The conversation with Sasha had been...enlightening. As enlightening as it was utterly enraging, really. Tapendra found himself shaking from the sheer stress of it, even now; his palms were sweaty, his heartbeat accelerated, and his nerves were generally on edge.

Ignan had returned from the forest, recalled them, and pronounced his judgement. Tapendra couldn't argue against the vast majority of it - as much as he worried about what effect the loss of his prefect title might have on Sasha, there was no argument with him losing it to be given. Tapendra had simply nodded his assent, and that had been that.

But he had bigger problems right now.

He didn't know Morgan well. The man's involvement with Kronos was a surprise, but not as much as it would have been had the involved party been someone like Maiko or Hooch. Landis did seem the type...whatever that meant.

But he was involved somehow, and that meant one thing: He had answers. Now the trick was asking the right questions.

Tapendra hurried off through the dark castle. This time of night the halls were dark and empty, and he found himself jumping at shadows much more easily than was usual. His wand was easily at hand, and enchanted up his other sleeve was...well, was his gun. The weight of it was reassuring and a solid reminder that, worst come to worst...

Well, he had no intention or desire to actually shoot the man or even threaten him, but the fact it was there was reassuring, which was really why he'd brought it.

He powered his way through the halls, long strides making the trip from the Astronomy tower to the dungeons take less time than it otherwise might have. It was late, so instead of going to the library's offices he instead went to the Librarian's private quarters. If he was lucky, the man hadn't gone out for the evening.

The door was simple and wooden and entirely too inoffensive for what it represented - a line he'd have to cross. He stood before it for a few moments. The moment he walked in and spoke to this man, he'd have officially crossed into meddling rather than simply knowing about Kronos's plans...

And that had worked out for him so well last time, hadn't it?

Tapendra didn't spend long thinking about that, though. He wasn't the sort to let himself back down out of fear. Kronos was scary, he knew, but he wasn't going to walk away and let the man drag Sasha into darkness simply because he was scared of some old geezer's wrath.

One hand on his hip, he knocked sharply on the door, the sound polite - but extremely insistent. "Mister Morgan, are you in?" He called, listening for any sound from within. "I need to speak with you."

Landis was deep in a meditative fugue state when Tappy first knocked, eyes closed, back straight, surrounded by a pile of books on animagus transformation. He was close, very close, to attempting his first transformation. But such a change required a certain amount of introspection, this deep falling-into of what he might be. A proto exploration. It wasn't helping much. Despite his careful reading of the spell intended to facilitate impressions, he felt nothing but slow, a little drugged, the chill of the dungeon floor getting to him despite the rugs. His hands were like ice and his skin felt too tight. Unhelpful. A setback? It was too soon to tell.

Coming out of it to the banging on his door was like rising out of syrup. Landis had chosen this time of night as the least likely to be interrupted and the loud knocking hit him suddenly, snapping him out of himself. He blinked slowly, serpentine, as the banging hit a fever pitch. Someone was about to activate his door runes and be very badly burned. 

He rose rapidly, sliding the tomes under his sofa and heading for the door. It opened under Tappy's fists, Landis hanging well back to avoid being accidentally hit. "What is it?" he asked, words coming a little slow but his mind quickly firing back up. He was still dressed in his shirtsleeves and trousers, still presentable, but as he spoke he reached for an outer robe hung by the door. He assumed, automatically, that one of the Slytherins had done something and his presence was needed.

The silence past the door had made him pause, wondering if the man truly was out for the night. Or perhaps he was asleep? Sleep was more likely, really; the clocks would soon strike 2am. Most of the castle had drifted into slumber and Tapendra could hear his bones calling to him to do the same. But his heartbeat kept hammering.

He knocked again, more loudly this time. He wasn't sure a drowsy and annoyed Morgan was the best Morgan to talk to about this subject, but gods be damned - he was going to do this before he lost his nerve.

He hit the door with the side of his fist once, not too hard, in an effort to create a big enough bang that some sort of sound would result if Morgan was indeed present. Instead the door popped open, leaving him standing with one hand in the air and an expression of unmasked surprise on his face.

Morgan stood on the other side, composed but seeming slightly out of sorts. Napping, perhaps? Either way, Tapendra quickly dropped his arm to his side, bowing his head slightly.

"My apologies," he said, glancing at the door. He sucked his breath in. Exactly how did one start this sort of conversation? So I hear you've sought outside employment...

"There was an...incident this evening," he said, "Involving Katy Bevans and Sasha Schlagenweit. I was hoping your insight could shed some light on some of the details." Vague seemed the way to go - lead into it.

He looked up and down the hall, empty...aside from the portraits that were so enragingly good at overhearing things. He sighed, looking back to Landis with a slightly arched eyebrow. "Unfortunately the details are really not ones that should be overheard," he added, nodding towards the room slightly. "Could I come in?"

An incident - naturally. Landis was rarely summoned in the middle of the night for less. Equally rarely was he asleep when someone came looking for the Slytherin Head of House, as Landis tended to keep late hours. Normally this meant his response time was quick, no time wasted tumbling out of bed or getting dressed. Now his hand hesitated on the robe. Why was Trishna coming to him about students that were not his own? Unless...

"Of course," he said, hanging the robe up again and stepping back. His expression was mild and blank, but inwardly suspicion bloomed. It was possible Trishna wanted a critical opinion on the situation - it was not too far-fetched. Despite their many differences he and Trishna had reached a beneficial working arrangement based on mutual competence and even, grudgingly, respect. But Landis had something of an automatic recoil attached to any notion of "shedding light on the details," any course of action which involved dragging to the light. It was a normal, natural response for a criminal, especially one such as he who thrived on secrecy and lies. He suspected everything. And the attachment of Schlagenweit's name was not promising...

Landis closed the door after Tappy came through. The fire had burned low and he went to stoke it, brandishing his wand at the logs in silence. He was not one to mince words. The look he cast back at Tappy clearly said, well?

Well, the man was composed and icy as usual, which..wasn't a good sign or a bad sign. Technically it wasn't a sign at all. It was just Morgan being Morgan.

Tapendra set his jaw and walked in - shutting the door behind him and casting a quick round of muffling charms on it. Then he looked to Landis as the man stoked the flames, taking a moment to line up the sentences in his head.

"We found the two of them in the woods a few hours ago," he said, crossing his arms after shoving his wand back up his sleeve. "They were attempting a ritual of necromancy in an attempt to summon the dead." He frowned, stroking his beard - face a picture of grave worry. "Naturally, the school would prefer that was not widely known, but -"

He reached into his opposite sleeve and withdrew a tome, old and leather-bound. The writing on the cover was in German, but the embossed designs on the cover gave away the subject discussed within - necromancy. The skulls tended to be the giveaway.

"Schlagenweit informed me he got this book - which he was using as a guide for his little ritual - from the Restricted Section, under your watch," he said, holding it out to Landis. "As a Prefect, I'm aware he's allowed access to this sort of material, but when the subject came up...he said some very interesting things about the conduct between the two of you." Just about everything Sasha had said had been interesting, one way or another.

"I don't think you're a fool, Morgan, so I won't dance around the issue. He told me quite a lot about what the two of you have been up to these last few months. I doubt he really told me everything - but he did tell me enough to find your methods quite perplexing. I'd like to hear your side of things."

He crossed his arms, and watched Landis as the man sat silent. "I would appreciate you not taking any regrettably drastic measures," he added, firmly...and with complete sincerity. "Doing so would help neither of us, at this point." He'd also taken some level of insurance against them - well, against the obvious risk of being Obliviated. He didn't say that out loud, but also felt that could go unspoken.

A rite of necromancy? Landis' eyebrows rose. He surely hadn't been teaching Sasha that. Necromancy had its uses, presumably, but Landis was not one to advocate for it. That magic always took more than it gave out.

He had only a moment to be irritated with Sasha for his insistance on drawing attention to himself when Trishna took from his robes a book. It was not a familiar book in such that Landis did not memorize every text Sasha checked out, but he recognized now why Tappy had wanted the librarian this late at night. The skulls on the cover were a tasteless touch.

Landis looked down at the book, then back up at Tappy. His expression was not particularly impressed. If this was to be a lecture on the dangerous materials he allowed to the students, he had a fair bit to say about the language expectations -

Oh, but it was much worse. All expression vanished from Landis' face as Tappy continued, his hard features impenetrable as a goblin-built vault. A spike of intense anger swept through him, paired with the bitterest distaste. Damn that gormless little brat and his moral-minded urge to please!  Though Landis had always known Sasha was too susceptible to guilt and disapproval, he had had no choice but to hope Sasha didn't buckle. His was not the freedom dependent on no one knowing of their arrangement.

"What exactly did Sasha tell you?" he said at last, and he sounded quite calm. "I certainly haven't been encouraging him to pursue necromancy."

Landis had a loathing of the situation as a whole. That Trishna knew any of it in part - or Merlin forbid it all - was intolerable. He was filled with the quick urge to bury the evidence, to remove the threat. To kill or Obliviate the man before him and make certain it was thorough. Partially it was his secrecy, and partially it was his pride. But Landis was also well aware that to Kronos he was disposable. He was the only one who would protect his interests.

Of course, Landis was never a man to act on his impulses. But that didn't mean he forgot them...

"I would appreciate you not taking any regrettably drastic measures. Doing so would help neither of us, at this point."

Landis' gaze slid back to him, icy pale and contemptuous. On the contrary, it would help Landis quite a bit. But the addendum had its intended effect, which was to brew in him a caution of simply Obliviating the other man. Landis cared nothing for Tappy's appreciation. But if Trishna had mentioned it, then he had thought of the potential backlash before he rushed down here. There was probably in his tower a written note, a warning for anyone to find should the Astronomy professor go suddenly missing.

If Landis were to Obliviate him, better to wait until he knew whether the trail led farther than Trishna.

It was almost refreshing to see the flash of anger, of raw emotion, on Landis's face. Almost, because it was a rather nasty emotion and was clearly directed right at him. The loss of it didn't mean it was gone. Tapendra knew well enough that it had simply slid below the surface and was boiling somewhere under the veil of ice.

He let out the breath he'd been carefully holding. So he wasn't going to die immediately. That was a nice sort of feeling, one that made the heat in his mind dissipate a bit. Morgan was smart enough to wait until he had a prearranged absence, he suspected. For a fleeting moment, he wondered if it might behoove him to arrange something along those lines just to test the man - but hiding bodies was messy, and Tapendra had limits on what he could make himself do, even under the most dire of circumstances. Besides - this man was an employee of Kronos. It was far, far more likely such a test would result in Morgan having a body to dispose of, not the other way around.

He cocked his hip as he shifted his weight, lips pressed into a line. "Schlagenweit elaborated on your lesson materials to some extent," he said. "As well as telling me of a terribly ill-advised acquaintanceship he has with one Kronos Malvivicus - one that seems to have been the main source of his interest and blind faith in necromancy." And blind faith in general.

He leaned back against the wall, hand resting comfortably against the sleeve that held his wand. Should it be necessary his wand was all but in his fingertips, and he didn't intend to change that anytime soon. "What he didn't make clear is your exact role in all of this," he said, "When I first started questioning, he seemed out to make you seem... incompetent?" Sasha had skirted around the issue considerably, at the very least. "When I didn't take that as the truth, he revealed you've made a rather questionable choice in outside employment."

All through this, he was carefully going through his memories of the details of memory charms. If this got hairy, that was his easiest way out - unlike him, the Librarian was unlikely to have a backup...and needed less erasing than Tapendra himself would.

"Schlagenweit seems convinced that Malvivicus has his best interests at heart...and that Malvivicus is likely to kill you simply because I have spoken to you." He decided to leave out the fact Sasha was having trouble realizing those two stances did not really fit together well; but the flash of tired annoyance that crossed his face said it for him. "I want to know what's true and what isn't."

Landis was silent for another long moment. Tappy had told him what he was most looking to hear - dreading, but expecting - Malvivicus' name. So he did know everything. Or at least, everything from Sasha's side of things, which did not include the terms of Landis' employment. But then again, would that be so difficult for Schlagenweit to guess?

This was not an enjoyable yoke to wear, but Landis was no victim. He would work this to his advantage by the end. And if he had to tell Trishna anything, it would only be what Landis wanted him to know. Trishna's defense capabilities were unknown; should Landis draw his wand, he may or may not prevail. That was an inexcusable uncertainty when failure could mean the difference between a life in Azkaban and a continued career.  But Tappy was, in some ways, predictable. Though Landis could hardly expect him to buy it if the librarian cast himself at his feet, Trishna was susceptible to emotion. He understood things like friendship and loyalty - valued them, even. And he was protective of Sasha. It was in Landis' best interests to keep him pointed towards the larger threat. While he would not forget Landis' involvement, if he was sympathetic to Dazmond's plight he he might be persuaded to overlook it... at least for a while.

Landis disliked leaving something this important to chance, good acting, and Tappy's unconfirmable good will. It would be better if he had blackmail, a bribe, something solid. The only lever he had was Sasha.

He was generally not an emotive person, but now was the time to be convincing. If he could not contain this and Landis had to disappear, he could not count on Vedir or anyone else taking him in. All the more reason to speed up his animagus transformation.

"There was no choice involved," he spat. Anger flashed in his pale eyes, an anger that he allowed the other man to see. It was there, his bitterness - pride rankling that Malvivicus could force him into this - hate, real hate, white and insidious like nuclear winter. Kronos was in every aspect a disgusting man. Landis let this loathing shudder up his spine to make his words ring true. It was the truth - he just didn't like to share it. Nor did he like to share what he would need to to have Trishna, maybe, understand. He didn't want that human connection. It was hard enough when Juliette found out; he couldn't stand her pity. And Dazmond, it was something of a betrayal to mention it though she had already lied to them all. Kronos had made her weak and that was a little contemptible, but she was still one of his own. He would not want - he hadn't wanted Dolly to speak of his own experience to Juliette so lightly.

Grudgingly, stiffly, he said, "Should he find out that my position has been compromised, he would be more likely to kill you. However, I doubt the consequences would be enjoyable. It is not my own life that he holds over me."

Of course, it would be helpful if Kronos could solve this problem for him, but Landis was disinclined to share with his employer any more than he could get away with. Even more helpful to his ultimate goal was if Trishna had any real spellpower behind him. A man with morals could be fierce; Landis would be happy to use him as a shield. But that was conjecture, and too optimistic besides.

The silences were some of the worst Tapendra had ever weathered through. Aside from the hammering of his own heart, he could swear he heard the gears turning in Landis's mind as the man put pieces together. It might be conjecture, but...

The hate that flashed across Landis's face was surprisingly genuine - enough so that Tapendra had to assume it wasn't an act. Or at least it was a very good act, and the Librarian wasn't inclined to act quite like that, in his experience. He was going to assume it was real, at the moment. The man's reactions, his position at Hogwarts, what little he knew of Morgan's former employment...he didn't seem Kronos's type. Prideaux's, perhaps, but not the sort Malvivicus appearently liked. By all accounts, Kronos's tactics seemed to rely on his pawns not being terribly bright.

Still, the vague mention of Landis's predicament had the desired effect. Tapendra had, technically, known the basic fact Landis wasn't working for Kronos willingly - Sasha had claimed it. But he'd wanted Landis to admit it without any prior hint that Tapendra might know. He needed it to be the truth...or at least be the story that he and Sasha were getting fed.

He was glad he wasn't in that situation himself. His own wasn't enviable, but...to have someone else's life in the balance of some warlord's pleasure wold have kept him up at night.

"Thank you, Mister Morgan," he said softly, tone neutral but clearly a little relieved. "I won't ask what the details of your predicament are," he add reaching into his pocket. His fingers closed around his pack of cigarettes, and it was with a steady hand that he removed one, glancing up at Landis and gesturing for his approval. When the man nodded, he lit the cigarette with his wand, puffing for a moment before he spoke.

"Since you don't seem particularly find of him, perhaps you can tell me about this Malvivicus, then," he said, exhaling the smoke. He'd needed that. As much as he didn't really like the things, they helped with his nerves considerably. "Mister Schlagenweit's account is clearly biased, unfortunately." He scowled. As well as being muddied by insistence that Tapendra have as much blind faith as Sasha did.

He held the lit cigarette between his fingers, twisting it. "Are you able to tell me what sort of man you found him to be?"

That... had been convincing enough, apparently; Trishna didn't ask him to elaborate. That he did not care to know was something of a relief.

"He is mad," Landis said simply, a little coldly, watching Tappy closely as he lit his cigarette. "Or, pretending to be. He is intelligent and unpredictable, given to extreme swings between joviality and towering rage. But he is vain and short-sighted, willing to let his employees handle the daily workings of his empire that he cares nothing for. He takes dangerous risks assuming that his money and his position will cover him. He presides through fear, blackmail, and threats - his men can only be so loyal as he pays them to be. He is dangerous but easy to blind."

It was what Landis had gathered over the past few months and therefore inevitably filtered through his own perceptions. It actually wasn't that easy to blind him, no simple thing to weed out those connected to Kronos' network, but Landis wasn't weighed down with an excess of morality. He snuffed out every access point that he could find.

Kronos' methods of control made him so very easy to sell out. For Landis - and for others. Fear was an easy expression to recognize on the face of the stranger in the bar; fear was in Dazmond's ducked head over her cauldron, leaking bits of information that he could piece together. Landis sometimes felt it and sometimes did not. But it made it very satisfying to hand over to someone else the weaknesses he had collected. If Tappy was smart about how he handled this information, perhaps this wouldn't even be something for Landis to regret.

"Trishna. Do you know how to keep these things to yourself?"

So the trickster muggle-hating murderer crime boss and con man was an intelligent, conniving mad man as well. This just got better and better.

"You make him seem such a lovely person to work for," he said, dryly - wondering if Landis was even getting paid. Somehow he doubted it; the wages given out by such men tended to be negligible at best. But either way..."Men who rule via fear alone tend to be simple to topple," he said. "He's got to be in his 90s, now - there must be more to it, or he'd have vanished years ago." He sniffed, and his tone took that of a man musing out loud. "Or perhaps his age itself is the issue? With his onset of old age, his mind falters..."

No matter what it was - remove the central element in that system and the system descended into bloody in-fighting and other criminals avenging off the scraps. Simple...in theory.

He looked up at Landis at the man's simple - but oh so complex - question, and thought for a moment. The answer was complex, technically speaking - there was a lot of history there, that frankly Landis had no reason to know. "Yes," was his simple answer. He puffed his cigarette a moment, blue eyes locked onto Landis's. "As are you, I assume."

"The benefits are completely subpar," Landis agreed, tone dry with sarcasm of the no shite variety.  What did Trishna expect when he came inquiring about a crime lord's quirks? Even Malvivicus' gopher had given him a good luck glance as the messenger hurried out of Kronos' audience chamber months ago.  Those who may have come under Kronos' wing in more ideal circumstances still knew the dangerous eccentricities of their lord. "Thus his obsession with the boy. He talks of him as an heir; he wants a legacy." Whether or not Kronos actually intended to leave Schlagenweit in his place remained to be seen. Certainly the spells he wanted Landis to teach suggested that Sasha would need to be able to hold his own one day in a darker arena.

He smiled a little to himself as Tappy mused aloud, but it wasn't a pleasant expression. Good luck to the man. Landis had been trying to figure out exactly the basis of Kronos' power for months. Nothing Tappy said was inaccurate. It was only that getting to Kronos in the first place was so hard. "He has a horde of guards and a well-fortified mansion," he said idly, wanting to encourage Tappy's train of thought towards the crime lord's destruction. He watched Tappy closely. "Sasha may know where it is."

"Yes. As are you, I assume."

Trishna's stare was intense. Landis gave him a level look back. "Obviously." Now. "I don't plan on letting him know you're inquiring into the arrangement. In turn, I ask that you keep your silence on this matter of my employ. It is a state I am looking to terminate as soon as I can find a safe way to do so, and it is not...it's..." He sighed. "I am twisting his orders as much as I can, teaching Sasha slowly and with a mind more to his preferences than Malvivicus'. I would not care to go on trial for an association made under duress." His squeaky-clean public persona might not survive the experience. Especially if veritaserum was used.

The intense looks matched, and the Librarian's gaze was oddly...captivating. Tapendra considered breaking the gaze after a few moments, but in fact Landis was the first to break the silence and the odd pause. He was glad of that; Morgan's gaze hadn't been one he wanted to hold for long. The dull blue eyes held a kind of cold fire that made him both fascinated and thoroughly unsettled. Maybe being good at looking at people ran in the Morgan bloodline; it was the first time that Tapendra really noticed the familial resemblance between Darian and Landis.

"Of course, Mister Morgan," he said and looked away towards the far wall, teeth closing on the end of his cigarette for a moment. He nodded, with a slightly sardonic smile. He couldn't truly trust the man, of course, and the reverse was true. But for now...for now he would gamble on the Librarian's goodwill and predicament.

Besides, part of him did want to help the man.

"And thank you. I would much prefer being an unknown, for now." It was useful at the very least. He frowned again, though, considering the man's words carefully before he spoke. The story made sense, but...the idea of Sasha being Kronos's heir was...well...

He gave in to his first instinct, which was to laugh. It wasn't a pleasant laugh, instead sounding dry and forced. "No wonder you think he's nutters," he said with a gusty and smoke filled sigh, shaking his head. "Of the entire student body, he's picked the worst possible candidate." Well...after Pepper and Oliver, anyway. But it did make some things make sense...and made them a lot worse.

He needed to get Sasha out. Now.

Tapendra looked back to Landis, taking a breath. "Do you think there's any feasible way to wrest Schlagenweit away from him...that doesn't end in Malvivius's death?" He asked, shaking his head slightly. He doubted it - by far the best thing to do would be to wrest Sasha away and killed Malvivius in the same stroke... preferably one that led to a lot of criminal in fighting that made Sasha unimportant.

He had other options, but as Trishna agreed and looked away his choice was made concrete. Better to have Trishna think Landis depended on his goodwill, that he would easily cooperate. Better not to hold what information he knew ransom for Tappy's silence, an arrangement that set him up as callous or accessory to Kronos' crime.

Basically, better an ally than an enemy if Landis had to choose. Discovery by one did not mean discovery by all, a fact that he used to soothe his initial spike of panic. Paranoia had laid long lines in him but now he was calmer. This could be useful, in the end.

"On the contrary," Landis said. "He is easy prey. Vulnerable. Don't you remember being that age, Trishna?" His eyes were clear and his voice clarion as he intoned his judgement, an unbiased list of weaknesses. But all his attention was still on Tappy, to whom the look he turned now was blandly, mildly curious. Was Trishna blind? In Landis' impassive listing, he forgot briefly to use Sasha's first name - a stab at invoking Tappy's goodwill, knowing as Landis did that the two were close. "Schlagenweit is prone to self-doubt and recrimination, eager to please and very self-effacing. He has no family to claim him anymore; he is naive. He has traits which would appeal to Malvivicus... and his morals are hardly insurmountable."

Of course, all adolescents were vulnerable. It was a volatile and bitter phase. Schlagenweit was just a teenage boy, awkward stutters, gangling limbs, and all. There were prettier targets, but Sasha's unique family situation made him unwanted and thus easy to procure.

"Malvivicus is irrational when it comes to Sasha." Too well Landis remembered the man's sudden rage when he dared speak of the boy their first meeting together. "He's invested too much in him. Time, effort, money." It was answer enough.

Landis's words struck home in a way he doubted the Librarian intended or realized. They echoed the sentiment, though not the exact wording, of what Tapendra had been trying to tell Sasha just minutes before - as well as the same truths that had plagued and nearly killed him when he'd been Sasha's age himself. He frowned, looking away for just a moment.

Then he breathed out, smoke billowing in response. "I was referring to his capabilities as an actual heir to Malvivicus's empire," he said. "I'd give him ten seconds before previously loyal employees rip him in half." And squabbled over the remains.

Still, there was a hint in the man's words, one so subtle that he wasn't sure if it was really there or if his own experiences were making him eager to add it in. He took his cigarette from his lips, regarding Landis thoughtfully for a moment before he finally spoke, choosing to leave that be for now - he'd have to see these letters. And then...then he would decide.

"And I suppose your lessons are meant to assist with those pesky morals of his?" He asked, quirking an eyebrow again. "He seems...convinced that a caster's intent changes the nature of the magic cast," he said, frowning. Anyone should know that wasn't really the case - all intent changed was the reason for doing something. It didn't make the spell itself any better or worse - at least, that was what Tapendra had been raised in the tradition of. "The boy has a good mind for theory, if he'd just use it," he muttered, mostly to himself.