Serafina's grandparents had fled civilisation because they'd chosen the wrong side of a war. Her mother had never sought to rejoin it, preferring to stay in their isolated hut and work on her own research. For a short while Sera had wondered why that was, seeing all these little towns with their merry fireplaces and their comforts. If she had rejoined society she would not have gone mad and she would've been alive. That was what Sera had thought at first but the longer she listened to this man speak, the more convinced she was that Tatiana had made the right decision. Did all men talk as much as this one? Did they all think so highly of themselves? He watched her work for less than an hour and he already thought he had something to teach her? Did she ask? No, she didn't. He was intruding and looking down on her. Patronising was a word she'd once learned while reading but she didn't think she'd actually seen an example of it until now.  Why would she need him? Why should she care about whatever it was he had to teach her? Her irritation was growing by the second, though she'd never learned to express it so she maintained her deadpan expression. Sure, she was walking alone through a frozen wasteland in which she would likely lose her mind and then be devoured by her own creations. Maybe what he was offering was a viable solution and maybe she would end up more comfortable and doing her experiments in a more hospitable place. Was she inclined to actually go with him given his current behaviour? No, not really.

"You talk too much," was all she said in return. With a wave of her wand, the chains holding the inferi to the statues came loose and floated to her, pulling the creatures along. She made them line up, grabbing their faces -their rotting, frozen faces- and checked the warming runes. They had to be fully intact before they could move on, otherwise one could freeze and become useless before they arrived somewhere they could take shelter in. Or maybe they wouldn't find anywhere at all and she'd have to build a shack out of wood or out of snow. Then she would probably lose the inferi, but she'd rather not. It was a lot of work to make them and she ended up exhausted. She didn't have the energy to spare for any of it, she'd already lost the little weight she'd had back home. The cold was not kind to anyone at all, but she thought she'd been doing a fine job of managing it out on her own so far. Better than with a strange man that came around spouting nonsense about her needing a teacher, who coincidentally happened to be him. She didn't need anyone. Who did he think he was? She hadn't needed anyone so far, she damn well didn't need anyone now.

After taking the chains and wrapping them around one of her slender forearms, she placed her wand on the palm of her hand and had it point north. Where did she say she was going again? It was a good thing she wrote down all her findings, the hunger and cold made her memory go. Especially after spending energy on a powerful spell like a fiendfyre. Oh. Right. West. West was... to her left. Looking over there, though, there was pure darkness. During the day she'd ventured out some ways away but she hadn't seen anything in the distance. How long would that take? This was also considering that she'd be walking over ice in the dark. Nothing had happened so far but there'd been a lot of close shaves. She wasn't going to be dependent of anyone, though. Sera refused to. The last person she'd been dependent of had been her mother, and Tatiana had done the one thing she always preached about and gotten herself killed. It was Tatiana's fault that she was out here in the snow. That was what Sera got from trusting anyone other than herself. Why should she tryst this man? She shouldn't. She really shouldn't. Of course he wasn't doing this out of the kindness of his heart. Kind men didn't end up in bloodied graveyards in the middle of the Krai, looking at a girl and a dozen undead corpses with calm and peace on his face. There was no reason for her to trust him. What was going with him but another walk over ice in the dark? Only she might get some better food there.

"Go where?" She finally said, taking her eyes off the never ending darkness she'd been staring at for the last handful of seconds.

Ideas were such fleeting things that sometimes Theo wondered whether it was even worth to act upon them. They came, they went, and only rarely did they have any true impact in his life - or in the world but that did not quite matter, did it? The world was, as it stood, a mildly decent source of entertainment at best and a complete annoyance at worse and sometimes Theo thought it would be for the best if he gave into his instincts and just...ended it all. Not himself, he would never be able to do it, but the world itself. Much power and research, it would take, but he was quite certain that he could do it and the only thing that stayed his hand was the fact that it would be too much work. That and the few people who lived in it that were worth anything in his eyes - not that he'd ever tell them that particular nugget of information, for course. Most of the time, boredom made him have the strangest of whims and lack of drive made him give up on them, allowing these ideas and half-formed plans to overwhelm his mind until he forcefully shut it down or distracted it with petty amusements. Allowing him to go unchecked was a dangerous thing indeed, as it would be easily illustrated by the bits and pieces of research abandoned in his private lab - research that was not only forbidden but also something the Department of Mysteries would salivate to put their hands own, along with Theo himself to be either used or silenced. Theodore understood he was a dangerous man, even though only those who truly knew him thought so. The others...well, they should likely be grateful that he lacked the true will to do anything but contemplate and that his amusements were simple in nature.

This one in particular was already slipping the forefront of his mind as the seconds turned into minutes and stretched into this horrible whiteness. Theo was actually surprised it had taken him this long to get bored with the notion, though he imagined it was both the opportunity to see how exactly a half feral child would fare in the uptight British society and the fact this child didn't truly respond in a way he would have expected. Now, for anyone else that wouldn't have been much of a problem - except Theo had made it his mission to be able to emulate all and any sort of human behaviour and emoting. Different stations, blood status, cultures, you name it. His travels had been very good for it, really, even if this had not been the main idea behind them. Since he was quite unable to feel certain things on his own without - a lot of - prompting, flawlessly copying reactions became paramount if he wanted to keep that particular information a secret. It had the added effect of taking the element of surprise from everything and he was rarely - if ever - surprised by the way people acted and reacted. Now, though. This was interesting. Granted, this was the first of such circumstance to present itself to him so his bafflement and delight at the unexpected reactions was not so surprising in itself but it did not diminish the novelty of the fact. Maybe that was why he had not yet left. Why he insisted. Theo couldn't remember the last time he had insisted on anything other than...Nando, perhaps? His friends too, since it took much patience to deal with Draco and Genevieve in a good day.

Letting his lips quirk up in amusement, Theo considered that, had this been any other person, they'd be signing their own death warrant right now. Now, in three years, in three decades, it did not matter. Reckoning always came and if there was one emotion he had never had any problem feeling was loathing. His pride was also something to be considered, even if it was a weakness he should try harder to purge. "I suppose it feels like it, compared to the silence of the Krai," it was all he said, in a distracted hum, as he chose to be charmed instead of insulted. Yes, charmed would work - for a while. She was a child, not one raised with any sort of manners from what he could see, and Theo could be lenient. Didn't often - or ever - choose to be but it was a matter of necessity. It would also be rather temporary, one way or another. She'd either die - by his hand or, more poetically, by the very white wasteland she so clung to - or he'd rein in the more distasteful behaviour. One way or another, it was not for him to worry about at the moment. Especially since it seemed that whatever fight and stubbornness she had paled face the grim - and short - future she'd have if she did not, at the very least, consider his proposal. Smile fading entirely and face setting in the unsettling blankness that was its natural state, Theo turned on his heel and started walking southeast - towards his tent and warmth and a glimpse of civilisation in this forsaken place. "This way." He didn't look back to see if she was following, though the rattling of chains would surely give her away.

This man, this stranger, was offering to be her father. To save her life. She didn't know why, maybe he was just interested in her. He had asked about her research and in his own condescending manner had apparently tried to praise her. Sera didn't care much about a strange man's opinions or desires, but she had never had a father before and while death was something that came for everyone, she knew that it was natural to not want to die. At least, to not want to suffer. Freezing to death, drowning after falling through the ice, or losing her strength until her inferi tried to rip her to pieces. All three options seemed painful, unpleasant, ironic. So yes, she had decided to go. She thought there was a possibility that she might eventually regret it, but at the same time she thought that she wouldn't regret anything if she died. Sera would surely die, she knew it, she could feel it in her stomach. He walked out of the graveyard, towards the town, and she thought that maybe this would be too much of an effort. Interacting with him had already been strange and somewhat irritating. If he took her into society, she would have to deal with even more people and their annoying voices and questions. He thought he could make up for that by teaching her, but she didn't think that he had anything to teach her himself. Maybe there were books on what she wanted to know, on what she needed to perfect her research, but it most likely wouldn't come from his own mind.

Sera followed, somewhat resigned, and the inferi moved with her. No doubt she would have to leave them behind at some point, she would have to destroy them. She would keep her bag, though, filled with her research and her grandfather's wand. Sera used her grandmother's but her mother had used her grandfather's. Sera had managed to save it before Tatiana was consumed by the inferi, while fleeing the house. It didn't work as well for her as it had for her mother, maybe it knew that Sera was, in some way, responsible for her death. By negligence if not by direct action. She was no wand maker, though, and she knew not the truth. Neither was she all that curious. It was just another tool she could not use, she would use the one that did serve her willingly. Now, here, and in the future. Wherever this Theodore was taking her to.

END OF THREAD