not bothering to look up from today's edition of the Bletherskate. A pint of something innocuous waited on the counter at which he stood.

This had become something of a ritual for Virgil ever since he and Nemo[1] heard about Ozz the Goblin being murdered. Ceph[2] was the one who advised buying a drink when asking for the Gobbledegook paper, or else risk getting an outdated edition.

Thusfar, Virgil's efforts yielded little. Nothing more on Ozz or the investigation - not even a hint. If anything was happening it was happening beneath the veneer of society.

Lovely. Just lovely. He folded up the paper with a sigh and reached for his pint. Beers and ales repulsed him but a good stout was alright, if not ideal. V took a few quick gulps to avoid offending the barman.

"Have a good one," the blonde drawled, turning to leave.

He was barely past the door, one foot in Knockturn Alley, when he blacked out without warning.


It was a dreamless sleep, curious in itself. Virgil woke gradually - clocking at first the unyielding surface he was on and the chilling damp. An ache in his shoulder blades. A clean, mossy scent pervaded the air.

He pushed himself up against his forearms, forcing his eyes open. Dreamless sleep because it was a drugged sleep. Very specific concoction. Something he would use on someone like himself. Virgil blinked groggily. He felt oddly calm but didn't question it: waking up in a dark dungeon was somehow not the most unexpected circumstance.

The chamber was about the size of a classroom, surfaces of cobbled grey stone. A faint greenish glow was the only light in the room - it slipped in from the gaps of a great wooden door at the far end.

Virgil patted himself down. No wand. Fine. His other stuff was on him, though, including the paper.

He lit a flame on the tip of his finger to get a better look around.

1.	24th March - Through the Night, Down the Hills
2.	24th March - Bend Your Tongue

"Virgil...!"

Natalie appeared in the gloom, so near to Virgil it seemed strange that he didn't notice she was there upon his waking. But truth be told, Natalie hadn't seen him until he'd stirred. [1] Her straw-blonde hair was down and she was wearing the heavy make-up she often wore to perform, a little smudgy now. The blue light of her flip-phone danced around as she shuffled closer to Virgil to wrap him in a tight hug.

Pressed against him, she tried very hard not to choke on a big old sob. She held him so closely for such a long time. She was gathering herself up again. It had been hours, she reckoned. She'd fallen asleep, even. She'd staved off panicking because she'd had an inkling from Virgil that something like this could happen, and a belief, somehow, that it really did matter that they hadn't done anything. But as she'd nodded off, she'd started to doubt.

"I thought I was alone in here," she whispered into him. "It's the goblins. They're only speaking Gobbledegook, but I think this it. What we thought."

In her hurry to grab onto him, Nemo didn't notice his extra trio of eyes were open.

1.	Maybe the dungeon is enchanted so that you fade into shadows if you're not moving, a side affect of an Anti-Apparition or other ward against entering/leaving.

He felt both relief and dread when Natalie's face appeared in the light of his flame.

The fire went out as soon as her arms came around him, and Virgil shifted on instinct to embrace his fellow inmate. She was cold. His cheek came to rest on her crown. The scent of her shampoo, of her, was familiar and soothing in the dark. He allowed himself to be comforted by it.

This wasn't how he expected to find himself trapped in a dungeon - his training[1] had been to prepare for the possibility of being locked up by CAWW, not the Goblin triad or whatever the bloody hell this was. He breathed in and out, slowly, thinking.

"Not alone," V mumbled and hugged her a little tighter before letting go. "Turn off your phone, better to save the battery. And magic might screw it up."

He hoped she had an aegis pouch on her. Virgil took out his lighter - he didn't know why he even carried it around anymore but it was a pretty thing - and lit it, using a bit of wandless magic to keep it floating. Light enough to see one another by.

Now that Nemo mentioned Gobbledegook, he strained his ears to pick up any sounds around them. Water was dripping somewhere, heavy footsteps shuffling in the distance.

"They'll want to question us, I suppose." Virgil got to his feet, dusting his cape off as he moved to the closest wall and started walking along it to get a sense of the place. "You're alright? Did they knock you out too?"

1.	August 2016 - Grand Failing of Failings

Natalie sat back on her heels, a calm coming over her. She was remembering herself and all she'd been capable of even from very young. Alone or not, she survived, she hustled, and she got out of tangles. That hadn't been normaled out of her, she resolved.

She shook her head as she took up Virgil's suggestion to power down her phone and tuck it into the aegis pouch in her jacket pocket. It had been a comfort in the dark, but there was no signal.

"No, nothing like that. I was getting ready at home and the door to my closet just opened. Three of them waving some kind of badge. I don't know. I just went with them. T wasn't home, my wand was on the bed."

Her expression changed to have a hint of wonder. Was it admiration? "They took me back through the closet and it opened right into this room. I don't know that kind of magic. They knocked you out?"

Natalie didn't know what that meant, if that meant that Virgil fought back. He didn't look hurt, he was moving alright.

He ran a hand over the wall as he slowly walked the length of the dungeon, and paused to look at Natalie with raised eyebrows when she described her experience. They brought her here through a closet door? That was interesting magic. He liked interesting magic.

Virgil continued his inspection. "They slipped something into my drink at the Blighted Eel..." he replied distractedly, taking one step after another. "Effective. I'd like to know what it was."

At the corner of the dungeon, he nearly walked into a hammered brass basin of water. Beyond it was what looked like a squat toilet. V peered into the water, catching his reflection in the weak light.

"Ah," he touched his forehead and felt the tingle of magic that indicated the mark Ancasta gave him. "At least we know we're somewhere in Cheapstowe."

Lucky thing his pocket watch was in the Time Chamber on Mysteries. Virgil sighed, turning away from the basin and moving back towards Nemo. "We'll tell them the truth, when they ask what we know. Agreed?"

He wasn't sure how loyal Natalie wanted to be to Anka but there didn't seem a point in protecting... whatever that woman was. She seemed more than able to protect herself, with that cape of feathers restored to her.

Natalie stood up and dusted off her trousers as Virgil circled the room. She'd already done that. He made a connection between his there opened eyes - Ancasta's boon - and the Cheapstowe. It made sense. At least they knew where they were. They knew the way out. But that wasn't the plan.

Virgil declared their plan and Natalie winced and passaged her temple. She explained her hesitation.

"Sorry. The 'don't snitch' force is strong with this one," she said. But the memory of the dazzlingly beautiful crane Anka had become there on the riverbank in the cold, it felt like they'd survived a brush with some kind of old god. To insert themselves into her business again, maybe Viril was right. They shouldn't meddle because they had no idea at all what they were dealing with.

Maybe the truth would settle this, set them free.

"What about Greenie?" she asked. "We promised we wouldn't say anything. Can't we leave him out it?"

She'd thought of Greenie a few times since they'd last seen him, when he'd warned them off, with his defiant tone and his clothes, and is clear worry. She didn't know what happened to house elves who did things like that, but she didn't think it'd work out well for him. She didn't know Virgil's uncle or aunt, but they were rich and powerful and that didn't often translate to kindness.

"I can lie."

Natalie truly believed she could. She could keep her cool. She'd had to many times.

They did promise. It wouldn't be right to snitch on Greenie. Ancasta hadn't asked them to keep mum.

Virgil had priorities, though, and at the moment his priority was getting them out of here safely. Getting Nemo out safely. He stood before her with an unhappy expression, hands in pockets. It was slowly beginning to settle in: this wasn't a game.

Wherever they were, it wasn't Ministry or Mysteries jurisdiction. Just them and the people who were trying to hold someone accountable for Ozz's death.

       "I can lie."

"Can you?" V watched her carefully - he knew more about lying than most.

He glanced at the door, listened for approaching footsteps but heard nothing yet. Virgil looked back to his friend. "If you're not sure, I can make you forget all about Greenie. Then you won't even have to lie."

A rush job. He could do it, though. And tidy up the loose ends later.

A chill crawled up Natalie's spine. Virgil looked strange in the dark with the boon on his brow. He made an offer that she didn't know he was capable of. These things did not scare her. What gave her a chill was how utterly she realized she trusted him, whoever it is he was. In the predicament they were in, however, there was no one else she'd rather be with.

She let her face go completely calm. Her voice dropped half an octave. "No, I can do it. He's not part of it anyway. We were doing a favor for Anka, we snuck the Cheapstowe, we never met Ozz. They don't need us, really, if you think about it."

But what guessable assumptions these two were making, be both of them so sure that the goblin system worked like wixen's. The goblins had recited something to her when they'd taken her and she'd assumed it was some version of Miranda rights from home. But it could have been anything for all she knew of Gobbledegook, which was nothing. Could just as well that they'd already been sentenced.

Just then, the heavy footfalls that had been crossing near and at a distance outside landed in front of their door. Natalie turned to the sound of the lock being worked from the other side. It wasn't the scraping grind from the dungeons of cinema, it was the perfect sliding and clicks of clockwork of a perfect mechanism.

"If they let you go," Natalie whispered quickly, "don't wait for me. Promise."

He nodded once, accepting her certainty. "I'll figure something out," he hedged on the promise.

Natalie was living a different life when they first met - one that took immense courage to embark on, leaving behind everything she knew, and he trusted her to know what she was about. But he didn't want to abandon her.

If they ask how we found Ozz's shop, V sent the thought into her mind just in case they could be heard, I'll say I know Gobbledegook. I've been learning.

His attention turned to the door and he took a small step forward, putting himself between Nemo and whoever was coming. The click and clack of the door lock fascinated him. Goblin craftsmanship. His parents had a mechanical duck of goblin make and it was a curious, funny thing compared to this elaborate contraption keeping them in.

Voices seeped through as the door opened. He recognised one of them but they spoke Gobbledegook so quickly he only caught snatches.

       "... what... my head...Stronis..." a woman grumbled.
"... nothing... fuss..." a serious, gravelly voice replied.

And then there was a proper light, a lantern dangling off a holder that preceded the two goblin figures.

The goblin holding the lantern was slightly taller than most goblins he had met. He had a furrowed brow and long, peppered hair spilling out from under a copper mining helmet. His lips were pressed together in a permanent scowl, while his eyes shone a golden brown in lantern light. He wore a long coat of what looked like Graphorn leather.

Virgil recognised the goblin behind him. It was Malgrit.

Without really looking at either V or Natalie, Stronis gestured at them and then looked at Malgrit. She seemed much the same as last they saw her, if not more annoyed.

       "Yes, yes," she slipped into English, glaring at the pair. "That's him. Augur and his untethered hyuman."

Natalie successfully kept her expression impassive as Virgil spoke in her mind, as the door swung wide, and as Virgil stepped in front of her. She could handle herself, she thought, but the role they'd set up for her was beneficial. In dire matters, it had always been Natalie's (no Nemo's) experience that underestimation was the advantageous position. They didn't see you comin'.

Malgrit, she remembered, who'd been suspicious of them. Natalie wasn't surprised that she was involved. The other goblin, it wasn't one of hers from the closet.

Stronis looked at the pair of yellow-headed wix, back and forth a few times. He tilted his head to Malgrit and said in Gobbledegook, "you're sure? They were not found together."

Malgrit shook her head and replied in English, clearly for Natalie and Virgil's benefit - so they knew she'd been part of bringing them to justice, justice for Ozz.

"No, that's them. I'd swear it to the Sphinx herself. She's got that scar on her lip and the other one, well, just look at him."

This was good enough for Stronis. Official identification would happen later, but Malgrit's word was enough for the investigators. With that, again without a word to Natalie and Virgil, Stronis showed Malgrit out. They were replaced not a moment after by four goblin guards, all with the same style helmet, and two of the hanging lanterns between them. They moved quickly towards the humans. One gave orders in deft English while the other three separated Natalie and Virgil.

"You that way, you that way. You're going to see the investigators and you'll answer their questions. I'll remind you what you've already been told: no wizard magic is allowed here, she said.

Natalie drew in a sharp breath through her nose as two goblins took her by the forearms, one on each side. Just like before, it was so odd to be hustled about by the shorter beings, to be so close to someone non-human. She could only see the tops of their helmets in the glow of the lantern as she was shuffled first towards the door.

She turned back to catch one last look at Virgil before losing sight of him.

He didn't say anything - that was always a good rule of thumb when you weren't being asked questions - but he watched the goings-on carefully, committing the scene to memory. Depending on how things went he might need to recount the scenario to someone else.

The Sphinx herself. Hadn't Greenie mentioned a Sphinx too? Someone in a position of authority.

They were separated too soon and he pushed down a spike of panic when two goblins took Natalie by her arms - he felt an irrational urge to kick one of them, tell them to get their hands off her. But he didn't think they were going to hurt Nemo. Were they?

Another unpleasant surprise: Virgil couldn't look into their heads.

His gaze flicked from one goblin face to another, clocking the helmets. Not a fashion statement then. Where did they get infrangible helmets? He thought the ones on Mysteries were the only helmets that could shield mind magic.

Virgil looked back at Natalie just as she was being ushered out. He smoothed out his expression, winking.

       "What are you waiting for?" one of the goblins caught his wrist, tugging. "Move, augur."