The cardinal's voice carried a fervent passion.
"What we seek to create are not docile lambs, but the hounds of God-the Chosen Wolfkin.
They will possess the unrivaled strength and regenerative powers of werewolves, yet none of their uncontrollable savagery. Their claws will tear all heretics apart, and their howls will become new hymns praising our Lord!"
In the vision within the water, a knight roared in agony beneath a shroud of holy light. His body swelled and contorted, his silver armor fusing with his muscle fibers, until he assumed a mighty form, half man and half wolf, clad in Lightforged armor with golden flames blazing in his eyes.
He had not become a bloodthirsty beast, but a living icon... suffused with an aura of sacred destruction.
Agnes watched, chilled to the bone, trembling with a mixture of fear, revulsion, and a trace of morbid curiosity.
The cellar air was dry and stuffy.
The silver runes Douglas had personally branded onto the walls flickered in the dim light like a delicate, icy spiderweb.
To Remus Lupin, however, this peace felt like the dead calm before a storm, pressing down on him until he could barely breathe.
As he looked at the overlapping layers of Alarm Charms, so complex they made his head spin, the worry in his heart only grew heavier. "Douglas," Lupin said, his voice slightly hoarse.
"This is already far more serious than we expected. The Holy Shield, the Adam Project... this is nothing less than the prelude to a war.
Why don't we notify Dumbledore? He has a right to know, and he has the ability to..."
"Because this is Italy, Remus."
Douglas interrupted him and lightly touched the tip of his wand to Lupin's cuff. A wisp of almost invisible silver dust abruptly appeared, radiating a