Sequel to Modification
Estela's going back. Back to where it all started. Back to the place where everything changed. She's returning to resume the task she was given six years ago, and this time she isn't going to let anything stand in her way of...
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Chapter 33: The Sacrament and the Scheme
I hope you can handle 10,000 words this chapter, lads. (I apologise)
24/08/2019: It's actually 11,000 now. Enjoy. ;)
ESTELA stood before the mirror, turning her body left and right so as to examine herself from all angles. The black dress she wore was stunning. She didn't think she'd ever worn a dress so beautiful - it even came close to Rowena Ravenclaw's dress that presented its self to her in her fifth year at Hogwarts. Never had she known better dress-makers than those in Norway, who poured magic into their materials that made them spectral in their beauty and craft.
The light, jewelled fabric swirled down to the ground like the waves of an obsidian ocean, slipping elegantly off her shoulders and coming in tight at the waist.
Each time she moved, the tiny jewels that covered the dress glistened, as though the reflection of the night sky was mirrored in each of her movements.
She heard the door shut behind her and briefly caught a glance of a man's reflection in the mirror. She turned around and almost stilled for breath as she laid eyes on Tom. Tonight he was the kind of spectacle that would stop you dead in your tracks when you saw him. The kind of sight that would earn more than one or two sly glances in his direction. The kind of sight that would make you stop and stare so as to fully take in his heart-wrenchingly dark beauty.
His black shirt clung to him like death's embrace, accentuating his strong, aristocratic build and stature. He'd styled his waves of black hair into an elegant cascade that fell around his face in a way that somehow managed to refine his already impeccable features.
They observed each other from across the room, and Estela couldn't help but smile.
Tom placed his hands in his pockets and looked her over. "You know, I think it's considered inappropriate to outdo the bride on her wedding."
Estela laughed. "Just as inappropriate as it is to outdo the groom, I'm sure."
He began moving towards her, each of his movements enchantingly slow and fluid. "We certainly will be a pair to be envied tonight," he said smoothly. "Are you ready?"
"Almost," she said.
Tom nodded briefly. "Don't be too long, we need to leave soon."
Estela made her way over to her chest of drawers and examined the many boxes of jewellery that lay inside. Golds, silvers, emeralds, sapphires and -
Opals.
She stilled as her gaze fell on the black box that had been stuffed into the far corner of the drawer, a gorgeous necklace of shining opals laying within its velvet embrace.
