Sanctum Sanctorum. New York.
The magical signal that someone had overcome the building's outer protection caught Daniel Drumm reading a book on the second floor of this base of the Earth's Masters of Magical Arts. This in itself did not mean anything, except for the fact that the guest belonged to the mystical world in one way or another. And was not included in the "list of friends" that the protection lets through. Nevertheless, the outer protection was more of a distraction - sometimes even ordinary people with a strong will and a predisposition to magic managed to bypass it, and sometimes even ordinary mortals who accidentally got hold of some amulet or artifact. Rarely, but sometimes such things happened. Nevertheless, it was not worth relaxing, and the magician, putting the book aside, hurried down and took a look at who fate had brought. And, if necessary, activate the real protection of the building.
At first glance, the stranger who entered the Temple really did look like a man who had simply accidentally obtained a mystical object that allowed him to enter the abode of the magicians: he was dressed in expensive clothes, in his hands he was clutching a cane richly decorated with silver, and his appearance could easily be placed as an illustration in the dictionary under the word "gloss".
"Good evening," Daniel greeted his guest. "I apologize, but you probably have the wrong address. We are a private company and do not accept guests."
"Greetings, venerable sorcerer," the guest smiled good-naturedly, "but it seems to me that I have come to the right place. You are the local branch of Kamar-Taj, aren't you?"
- Who are you? - the visitor abruptly moved from the category of "random, harmless" to "potential enemy".
"Oh, that's right," the guest raised his hand free from his cane to his temple, somewhat theatrically, as Dramma liked, "Loki is the God of Magic."
- Uh-uh-uh... - it seemed that his interlocutor was not quite right in the head.
"You must have heard of me," the man assured with a reproachful (though, it would seem, how is that possible?) grin. "I know that Asgard has rarely interfered in the affairs of Earth in the last thousand years, but they certainly know in Kamar-Taj that you are under our protectorate. The Eldest must certainly be in the know — she lived through the times when Thor regularly ran here to get drunk," the guest fell silent, closely monitoring Daniel's reaction in his eyes, after which he twitched his cheek and continued in a more serious tone: "In general, I would like to talk to the Eldest about exchanging wisdom. It would be impolite to show up at your main residence without an invitation, and besides, for someone with my reputation… well, as an advanced and modern deity, I came to leave my business card," the stranger opened… The magician swallowed in fear. It was like a spatial fold. On a spatial fold tied to a specific wizard. In addition, the flow of personal, and not borrowed from the quantum dimension of Power that blew from it, made it clear that the one who called himself Loki had every right to call himself God - even from the Elder the feeling was weaker. But the guest did not show aggression, besides, the wizard of experience and knowledge worthy of becoming a guardian of the Sanctum Sanctorum was quite able to recognize the power of the Living Light, clearly distinguishable in the flow of magic that spilled out of the open "storage". Although this was not a guarantee of good intentions and the "light" nature of the creature standing in front of him, it still gave a small credit of trust. And while the black magician was thinking, the guest pulled out a small flat stone plate, most similar to an ordinary smartphone. - Here, a business card and part-time Communication Stone, let your boss call at any convenient time... except for the range from three to five on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays - I have lessons. Well, that seems to be all, will you pass it on?
- Um... huh? Y-yes, of course, - the plate contained quite a lot of magic, completely different from what was always felt from the artifacts of Kamar-Taj. Of course, before handing over who knows what to the Mentor, he himself will try to study this object, but it is really worth informing her, and as quickly as possible.
- Well, that's great, I hope I'll call you soon! - and the incomprehensible and, it seems, slightly crazy guest just up and left as if nothing had happened, leaving his interlocutor with a whole bunch of questions on the topic of "and what was that?"
A couple of days later. Loki
A sneak, a mischief-maker... a book lover,
A trickster, a gambler - life between the lines.
And therefore - open to him
The invisible path to any essence...
Dance of the Evil Genius
On the pages of the work.
It's a game, no doubt about it.
The doomed will be defeated!
Lala-la-la-lala-lay,
Lala-la-la-lay, lala-la-la-lay,
Lala-la-la-lala-lay,
Lala-la-la-lay, lala-la-la-lay.*(1)
I was distracted from forming the matrix for the future adamantium nano-swarm and concentrated on the voice in my head. The voice in my head cannot start by itself, so someone started it there! Shaking the said head and finally exiting the mode of "calculating the coefficients of the transition of influences from the micro- to the macro-world and back", I remember that I myself put this "melody" on the Communication Stone, placed in the subspace pocket. Not that it was necessary, because the standard "sensation of intent to contact" is quite enough, but I was a little bored, so why not "yes"?
- "Greetings, Elder," I telepathically addressed my interlocutor, or rather, interlocutor. - "I am glad to begin communicating with you in person."
"Venerable Lugh," the lady responded, calling me in the Celtic manner, "I confess I was very surprised when one of my students came to me and said that God had spoken to him."
- "Yes, perhaps, without knowing the context, such statements do raise concerns. Especially if they turn out to be true," - the specifics of the work, what can you do.
"I was told that you wanted to talk," the lady hinted that it was time to get down to business.
- "Yes. In the centuries since my last visit to Earth, your mages have achieved truly impressive results. As someone who is immensely passionate about magic, I could not help but be interested and propose an exchange of knowledge and skills."
- "That," - there was a clear sense of confusion on the other end of the line, "is a rather unusual proposition. Just in your spirit. Well, Kamar-Taj was always happy to absorb new knowledge and share it with those who wanted it."
- "Okay. When would it be convenient for you to see me?"
- "At any time."
- "Hmm... a minute..." - I pulled away from the connection. - Yuriko, I can leave for a couple of days through the space-time gap into the hidden dimension of Earth mages, don't lose me and warn the prof and Wolf Cub.
"Okay, sir," my assistant replied calmly.
- "That's it, I'm ready! Will you open the portal, venerable one?"
- "I… can't see where you are," - oh, right, I continue to hide from Heimdall's gaze, and since the spell hides me from the sight of the Sentinel of Asgard, then what about a simple sorceress, even if she is very powerful and experienced?
- "Oh yeah..." - I took off my disguise. - "Is that better?" - instead of an answer, an orange circle of a portal appeared next to me, through which I could see something like a pagoda. - Well, I hope the cake is not a lie after all, - and I stepped through a natural breakthrough in the dimensions, of course, not forgetting to properly concentrate on the sensations and trying to understand this interesting structure.
"Welcome to Kamar-Taj," a thin, bald-headed woman in clothes somewhat reminiscent of Krishnaite clothing bowed slightly. With her stood about a dozen men of an advanced and respectable age, "we are glad to welcome..." Gungnir, diligently fulfilling the role of a cane, clanged on the floor, sending a wave of its magic around, which the sorceress could not help but recognize, "the King of Asgard in our temple.
After the proper greetings and introductions of the "venerable masters", and apparently having made sure that I was not going to attack anyone or fight, the woman took me around the monastery, showing me the local sights. We even visited one of the training sessions of the younger generation of wizards, there were about fifteen of them, but their practice was interesting - a bit crude and crooked, but the guys were mastering the method of "cutting enemies with a piece of folded space". Because of the parasitic losses, expressed by a bunch of orange sparks along the contour, and the crudeness of the execution, it was really dangerous only for a common person, not posing a particular threat to either the ace or the jotun, but if the execution was improved and the losses were removed, the idea seemed very promising. The artifacts of the locals, although they were only training crafts, did not inspire optimism. Just a strong-willed message, somehow stuffed into an object with the help of raw power. On the one hand, such "wild" magic, with due inspiration of the creator, what is also called "put his whole soul into it", was capable of generating truly amazing things that even God sometimes cannot repeat, but much more often the output was, on the contrary, very mediocre toys, next to which even the "reactor stand" for Odin that I quickly cobbled together was a high-precision magical masterpiece. In addition, "strong-willed" artifacts have an extremely unpleasant property - being created, in essence, by the naked desire and mood of the magician, they very strongly inherit various emotional and moral qualities of the creator, to the point that they refuse to work in the hands of someone who does not correspond to these qualities. However, okay, we are still talking about training equipment, so here, perhaps, everything is specially done so crudely so that life does not seem like a fairy tale to young people.
We also visited the library, where a rather elderly but still strong magician ruled everything. The library was not particularly large, at a guess, it contained at most a thousand or two volumes, but it had a certain touch of its own Pathos - two dozen folios were placed on a separate pull-out shelf, and each was fastened with chains. The chains were tied together with a hook. H - Reliability.
After I finished sightseeing, I was treated to some really good tea in the study of the oldest witch.
- So, what do you think, venerable Lug?
- Honestly, in some places I am impressed and amazed, but in others - still very weakly. And nevertheless, a number of your decisions cause my sincere admiration. The work with space within the world is simply amazing, as someone who has a good command of movement along the paths of shadows and knows the design of the Rainbow Bridge, I declare responsibly.
"It's nice to hear such high praise. As for our weak points, I suppose you mean our artifacts and direct effects. Alas," she spread her hands, "a human life is not enough to hone the skill to a sufficient level for such effects to be truly dangerous, so we use indirect methods.
– You can apply pressure by force…
"It's possible," she nodded, "but people don't have enough strength of their own for this, and using someone else's…" she rubbed the bridge of her nose, "is dangerous. This should only be done when there is no other way out."
"I am glad that in addition to mastery, the Supreme Sorcerer of the Earth also has wisdom," I took another sip of the amazing tea. "So what do you say to my proposal? I really want to study your practices of working with space and the "Quantum Dimension" and am ready to share my developments in artifact making and illusion magic.
- As I already said, - the ancient sorceress sipped her drink in turn, - Kamar-Taj does not refuse knowledge to the seeker and is ready to accept any knowledge. But not as payment.
"I'm glad to hear it, although I'm a little surprised by such openness," I admitted.
- There is nothing surprising about this. Tell me, Lug, do you believe in Destiny?
- An unexpected question. And the answer to it depends on what you mean by the word "destiny". If you are talking about predetermination, then no, it does not exist. There is no such thing as "impossible", there is only "insufficient knowledge" or "insufficient strength", and if so, then there is no predetermination.
"But that's not the whole answer…" she smiled and took another sip.
- No, only half of it. The second half is that there is a chain of events, cause-and-effect relationships, actions and their consequences. They can last for days, weeks, months, years and even hundreds of centuries. But what actions we will take depends, first of all, on ourselves. Therefore, if we look at fate not as rigid blocks in which it is impossible to jerk somewhere to the side, but as a track within which you can "walk" freely, and if you strain yourself, then break out of its limits, then my answer will be "yes". But what is this question for?
– I can see my destiny in pictures of the future. My life was about to end – many events, decisions and actions were leading me to the same result. I looked at the stormy sky, and next to me stood my last student, who would become the new Supreme Sorcerer of the Earth. But now… he still stands next to me, but he is no longer alone, and a new dawn is breaking in the sky. And I know that there will be many more. And this knowledge came to me only at the moment when I decided to contact you, Lug.
- Do you think I can save you?
"No," she shook her head, "but your appearance will somehow prevent a whole series of tragic events. I don't know what they are – it's hidden from my sight, but what difference does it make? Trials strengthen, but sometimes they can be excessive and break people who are not ready for them. Therefore, if your appearance will bring benefit to Kamar-Taj, why shouldn't I help you with what you need?"
"That makes sense," I finished my tea. "When shall we start?"
We started right away, because... what was there to be shy about? And we had to start with theory. So I walked arm in arm with a respectable lady to the library, where I began to surround myself with books. And as for practice... practice would come later, and I would need to add a volume on artifact science here. I could read quickly, the language of books also didn't cause any difficulties, and, for the most part, I didn't need the basics or general theory of magic - I could write both myself no worse than the local luminaries of science, but specific techniques and the basis of the local tradition, as well as the understanding of "how they got to this point in life" - were quite enough. I really missed cocoa, but sitting with food and drinks in the library is bad form.
So, it is worth starting with the fact that the school of human magicians was built, as I knew before, on interaction with the "Quantum Dimension". Each person has a spark of Magic, however, as a rule, it is very small, almost insignificant. That is, using only it, most will not even be able to light a candle or they will have to curl up into a ram's horn from the effort. But this spark is quite enough to begin interacting with energy from the outside, strengthening their own "inner flame" with an external source. Very roughly and approximately, this could be compared to how to bring a gas lighter to a small candle and put gas on the flame, thereby sharply strengthening it. And, it must be said, people have three orders of magnitude more abilities to direct and simply work with external energies than their own strength, that is, conditionally having their own magical "flame" with the strength of one "match", a person can pass through the soul energy with a volume of a thousand such matches without harm to himself. Not right off the bat, of course, but it's a trainable matter. Which, by the way, indirectly proves that humanity as a species hasn't yet reached its peak, and they'll keep crawling in that direction... In general, people, realizing that they don't have the strength for direct influence, and the dimension they live in doesn't have any sources of magic, decided to look for a place where it's richer, but at the same time there's no brainwashing radiance or any Dark Gods who want to get your ass for their personal use. I suspect that this is where they got help, by giving them a ready-made solution and a school. And I even suspect "who" helped, because some things in the basis of the local school were very similar to the adaptation of the Asgardian traditions of the inner flame of the Aesir to people. Moreover, the adaptation was made by a big pro who knows the Asgardian school as if it were his own, and not just by smart natives who spied on something somewhere or copied it thoughtlessly. In addition, with such a meager level of power, it is simply impossible to conduct normal research into magic and generally reach the principles that allow one to break through to the "Quantum Dimension". It's like having one trolley of iron ore for the entire history of civilization, developing alloy steels. Well, it is impossible to research something and experiment with it without having material for experiments and research.
In general, someone gave them a hint, and they got to a place where everything was much more pleasant and richer in terms of power, and due to the "difference in magical potentials" between the layers of reality, they were able to draw magical energy from there without any effort. What is the "Quantum Dimension" itself? Well... if very roughly, it is a draft, a sketch, a reflection... you can give a million names, the essence will not change. The "Quantum Dimension" is a place in superposition to ordinary reality. It is inextricably linked with it and to some extent is a reflection, but not like the "Mirror Dimension", which is literally an additional dimension of the basic reality, a kind of artificial projection of the world, any actions in which do not affect the world itself, no, the "Quantum Dimension" is something like a universe in which the "Big Bang" effect did not occur, which gave birth to the matter and space familiar to us. This is a plane without physics, dimensionality and time - a plane of pure basic energy, existing in a state before the birth of space and everything else from it, as separate elements of being. And, by and large, this "primordial broth" is practically pure magical energy, with some bias towards "spatiality", because it froze on the verge of rebirth into it. If we draw an analogy, pure magic would be "water", but magic from the "Quantum Dimension" is "milk". Thus, over hundreds and thousands of years of drawing energy from another layer of reality, the magicians of Midgard gradually built a school fundamentally based on this basis. And what is the best energy for, obtained from another dimension, which is, in fact, a spatial superposition, freely variable at any point in space and literally representing the basic basis for the creation of space? Yes, yes, the key point here is precisely "space". The wizards of Earth have learned to work best with it, simply due to the universal inclination on the energy level. And how else, if you dilute your power in a ratio of at least one hundred to one with something aimed at this and all your life deliberately improve your compatibility with it? In fact, thanks to their practices, local magicians are also mutants, but their mutation is not innate, but artificially grafted and only on a spiritual level. And it's cool.
I waved my hand, imagining the dweomer indicated in the book in my head. The magical energy intertwined with a "glass" seal, through which the power of another plane of existence began to flow into me. Among the locals, as I saw, such seals sparkle with losses, generating orange flashes and entire "cascades" of sparks. However, the mind of the ace, bearing the title of the God of Magic, was somewhat sharper than a human, and in my case, not a single drop of power passed by. Well, the trip has already paid for itself - it seems that I have just mastered one of Odin's tricks. It is not to say that magical races do not know at all how to draw energy from other dimensions, but these methods are not particularly developed here, since most simply do not need them. Why connect somewhere if you are born with such power that the local masters cannot block it even with all their external recharge? And this is about an ordinary ace or jotun, and members of the royal family themselves can easily work for the source of power for mortal sorcerers, without any problems dragging several hundred "priests" on themselves. At one time, such pacts were even popular, but the fashion died out in my childhood, after all, there is no practical benefit from this, because such "champions" from mortals are not equal to a full-fledged ace, and therefore cannot help against enemies of equal size, so what is the point in spending money on them? Once or twice you can amuse your vanity at the expense of someone else's gratitude and respect, but in Asgard, the respect of equals is much more valued than those who are obviously below you. Those same earthlings a thousand years ago were much lower than the ace on all fronts, and other races of the galaxy ...
What can I say, if even looking at modern "civilized" humanity from the outside is simply disgusting. Watch TV - dirt, scandals, hysterics, idiocy, obscurantism. Listen to the radio - even more scandals, swearing, discussions of dirt, and in songs, no-no, all sorts of things can be traced, especially mainstream and youth. Try to open "popular literature", which people themselves are promoting with all their might and shouting that it is a masterpiece, and there you will find either "Fifty Shades of Grey", or some "Zuleikha Opens Her Eyes", or even "Children Against Wizards". And if you wander onto a Japanese hentai site and see what people dream of doing with other species, then perceiving people as anything other than galactic shit will be simply impossible. In a word, developed civilizations of mortals are very rarely able to evoke sympathy when meeting.
But I digress, we are talking about the formation of a permanent channel to the "Quantum Dimension", which will safely, painlessly and without any effort provide additional recharge of one's own forces. There were no such techniques in the Asgardian tradition, and the traditions of other magical races. I knew that Odin had several such channels, but how he created them and maintained them all his life was terra incognita for me. This was the secret and skill of the Allfather himself, which is indecent to even ask about and an analogue of which cannot be found anywhere. And here is this analogue in my hands - described, explained and scrupulously verified on the pages of a venerable tome in the library of Kamar-Taj. Considering that thanks to the Casket of Ancient Winters my arsenal has recently expanded with a bunch of magical techniques of direct destructive action, for which an extra drop of energy is extremely relevant, it is difficult to overestimate the value of acquiring such a channel. But the locals also had a bunch of interesting combat tricks, like that same "cut enemies with a piece of folded space," which can be improved and turned into something even more curly from all these "fiery" (because of the parasitic losses) whips, shields and swords.
I also figured out the mechanism of the famous "Double Rings", due to which local magicians build their portals. Like other artifacts of the sorcerers of the earth, these devices were rather crude, in essence, sealed in metal will-desire-intention with a small ritual subtext of "entry and exit points", in fact, that is why they were double. Due to the energy sharpened for working with space, such a ring could easily open a portal anywhere within one reality. With a number of limitations, of course, in particular, an ordinary person simply does not have enough strength to break through a channel even to a neighboring star system, here you need to have either outstanding potential, that is, so that your bandwidth allows you to operate the necessary arrays of energy from the "Quantum Dimension", or have some artifact supports. But still - brilliant. Yes, it is crude, it is uncouth, from the point of view of an ace, it resembles a caveman's club, but this club worked, and worked well. In essence, it was a very primitive, built on slightly different principles, but direct analogue of the Rainbow Bridge. A portable analogue of the Rainbow Bridge! A brilliant invention! And if you just tweak it a little bit with a file, using architectural solutions from the same Bifrost…
In the end, I woke up from the research frenzy only after two weeks. I remember that I was passively teaching some lessons at Xavier's school, went away to read fairy tales to Laura, ate something and even went on dates with a beautiful goddess, delighting her with breakfasts in bed, but all my thoughts were in the library and the possibilities that the combination of earthly and Asgardian magical traditions opened up. And it was just wow! True, one day a guy from the local masters pestered me with very strange ideas, but I was good-natured and explained to him on my fingers that he was wrong. The guy was inspired and did not pester me anymore, but perhaps it is worth covering this moment in a little more detail.
Actually, that day I understood how Odin can see and hear everything even in his sleep state. The answer was hidden in the local technique of the Astral Body, when the magician, roughly speaking, left his mortal shell with the main part of the soul and could freely move it in space. And for the ace, at first glance, this thing was completely inaccessible, since our spiritual beginning is too closely intertwined with the physical to leave it so easily. The first stage of this technique worked quite well, and it was quite possible to transfer consciousness exclusively to the spiritual shell, but then - a hitch, because this spiritual shell flatly refuses to leave the body, and attempts to twitch more strongly became very painful, probably about the same as if the skeleton was trying to crawl out through the muscles and everything else. It seems that everything is a useless trick - spit and forget, but no! It is still possible to transfer consciousness to the spiritual shell! That is, you still hear and see everything that happens around your body, even though this body is out of commission. And here comes into play who Odin is, and he, excuse me, is a man of enormous talents, in particular, he has his "inner eye", which works a little worse than Heimdall's eyes, and those tricks for which I need to sit on the throne of Asgard, like piercing the thickness of space with my gaze and observing other planets, he can do on his own. That is, yes - he is unable to interrupt his coma, but nothing prevents him from looking and seeing, because the activity of his mind is no longer fixated on the state of the physical body! Eureka! Fanfare! And the main charm for me personally is that even though it is practically impossible to cast spells in the Astral Body, if the spells only require intelligence and are already active... In short, my illusory phantoms will not disintegrate now, even if I get hit on the top of the head with Mjolnir. Well... in theory. But it's still cool!
And so, having thus attained Zen, I climbed out of the library, driven by a thirst for cocoa. Well, to make things even better, and this moment was especially vividly imprinted in my memory. Having left the temple of knowledge, I took a thermos from my subspace pocket and, having paid tribute to the beauty of the clouds, pressed myself to the source of life-giving moisture.
It became good. Really good!
It was at the moment of realizing the harmony of the universe and all that that I was caught by one of the local masters, aged "slightly over fifty", with a straight posture, thick, albeit already covered with gray hair, tied in a braid, oh yes, he also had a very Determined Look, with which they usually go on a Feat. As someone who has repeatedly seen Thor and his banzai team going on a Feat, I declare with responsibility.
"Honorable Lugh," the man bowed politely. With the Elder's light hand and my connivance, since I was too lazy to correct him, everyone here now called me in the Celtic manner, "I ask your permission for a personal audience..."
- Mmm, Master Kaecilius, if I'm not mistaken... - I nod in response to the greeting, at the same time feeling something like nostalgia. In the sense that now old Loki will once again have to dissuade an adult, generally smart, but still an idiot from stupidity, obvious even to a troll.
In the Strange story, which for some reason is not Stephen here, but Stefan, he was the head of the cultists-sectarians, who were pushing for the return of the Burning Legion... I mean, the appearance of Dormammu - one of the local "conceptual" villains, bogeymen and just a fat demon. I must say, without the creepy face paint that Kaecilius wore in the film, he looked much better. And since he was still the Master of Kamar-Taj, and not a vile renegade, it hadn't gotten to the story of creating a cult yet, although, judging by this determination, it was already under pre-project consideration. From here I could well guess what the question was about me.
"I am flattered that the God of Magic remembered my name," the man bowed again.
- Oh, - I sighed, - no need for this self-deprecation. A rational being striving for knowledge must have self-respect and respect others... well, to the extent that they deserve. A person who has received the title of Master of Magic definitely deserves that a being with almost absolute memory remembers his name, - I put the thermos back into my subspace pocket. - But okay, this is a philosophical question. How can I help?
"This is… a rather long and ambiguous conversation, so if you allow me," the magician put the artifact of the "Double Ring" on his hand and, having performed the appropriate gesture, opened the portal. "May I show a little hospitality?"
- You intrigued me, - I calmly walked into this very portal, finding myself, apparently, in the chambers of a respected magician. And the guy, as a person, was really a good magician - in his home there were interesting-looking artifacts, and in large quantities. Not at all like they do in Asgard, of course, this was pure magic, not technomagic, and the school of execution itself is far from being so "licked", but you can see the effort, passion and, oddly enough, love for what he does. It is difficult to say what exactly is expressed, but sometimes you look at a thing and understand that this is done in a haphazard manner, routinely, and next to it there is a craft with a soul, and the first thing can even be better and more powerful than the second, but in the hand, with a high degree of probability, the second will lie more pleasantly, more conveniently. What can you say, Magic.
- Tea? - Oh yeah, we're talking about Tibet, which means it's not far from China and other Asian things, and so you can't just get down to business right away. My vis-à-vis may not have looked Asian, but being, as we know, determines consciousness.
– I wouldn't refuse a teapot or two, and if anything happens, it can always be turned into cocoa.
- In... cocoa?
- Believe me, my friend, Cocoa has Power! That my Father never dreamed of... ahem... - seeing that my interlocutor had clearly lost the thread of the conversation, I preferred not to develop the topic, and something really carried me away. - Okay, let's not talk about it, consider this just a funny story that had great personal meaning for me. So?
"It's all about the Elder…" the magician began to fuss over the clay teapot, adding some herbs and pouring water heated right in the air over it.
- Mmm... I'll venture to guess that the conversation won't be about how pleasant a woman she is to talk to?
- Yes... - he was clearly not very comfortable touching on this topic, but the man had already decided everything for himself. - Perhaps I cannot express it in the right words, but with all her talents... she limits us. Claiming the openness of Kamar-Taj, in reality she conceals knowledge even from those who have achieved the rank of Master and whom she herself recognized as worthy of all secrets.
"Oh, I see," I nodded, accepting the cup from Kaecilius's hands, which was steaming with aromatic "smoke," "and that's why you decided to turn to me for knowledge?"
- Yes! - the Resolute Look again, and his own cup of tea freezes on the table, clasped between his palms. - I understand how bold and inappropriate this sounds, but my desire is sincere and not poisoned by vanity. This is the desire to understand, the desire to become better and to help my students become better. The Eldest has lived in this world for many centuries, but no one has thought about why? What is the secret and reason for her longevity? I have found the answer! And this answer has thrown all my feelings into confusion and shaken the truths that I had previously considered unshakable. Now I am consumed by the desire to understand, to figure it out. But I myself cannot find the answers and calm this confusion.
- You mean that she draws energy from the Dark Dimension? - I exploited my "hindsight" a little.
- You... you know? - He even slightly bulged his eyes, but quickly pulled himself together. - However, it would be strange if the God of Magic didn't know something about this - well, to the lady's credit, there was practically no "radiation" coming from her, if I hadn't known that there should be a connection, I wouldn't have found anything, rather writing it off as an individual feature.
- I must admit, a perfectly controlled connection.
- Exactly. Something that has clearly been achieved through long practice and great experience, but which she forbids others from even approaching! It is almost impossible to even find anything in our library on this subject! - the mage was clearly touched by this topic.
- And why do you need this knowledge, Master Kaecilius? In your voice I clearly sense not the interest of a desk scientist, but the thirst of a practitioner. Do you wish to gain immortality?
"No," he closed his eyes and shook his head, "it's just… if the Dark Dimension can prolong life, heal… it won't allow any more suffering, pain…"
- I see, "happiness for all for free, and let no one go away offended" - it's funny, although not funny at all. In the film there was a cultist who went crazy, and here... an ordinary idealist. Almost like "a pale youth with a burning gaze", only not a youth at all.
- Yes! You have perfectly formulated what I could not express! - he did not catch the irony at all. However, it is not surprising - we switched to Danish in a completely natural way, apparently - his native language. For me, as God, it was completely natural to make my speech as understandable and close to the interlocutor as possible, he also did not see anything surprising in this fact, and meanwhile, stable idiomatic turns of phrase and catchphrases do not always have an identical analogue in meaning in other languages.
- Well, I understand your difficulties. I must admit, your goal is noble in its own way, and your intentions are good, but with them you are paving your way directly to Hell. And I am speaking literally now.
"I don't understand," he frowned.
- Let me explain, - I take a sip of truly wonderful tea. - You are indignant that the Elder hides from you the methods of contact with the Dark Dimension. But tell me, don't you hide from the children the "methods of contact" with the electric current in the socket?
"But she..." the magician began, but cut himself off, obeying my gesture.
– The ban on sticking your fingers into a socket does not cancel the existence of electricians, workers at nuclear power plants and other power engineers. But even they will tell you that sticking two nails into a socket with your bare hands is a very bad idea. Of course, comparing a primitive electric current running in copper wires with the matters of higher magic is not entirely correct, but if for such a primitive and simple phenomenon as an electrical network, incorrect user behavior is fraught with death, then for higher magic it is even more naive to assume the absence of such dangers.
- Are you saying that my skills and knowledge are insufficient? - He frowned. - But where can I get them, if even mentioning this dimension is almost Taboo?
- To answer this question, you should first find out what the Dark Dimension actually is, my friend. So sit back, wet your throat and get ready to listen, - Kaecilius obediently did everything that was suggested. He was really greedy for knowledge, he did not have this knowledge, but he was glad to correct this unpleasant situation. - So, the energy of the Dark Dimension is really capable of much. Its very concept denies part of the laws of this reality, and therefore, using it here, you can not only bypass the laws of nature, but almost rewrite them. Sounds good, doesn't it?
"Yes…" the magician nodded.
- There is always a small "but", and when we talk about those places and energies, there are a lot of these "buts". There is still no unity among the Aesir and Vanir on the issue of what is the cause and what is the consequence of establishing a connection with this dimension, but the fact remains. The energies from the Dark Dimension change their user. They make him tougher, more aggressive, more intolerant of other people's opinions, in a word - they make him become someone like Darth Vader from Star Wars.
- Excuse me? - Yeah, stern Tibetan sorcerers are not in the filmography of the last decades.
– You haven't seen Star Wars? – I must admit, it was surprising. When Jane Foster didn't get the joke about Padme, it was understandable – there simply wasn't a second trilogy about Anakin, but the first one about Luke and the Empire was here.
"Mmm… I may have heard something about such a film, but I was never interested," the man admitted.
- I see... You know the Christmas story about Ebenezer Scrooge? You know, the one where the three spirits of Christmas set the old bilious bastard on the right path? - the magician nodded. - Well, his image from the beginning of the story is quite typical for a user of the energy of the Dark Dimension, just add to it the readiness to use force at any moment that is fatal for the interlocutor, - it seems that the picture where the cool pagan God appeals to Christian fairy tales broke him a little, although, it would seem, why? By the way, they also have Wi-Fi here! At the Academy of Magic! - In general, all known users of this power, those who use it a lot and often, have an extremely difficult character. I think it is also not without reason that the Eldest constantly meditates and leads a lifestyle more characteristic of a Buddhist monk than the Supreme Sorcerer of the Earth. But even this is far from the main problem of "communication" with the Dark Dimension. The second nuance is that it is inhabited. And for the inhabitants there, all other creatures are just food and toys. Of course, with the exception of those who can eat them themselves or play with them, such they certainly respect. Do you want to know what would happen to you if you tried to contact the power of the Dark Dimension now, Master Kaecilius?
"Enlighten me, venerable sir," he said, taking a sip from his cup with difficulty.
- To begin with, you would gain "incredible power," I showed quotation marks with my fingers, - the force would whisper to you that you are right, that you are doing everything right and only you know how it should be. And you would also very quickly have "friends" on the other side. Depending on your moral guidelines and ideas close to your heart, you would be told very convincing and beautiful fairy tales, starting with how to gain irresistible power and punish all offenders, and ending with how unhappy the world around you is and how wonderful the Dark Dimension is with its inhabitants who really want to help people. And all you need to do to implement any of the options is just open the door for your new friends. And it's good if you run into some lower creatures that in the event of a "breakthrough" will simply devour you and a couple of districts of the nearest cities before Asgard, under whose protectorate the Earth is, intervenes, or the sorcerers themselves find the strength to overcome the threat. But you can attract the attention of more dangerous creatures, I suppose the name Dormammu should be familiar to you?
- Yes, I have come across him in books several times.
- This is the Lord of the Dark Dimension, or rather, he considers himself to be one thanks to his ego inflated to incredible proportions. And if he starts communicating with you, he will be able to tell you how to "invite" him correctly, and visit Earth for your soul, and then... he will simply come and devour this world. Even Asgard will simply not have time to interfere, not to mention others.
- B-but... - he didn't want to believe it, - what about the Elder? What about you?
- Me? Personally, with all my experience in magic, I don't poke my nose into the Dark Dimension. In order to work with its energies more or less safely for myself, I need to have enough power to, if not destroy Dormammu, then make them reckon with me, make them understand that getting involved would be too expensive. I know of five beings in our entire universe who can do that, and most of them don't risk prying into these matters anyway, and even Odin resorts to the power of the Dark Dimension only in the most extreme cases, and he is the most powerful of these five.
- But... you are the King of Asgard? Doesn't that mean that...
- No, Odin is not dead, he is simply sleeping in a kind of coma, which helps him to recover his health. After all, he is an ancient God - even by the standards of the Aesir, he was an old man even before I was born. So I am simply fulfilling the duty of the commander-in-chief until he returns to business.
- But the Elder? Is she really stronger than you?
- No, - I shook my head. - I'm not exactly sure how she connects to the Dark Dimension, but I believe her path is the path of stealth. A person has a very limited supply of personal power, I believe that, if you know how, it is quite possible to hide it from someone else's greedy gaze, but even so, drawing from that place is very, very dangerous. This is when you are strong and can fight back, the attention of the creatures there is more likely just an irritant for you and nothing more, but if you are weak and you are still found ... I believe that such a situation will not be good for a magician.
- So... it's all in vain? To no avail? People will remain "food and toys"?
- No, - I smiled, - your species is still very, very young and only on the path to its formation. You have heard of mutants, haven't you? - the magician nodded cautiously. - Here is a clear example of a gradual transition to a new stage of evolution. The same applies to magicians, your potential for energy management is quite comparable to the Aesir, Vanir, Jotuns and other divine races, but the flame of your inner fire is still too young and weak to fan it, it will take tens and hundreds of generations. Sooner or later, a qualitative leap will occur.
"But I'm unlikely to see it," Kaecilius sighed sadly. "Still, thank you, venerable one," he bowed again, "now I understand that the Elder was protecting us… though it's not clear why she didn't just explain?"
"Well," I finished my tea, "don't forget that she's not young, even though she looks good. The fact that she managed to avoid her body aging doesn't mean that she was able to avoid her mind aging and its fatigue. And old people don't really like to explain their decisions, especially to someone who, from their point of view, is too fussy and young. Besides, there were many students in her lifetime, and there were probably great disappointments, mistakes, and tragedies. And wounds on the heart can ache even centuries after they were inflicted. I think that any of us, having lost someone close, would not want to allow others to do what led to their loss. And, quite likely, we would be much more diligent in this than we should have been… Besides, in our case, the situation is really much more complicated than with the outlet, because, you must admit, the outlet doesn't whisper "lick me" in the baby's ear when no one is looking.
- You have very... strange analogies...
- But it is clear, - I smiled. - Well, okay, let's not talk about sad things. You, master, made a pleasant impression on me, as did your mentor, and therefore allow me to give you a small gift.
With these words, I pulled one of Stark's modified reactors out of my subspace pocket. Built on Asgardian technology and with a neutronic working fluid, it could easily work for a couple of tens of thousands of years before the core was exhausted, especially when idle. However, giving it away in its pure form still wasn't quite right. Not that I believed in the ability of magicians to copy such a high-tech device, which even Tony himself would not immediately admit, but... we are talking about the Marvel Cinematic Universe! And I'm in Tibet, which is almost China! And here the main supporting villain of this franchise takes and passes on some technical gadget to an almost Chinese person in almost China, what could go wrong here? That's why he was born already covered by the illusion of just a clot of white radiance, and a bucket of adamantium appeared behind him. Thanks to the structure of the metal, it will not be a problem for the transmission of the energy of the Living Light, and the device will protect against reverse engineering. Then the heated metal obediently rose with the help of telekinesis and formed a beautiful monolithic sarcophagus around the reactor in the form of a runed cube. Because cubes are cool! And runed - so that it would be easier for local magicians to use the energy of the Living Light, fortunately, I worked out all the schemes for the "night light" in Odin's crib. A couple more seconds were spent on proper cooling with ice magic, and the new almost Tesseract was handed to the venerable sorcerer.
- This is a portal to the dimension of Living Light, it also puts pressure on the brain, but quite moderately, especially since there is a kind of filter here, and the connection is one-way. Practice with it, and then, you see, in a couple of centuries the Elder will see that a child can grow up to be an energy specialist, - I couldn't help but grin kindly.
"T-thank you…" the magician whispered in shock, realizing WHAT he had received as a gift. "Truly, a gift from God…"
- Use it in good health and take care of your students. Well, and don't cause apocalypses by getting involved with dubious world eaters. After all, if there were wealthy demons among us, they would have lived among us long ago, but for tens of thousands of years, millions of magicians from all corners of the universe have never met anyone, but the number of civilizations that perished from thoughtless attempts to poke their noses in that direction is countless. And thanks for the tea!
Secret vault in a secret S.H.I.E.L.D. base. Late at night.
The dull color scheme of the room's duty light was suddenly supplemented by a bright orange gleam, born of a spatial disc-shaped cut. Having carefully peered through it and not finding any witnesses in the room, a young-looking man in a dark green half-coat stepped inside, holding a silver cane decorated with an image of a snake.
Standing on the hard floor, he looked around once more and listened, reflexively rubbing the two silver rings on the index and middle fingers of his right hand with the gesture of a person not yet accustomed to something new. Having made sure that there really was no one nearby, he walked to the wall where several safe deposit boxes were located. An intricate hand gesture - and the combination locks unlocked, and the heavy door moved aside, revealing the contents of the vault.
Grinning at the picture of emptiness that opened up before him, the alien deftly pulled out a scarlet flag decorated with a hammer and sickle from a fold in space, after which, with the air of an aestheticized perfectionist, he installed it in the very center of the empty cell.
- There! That's much better, - he commented on his actions in a quiet voice, full, however, of pride and pleasure, and, using telekinesis again, closed the safe. - And the last thing I needed was for some rhinestones of script impotence to ruin the whole Intrigue for me! You see, they've taken up the fashion of brainwashing, and we have a tradition. And anyway, a beautiful red flag is better than a creepy blue cube, - with these words he turned to the portal still hanging in the air and headed for the exit. - I wonder if I'm the only one so original that, having acquired the ability to bend space to my liking, I used it first of all for something like this? Although... - he froze for a moment in front of the portal, - where does tea come from in Kamar-Taj? I'll never believe that they themselves run to the store for it...
Nodding with a smile to his own conclusion, the uninvited guest of the warehouse stepped into the circle, slightly glowing with orange light along the contour, and was gone. And a week later, on a completely anonymous tip, a completely uninvolved entrepreneur arranged an audit of this warehouse. Having fallen into open hysteria after the results of the inventory due to the search for the "Red Menace", one black disabled veteran was very timely examined by a completely randomly passing medical commission, after which the question of the retirement of the honored, but health-impaired worker was also very quickly considered and satisfied. Naturally, by pure coincidence. Coincidences - they are so random...
Notes:
*(1) "Dance of the Evil Genius". Performer: "King and the Jester", album: "Demon Theatre".