First of all, sorry for not posting yesterday. It wasn't the best of days for me, let's leave it at that.
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I spent the next week getting my affairs in order as well as telling Fury that I might be off the grid for a while and also inquiring what it'll take for me to get my satellite out there.
The requirements for having a personal satellite was huge but not one I couldn't waiver. The problem, however, came from some haters in the parliament according to what Fury told me: "They hate your ass."
I didn't really care much about what they said or did as I could just use the guise of wanting a satellite due to the network traffic most of my media platforms faced which was a real thing but not an issue currently.
I left everything, took some essentials and some cash, and had my pilot fly me all the way to Nepal. Since I wasn't able to locate the Sanctum at New York, I figured I'd probably have to go to their home base.
To be honest, I didn't know what I was looking for. All I knew was that it was somewhere in Nepal, at someplace where I had no idea of.
Telling my pilot to go back, I left the hangar and made my way into the country of Nepal.
I walked around the place looking for anything; a door in the middle of the road, disappearing figures that only appear at the edge of my vision only to disappear when I focus on them. Words or arrows with a 'follow me' sign or even being teleported directly to Kamar-Taj.
I spent the following days walking through the cities of Nepal while also taking in the sights. It was the least I could do after not finding the home of sorcerers.
It was when I finally spent a week in Nepal that I finally received the sign I had been looking for – a floating orange circle tearing through space and time, adjacent to my bed that it was the first thing I saw when I woke up.
I couldn't see what was beyond the portal but like any sane person in my shoes… I walked right through it.
'It's about damn time.'
The room I arrived in was something akin to a dormitory with some robes by the bed, a few parchments, some ink by the desk and finish.
I reached for the door and tried to open the room but it wouldn't budge, not even a tiny bit. I tried once again but like my previous attempt, it refused to budge. Not even an inch.
I frowned at that and increased the force I used but still nothing.
In a moment of brashness, I augmented my hands and the moment I touched the knob it flung me against the wall. I had to take a second to realize where the fuck I was and calmed myself down.
Hopefully I was not claustrophobic, because the feeling I got when I found out the door was locked and I couldn't open it was not something I liked. For a moment, it felt as if I was back in that fucking HYDRA base.
The thoughts of blasting a gigantic hole through the roof and raze the place to the ground flashed through my mind for an instant but I ignored it and looked around the room once more.
The room was as plain as it could get with only the robes standing out.
Taking a deep breath, I changed my clothes into the robes and took a step towards the door. Because of my prior experience and also the unnerving feeling of knowing that I couldn't brute force my way through, I hesitated for a moment before I reached for the knob once more.
'All that power, just to be humbled by a casual display of magic.'
I shook off that thought and turned the knob. I would be lying if I said my heart didn't skip a beat when I heard the click of the lock opening. I pushed the door open and found myself in some kind of hall with numerous doors, to lodges I presume, along it.
Following the routes to the nearest part of light and also the direction of the noise I could pick up, where I found myself was a large clearing with people doing some sort of meditation exercise.
It got awkward in less than five seconds as I was the only one standing while more than 50 people sat on the ground with legs crossed, eyes closed and their hands making some kind of motion. I made the wise decision at the sixth second mark to leave but the moment I took a step away from the clearing, the sound of a cough caused me to halt.
I was prepared to launch a telekinetic blast but the static shock I felt from my robes caused me to groan and I was quickly getting fed up.
The man who coughed was an elder but when it came to magic, that just meant more dangerous. What made me alarmed was that I couldn't sense when he was just a few meters away from him. The only people that registered in my senses were those who were meditating and if not for him coughing, I definitely wouldn't have known there was someone behind me.
"You look new." I made to speak but he waved his hands in dismissal and just pointed at the people meditating. "Doesn't matter. Get on with the exercise." With that he went to sit in a corner and took his own meditating position which was different from the students', which was what I assumed those at the clearing was. And looking at my robe, I was one too.
A part of me wanted to ask the elder that I wanted to speak with the Ancient One, but that same part of me also reasoned that the reason why I came here to meet her, or him, in the first place was to learn the Mystic Arts. And now I'm here, being told to learn.
I sighed as I made way to the back of seated sorcerers-in-training and watched them for a while before I started copying their motion down to the way they breathe.
Sometimes I would open my eyes to catch the gaze of the elder on me with a disapproving look as if I wasn't doing something right which I clearly wasn't as I was just mirroring the breathing pattern of the majority and the motion of their hands.
It got to the point where I shrugged at his admonishment but instead of helping me out he just closed his eyes and went back to doing what he was doing. Although not what I expected, I did however follow through with the rules set.
I could already meditate since I did that a lot when I was in captivity but there was something about this meditation exercise that I wasn't getting. I could perform the breathing and hand motions to a T but there was something I instinctively knew I was lacking.
It was in this entire place.
Ever since I stepped through the portal, I could feel the slight changes in the air. It was like a cool ocean breeze with something else in it. Even in this clearing, everyone seemed to be acclimated to the environment with me being the only difference. It was as if I was entirely out of my element.
The exercise continued till the sun went down before everyone started getting up to leave. Some had dejected faces as if they failed something while others appeared tranquil. I was the only one with confusion visible on my face.
I couldn't take it anymore and made my way to the meditating elder.
"Uhm… excuse me?" I tried getting his attention but his eyes remained close as such that they didn't even twitch. Not even when I waved my hands in front of them.
I was about to tap the elder on his shoulders when a voice startled me. "I wouldn't do that if I were you."
This time however I was able to conjure flames in my hands as I turned to the second person who was able to bypass my senses since I came to this place.
The man before me was a black man wearing a green robe with a staff on his back. I remembered him from the first Dr. Strange movie as Karl Mordo. I frowned as my instinct thrummed with something akin to a low warning. While I was sure I could snap this guy in half in less than a second, something else about him made me wary. The unpredictability of it was what set him off.
'Magic huh. I'm so learning that.'
"I'm afraid I haven't seen you before. Are you perchance new here?" He asked me with only a raised brow at my hands set aflame.
"Yes. Came here this morning, a few hours ago specifically." I answered him but I still kept the flames on.
"Are you going to put that away?" He glanced at the flames which I eventually put out. No need for me to antagonize the people I wished to learn from.
"What's your name? It's not everyday we have a mutant… or was it metahuman now, as an apprentice. My name is Mordo by the way."
"Draul, St. Cross." I relaxed my stance and moved away from the elder towards Mordo.
"Cross then. How did you arrive at Kamar-Taj?" He started walking and I followed behind.
"I woke up and I saw a swirly portal by my bedside. So like any other sane person out there, I walked through it." I shrugged at the bewildered gaze he gave me as I said that.
"I don't think that would be the sane choice to walk through it… is it?"
"Of course it is. You think a sane man would see a portal and not want to find out what's on the other side? They'd be insane if they let up such opportunities."
"That aside, would you mind telling me why you wanted to disturb Master Pian Dao during his Astral projection?" He asked me with a serious look.
"Okay, first of all I had no clue what he was doing, what I'm doing… In fact, none of this makes sense to me." I gestured to everything while turning around.
"So the meditation exercise?"
"I'm pretty sure I failed that too."
He fell silent for a while as we walked before he turned to look at me at an interception.
"Since you found your way to Kamar-Taj, then I'm sure there's a reason you are here. I'll look for you tomorrow to run you through the exercises. In the meantime, I suggest you take some books from the library. I'd suggest 'Fundamentals of harnessing Energy' and Raikh Jalom's script of 'Spirit and self intunement'. See you tomorrow Cross." He said as he started walking away before stopping. "Oh, take this." He waved his hand and a paper flew towards me with impressive speed which I caught easily.
"What's this?"
"Password." I raised an eye at that. "To the Wi-Fi."
I nodded with a chuckle and made my way towards my room to sort out what had happened to me today.
I was tempted to seek out the Ancient One for answers, since it was pretty clear that this was her doing, but I figured that learning the arts this way wasn't bad. It's not like I came here expecting special treatment just for the damned reason that I seeked her help in the first place.
Learning the basics is the best foundation for anything and besides this coincides perfectly with the reason I came here anyway.
…
[The Ancient One POV]
She watched as the man she had brought here made a decision that she knew he would.
It was not everyday she met someone who could capture the interest of a being as magnificent as the Phoenix.
She had been rather skeptical of the rash decision she had made this morning after watching him look for Kamar-Taj for months. She had even taken the precaution of hiding the New York Sanctum from his sight when he searched for it.
She could sense it.
Beyond him, was something else. Something that bred chaos. Not Chthon, although it felt like that being of chaos, what was hidden beyond his veil was deeper than what the Elder God of Chaos represented.
'Abstracts.'
She prayed she was just being paranoid but with such entities, you could never tell. After all, the births and destruction of a universe were based on their whims.
"Master Mordo, can I help you?"
She spoke as one of her former students came into the room.
"You took in Cross, yet you were on the fence with Strange. Can I ask why?" Mordo asked as he came in front of his teacher and master.
"The 'Times' have changed, greatly. I wonder if having two of such pivotal destinies in the same place would fester a greater bond or whether they would devolve themselves in Chaos." Mordo had a look of confusion but the Ancient One made no effort to clarify for his understanding.
"That little test today, and a few I have in store for him along the way, would hopefully, let me know how to view him. Now then, for our other guest…" She took her gaze away from the mutant and focused on her other new charge and almost resisted the urge to sigh. Although he had arrived much earlier than what she expected, she still, after much contemplation, took him in regardless.
He was already sneaking into the library and stealing books to abate his unquenchable thirst for knowledge. "Fright not, Master Mordo. 'Time' will reveal to us what it has in store for them. Now, be a dear and invite the other masters for tea." She said and made her way to make a brew while Mordo still looked confused but having already grown used to his Supreme Master's eccentricity, he left and went to attend to the chore he'd been given.
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