"What master do you serve?" Ben asked, not even expecting the atronach to answer.

There was very little chance that a daedra would answer a question that would most likely reveal a part of its tribunymic.

However, it happened, and Ben's confusion only deepened from the atronach's words.

"I... I serve... I serve the great... I... I... can't remember..." "what is... what is happening... what is this sorcery..." The fire atronach mumbled, and Ben could sense the immense effort it took to utter each word.

With every single word, Ben could feel the spell's binding get weaker and weaker, until the atronach finally broke free.

"YOU!! WHAT DID YOU DO TO ME MORTAL!! YOU WILL PAY FOR THIS!" It screeched and lunged at Ben, bearing its fiery claws.

Ben was completely caught off guard and staggered backwards in an attempt to dodge the attack. Luckily, his instincts kicked in and he managed to cast the [Greater Ward] at the very last moment.

While the atronach was still throwing hands at the ward, Ben gathered magicka in his left hand and hit it with the [Banish Daedra] spell.

"Whew, nearly got a scratch on me handsome face, I did." Ben said, looking at the atronach being dragged back to the oblivion.

"Sure, that wasn't meant to happen at all, now, was it?" Ben hadn't expected a simple question to make the atronach lose its head.

'What kind of snowflake atronach did I summon?' He wondered.

After catching his breath and recovering his magicka, Ben re-summoned the vicious thing. The way the atronach reacted raised multiple flags in his mind and he had to sort this out, once and for all.

As soon as it was summoned, Ben felt it trying to resist the spellbinding, but because of the multiple trips back and forth through the void, it had considerably weakened, and was quickly subdued by Ben.

This time, Ben changed the question.

"Where do you come from, atronach?" He asked, expecting the answer to be 'Infernace', a plane of oblivion that was the embodiment of searing flames and boiling lave. But was met with confused silence from the atronach.

Ben felt genuine horror and confusion emitting from the antique candlestick. Pondering for a while, he gathered mana in his hand and asked, "Where happens if I banish you?"

The floating torch glided away at the mention of banishment, shrieking, "No! Not again! I surrender to you!"

"I will do your every bidding! Smelt as much metal as you want. I will slay your every enemy, I will do anything, just do not send me there,"

"Where? Where do you go when I banish you?" He asked again.

"I do not know! I do not know!" It said, clutching its head. "All I know is that it is cold there, it is empty and dark," the atronach rolled into itself, hugging its knees in mid air.

It stayed there until the duration of the spell was over. Ben did not bother with it as he was too busy with his own thoughts.

'It doesn't make any sense. It should return to its origin once banished, unless..."

At first, Ben thought that perhaps the atronach's master had interfered, stopping it from divulging anything about himself, but now he had a feeling that something much more mysterious was going on behind the scenes.

The fact that the atronach cannot recall its plane of origin brings up the question of whether that plane exists at all, especially considering it was banished to the void rather than Infernace.

The next time Ben summoned the atronach, it was extremely servile, going as far as bowing down to him. It was even willing to reveal its full nymic as long as Ben agreed to bind it to this plane.

Unfortunately, even if he knew its full nymic, it needed at least a Master level mage to make use of it.

But the strangest thing was how the atronach got more and more scared every time it returned. It made no sense, as it was absolutely fine the first time Ben had summoned it.

Ben could only think of two possible reasons, either the atronach had been in a slumber and unaware of its surroundings, or it got created the first time he was summoned.

As absurd as it sounded, Ben wouldn't put it past his system to be capable of something like that.

'I really know nothing about you, do I?' he asked the floating dark mist that had coalesced into a screen in front of Ben.

Once the reluctant atronach returned to the unknown, Ben, too, left the island. He wanted to test his theories with the Frost Atronach, but he was running late; Maeve was coming over to take him to the Diagon Alley.

At first, they were supposed to go there next week to buy his school supplies but then Maeve found out and told Thea about the Glitter Boy's book signing at the Flourish and Blotts and now they were all going today.

Ben didn't mind, as he would have gone there today, anyway. Lucious Malfoy was apparently giving out a free Horcrux.

As soon as he stepped through the black mist and returned to his room, he heard Meave pounding on the door. Ben had cast an anti-unlocking charm on the door before he went in, so there was no way that door was budging.

"Benedict Nigel Brown, open this door this instant! We haven't got all day to wait on ye! The book signing starts in an hour, and if ye don't get a move on, we'll leave without ye!"

The threat did not faze Ben. In fact, he wanted them to leave without him so he could go there on his own under Polyjuice potion. He had quite a few things to buy and check if the gold bullion passed the goblin scrutiny.

"Ben, I'm not going to stand here all day waiting for ye! If ye don't come out right now, I swear I'll march in there and drag ye out meself! Now, open this door before I count to three, or there'll be trouble, mark my words!"

Ben almost let out a chuckle at that. He had never imagined, even in his most fanciful thoughts, that his aunt would exhibit such adulation for Lockhart.

-Dreamscape-

Lockhart is quite charming and terrifying at the same time, isn't he? I really want to punch his handsome face once. Only once though, wouldn't want to ruin that million galleon smile.

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