Professor Cedric's gaze did not waver, locked with unwavering intensity on the lone figure now standing atop the signal tower—an elf, tall and regal, yet undeniably menacing in his stillness.
The very same perch where he and Professor Bramble had stood only moments earlier before he attacked them now belonged to a presence that eclipsed the wind itself.
The elf was framed against the storm-dark sky, the iron spires of the tower groaning softly beneath his boots. Snow flurried around him in ghostly spirals, but none dared settle upon his shoulders.
His cloak, woven from deep obsidian threads and lined with faint silver runes that shimmered like starlight, billowed in the harsh wind like a banner of conquest.
It snapped and twisted violently behind him, yet the elf himself stood immovable, as though the world itself turned around him.
