Little Crouch was very pleased with himself.
He crawled around the iron cage like a beast, the chains dragging behind him clanking loudly. His pupils dilated and contracted as he stared fixedly at Vaughn, his eyes brimming with excitement, greed, and cruelty. "You should count yourself lucky you ran fast enough. Do you know what happened to the last wizard that old dog invited to alter my memories?"
"Hee hee, I locked him inside my memories and tortured him for a long—long time!"
"You idiots have no idea how powerful my master is. Every day, I can hear him whispering in my head. With the great master's help, I stopped being afraid of your damned memory magic long ago!"
Vaughn's expression remained calm. "Is that so?"
"If you don't believe me, you can try again...!" he said with a grin, his tongue licking nervously across his lips.
Then he saw Vaughn smile, raise a hand, and snap his fingers.
Snap!
Little Crouch, who had been crawling, suddenly stiffened in all four limbs.
His eyes widened in astonishment as he sensed something strange emerging from the depths of his mind.
If someone had entered his mental world at that moment, they would have discovered that the cloak of mist Vaughn had thrown into it earlier—the one Little Crouch had contaminated—suddenly broke apart with Vaughn's snap.
It scattered back into mist. A spray of black grit fell out, while the restored pure-white mist gathered once more, forming the outline of a human figure.
The instant it took shape, it pulled an image out of the void—
It was the little building Vaughn had seen before. The humanoid mass of mist walked stiffly and mechanically inside, slipped into that memory, smashed open the door of the building, and rushed into the darkness.
Not