The Dawn of Darkness || T. Riddle

Chapter 15: Targets

Chapter 15

Estela had spent the night prowling the ball room, seeking out each and every one of the targets written down on her list that was now embossed into her mind. As she did so, many of the noble young men's heads turned to watch her as though they were engrossed by her presence - by the way that she moved - some even offered her a drink or asked her if she'd like to go somewhere more private for a chat. She refused them all, leaving them staring after her as she walked away. She only had one goal tonight, and that was to accomplish what Tom had asked of her.

The process, however, was hopeless thus far. Despite the faith she had in her legilemency, occlumency and her charm, none of the witches and wizards that she had tried to swoon and recruit had been willing to co-operate. And what was worse was the fact that she knew that Tom was watching her every move. That he was watching her fail.

Estela took a deep, discouraged breath as she mentally scribbled off the third name on her list. Her third failure at recruitment. It was useless. Despite the men being drawn in by her appearance, as soon as she started explaining her intention and offering them a business partnership into Tom's Order, they merely laughed in her face or looked onwards to the next pretty face they could find.

The women on her list hadn't been very interested in her proposals either. As soon as Estela had broken the ice and drank some mead with them, she attempted to slowly drive the conversation towards the Order. It was at this point, though, that they would say that they needed to use the lavatory or that they had lost sight of their partner and they might be worried.

In short, everyone either had no interest in her business proposals or thought Estela was a complete and utter joke.

Two of the men had seemed somewhat interested to begin with, and they both requested to meet the 'leader' of the Order that Estela was trying to recruit them into. But, of course, Tom wouldn't dare reveal his identity. Not now. Not this soon. And so she had to tell them that he wasn't present tonight, after which the potential recruits lost any interest they'd had and said that they needed another drink; after which Estela never saw them again.

Perhaps Alden had been right, perhaps it was too early to attempt to recruit such noble wizarding families. Tom hadn't made a name for himself yet, and so people weren't taking him or the notion of his organisation seriously. Not even with Estela's mind tricks.

She hated doing it, but when she sensed that the conversation was going nowhere, she slowly dug her way into their minds and attempted to use their weaknesses against them. But once she had done this, they did the simple thing and walked away, offended, or left the gathering completely.

Estela had to remind herself that she wasn't dealing with ordinary witches and wizards here - these were noble families - some of them a part of the Sacred Twenty-Eight. And if that meant one thing, it's that that they despised being belittled or being associated with anything that they deemed 'below' them. These people had pride beyond her imagination, and it was a surprise that they even acknowledged her when she started conversing with them.

Despite their pompousness and the fact that her mind tricks were failing her, she still hadn't used the poisons. In truth, she didn't want to. But she told herself that if she failed at recruiting the fourth target, she would resort to the poisoned wine.

Estela scanned the crowd to find Alden. She saw him leaning against the bar conversing with a petite young woman with a heart-shaped face and beautiful brown, almond-shaped eyes, wearing a beautiful, flowing silver dress. Alden had his usual charming frontier on as he spoke to her, but not a moment later, the young woman turned up her nose at him and walked away as though he didn't exist. Estela watched as Alden was left alone at the bar, his mouth still slightly open as though he hadn't even finished his sentence, before she saw him utter something under his breath. Not a moment later, Alden spotted her watching him, and as their gaze met she could read his expression as clearly as she could read the page of her favourite book.