The sea breeze swept into his face, carrying a briny smell and the roar of the tides.
The sky was grayish white, the clouds hanging low. The sun hid behind them, showing only a hazy, pallid patch of light.
The sea was calm, with no wind-whipped waves, only the white foam left as the hull cut through the water. No land was visible in the distance, just endless gray-blue water that blended into the sky until the boundary was almost impossible to distinguish.
Just then, a short, rather odd-looking woman passed nearby. Will could tell that she clearly was not human, yet she possessed a magical structure—she looked more like a house-elf.
He stood by the railing, gazing out over the boundless ocean, his mind racing.
Had he arrived at that appointed moment—the moment to save Corvus V? Then this was probably the ship that would sink, wasn't it?
Will narrowed his eyes at the horizon. So it had all been coincidence.
Recalling Corvus's history, he could not help finding the whole affair absurdly melodramatic—nothing but a sordid aristocratic family mess.
The Corvus he had saved was Corvus V. His father, Corvus IV, was a textbook example of an aristocrat with a chaotic private life. He had even abducted his wife.
His wife, Laurena Kama, was a renowned beauty from a distinguished pure-blood family. She had married the pure-blood wizard Mustafa Kama, and the two had been deeply in love.
They had a son named Yusuf. When Yusuf was twelve, Corvus Lestrange had abducted Laurena using the Imperius Curse and made her his wife. Laurena later died giving birth to Leta Lestrange.
Leta Lestrange, the only child of Corvus IV Lestrange and Laurena Kama, was born sometime between September 1896 and April 1897.
After Laurena died in childbirth, Corvus IV