Brows raised, Bragi listened to his elder with interest, only now believing that two such dramatic events had collided. The finding of the thing was the most frightening, of course — although his arm was lowered now, he still held his wand in his hand and kept glancing back uneasily to the thing behind the shield.

But overlapping the finding of the thing was that man, the other man, the one who'd tried to make Bragi participate in his illegalities. The Ministry official had evidently encountered such people before, but the young Dane never had.

"I wish I'd never found it", he muttered, glancing once more at the thing, which glowed back menacingly. Did it... not like him in particular?