Chapter 10- Sad Discussions Over Tea

  Citadel Fourth floor- Mystic Studies Room- 4th day of the month of Niffle of the 6983 GR (Morning)

  Nath’aniel-

  Erik had spent the next twenty or so minutes looking over the design that he had written for him, before leaving ahead of them. Nath'aniel pnned to make his portion ter tonight once everyone else had retired. Meanwhile, he and Wanda tore into the Servant Thesis itself. He was focusing more on the addendums, trying to locate his eight mark. While his disciple continued to work through and read the dozens of scrolls that covered the main theory. Then the Citadel reminded him that he other things that he needed to do today.

  “The Ancient One has exited a portal near the Entreatment waiting area. Should I open the Perception Filter and let her in?”

  The mage shook his head before rubbing his eyes, as he did he muttered. "What? Oh, right that was today. Yes, please do." Yet before leaving, he looked over at the young mutant woman and asked her. "Are you understanding, what it is you are reading there?"

  Wanda smiled at him and ran her hands through her glimmered hair before admitting. "Some of it, mostly because of what I've seen Betsy and Shanna have done in front of me. The real thing that confuses me is this portion about the 'Awakening Chant'. I recall that we mages do not really use chants. Just Intent, Will, and Theory. The runes we draw are just shorthand to get our heads into the right state of mind to understand the Theory.”

  "Correct, Will is the ability to move the mystical energy, and Intent is seeing the outcome." The mage appuded her and didn't correct that she wasn't a mage, as the method she was learning from him was based on his style of magic. Then he added. "However, more advanced Theories can be attained through ritual. This is often seen in the mystic arts used by Sorcerers and Witches.'

  “Instead of runes, they require specific gestures to Attract and chants to get them into the right mindset as our runes do for us. That this magic requires us to do as they do, shows you the level that it is at… Now off with you. I have a guest to entertain, and you have your own magic lessons to work on.”

  Wanda quickly rolled up the scroll that she had unfurled and had been reading, before adding it back to the cart. Nath'aniel didn't physically do the same but used a simple cantrip to roll up his own. Then the two of them left the chamber.

  Once outside, he told the Citadel. "Lock the Mystic Studies rooms, my voice and presence are required to open." His disciple gave him a look but didn’t ask him why he was taking such steps.

  They then heard the various mechanisms trigger, locking the doors to the room. Then the Citadel reported.

  “It is secured.”

  He nodded towards Wanda's bow to him before she left him, as she did the mage asked the cieling. "Where are we having this gathering?"

  “She asked it to be private, so I have the Utility units bringing the tea and hot water to Reading Room Two on the third floor.”

  The Nath nodded to the answer, while it hadn’t seen too much use in the Citadel’s history, with the deal he made with the Brotherhood that had changed. Having had a session or two of with Erik in the very room she had selected. Given that this was months of waiting, he used the Re-locators to get there quicker. However, he was still the st one to arrive. Erik and the bald woman were chatting beside the room’s lone table, while the constructs finished pcing the st settings.

  As he got closer he heard the mutant leader ask her. “Does your group also have an army of robots to do your bidding?”

  The mage noticed that she was still wearing the neckce that held her Infinity Stone. Although she wore more traditional robes, over the fighting version she wore the st time they had met. The Ancient One shook her head before expining. "No, we don't, we found it too time-consuming to maintain their mystic charge and frames. That doesn't mean a few of our Masters don't have one or two in their personal collections."

  The mage frowned when he entered the room. It seemed to him that the sor energy in the room was shifting a touch too much, but more than that he thought there was an extra pilr since the st time he had been in this room. The one inconsistency he partially expected, the other he defiantly didn't. In the end, though he just shrugged and moved to join the other two near the table.

  “Some things are much faster when the energy is already avaible.” Nath’aniel pointed out once he joined them.

  “Thus the speed advantage of a Founder.” The Ancient One stated.

  “Mage.” He corrected, but then added. “But seeing as how all those you met before me, were the ones you met founded your Order, I understand your confusion.”

  “Right, mage.” She agreed. Then the woman pointed to a red box that she must have brought with her before she added. "I brought crumpets."

  “What is a crumpet?” the mage asked.

  Erik answered. “A type of hard pastry, you are supposed to dunk it in tea to soften it. It comes from Engnd, an isnd nation north of what you call the Northern Realm.”

  "The only isnds I recall being near the Northern Realm was Atntis," Nath'aniel stated somewhat confused.

  The Ancient One crified. “The Sea levels have risen since your internment. Making some of the lownds of the Northern Realm to now is below the water level. And while I was born on said isnds, I am not English… I am Celtic by birth, I was even a druid before my joining the Order, after I eventually made my way to Kamar-Taj.”

  The sor energy in the room suddenly increased massively for a moment. Nath’aniel felt Elizabeth quickly approach him, and a second ter the sudden increase of psychic energy in the room told him that she was scolding the hidden light maniputor.

  "What was that?" She asked after the sor levels returned to normal.

  “Exodus is nearby. Last I knew he was conducting some training with the younger members of the Brotherhood.” Nath’aniel stated a half-truth to answer her question.

  The sorceress tilted her head before asking. "He is your rumored light maniputor, I have yet to meet. What is his real name if I may ask?"

  Erik however pointed out. “Given that you have not given us your name… that is a touch rude to ask.”

  “You are correct, my apologies.” She said before bowing to the air between them. “For so long I have tried to be just ‘the Ancient One’ that I have often forgotten to properly introduce myself… I am Gwynevere, of Shadowglen. Not that Shadowglen is still around tofay. I think today, they have since built a fishing vilge where it was."

  Nath’aniel noticed that the psychic energy spiked again, warning him to move things along. So he smiled and asked the other two. “Shall we get started?”

  Gwynevere went to the closet chair. Nath saw that Erik used his powers to pull the chair out for her. He was a touch embarrassed that she nodded at him and not the man who did it, before sitting down. Yet Erik pushed it in never the less, before he moved to one of his own.

  Nath’aniel was the st to sit down, as he did he asked. “So what type of tea goes well with these crumpets?”

  "I doubt any of the teas you have," Erik admitted.

  “Oh, you two drink tea regurly?” She asked them.

  The mutant leader just nodded, while the mage admitted. “Not before he moved into the Citadel, but I will admit the practice has grown on me.”

  “Well then as the least experienced here, why don’t you pick a blend?” The sorceress suggested to him.

  Nath’aniel nodded and gestured towards one of the Utility constructs, and asked it. “Some Grey Tail tea please?”

  “Mmm, it is rare to have a cup of tea from the Dark World," Gwynevere said when he named the brand.

  “The ‘Dark world’?” Erik asked for crification.

  “The nickname for Svartalfheim, homeworld of the Dark Elves." The mage expined.

  “Ah, the one that originally didn’t have any light at all… why is it so rare? Nath’aniel has casks of the leaves.” The mutant leader wondered out loud.

  "I am guessing the light issue has worsened, and their fields are limited," Nath'aniel stated in his opinion.

  “While that is an issue, the biggest problem is that they are still recovering from the bombardment. Over half of their world is still covered in ice.” The Ancient One corrected.

  “What bombardment?” The mage asked in surprise.

  She tapped her index fingers together, before answering. “It was during Yao’s time as Ancient One when this happened, I wasn’t even born yet. Yet as the story goes, apparently one of their cns raided Muspelheim.”

  “Bold of them.” He praised.

  “Quite.” She agreed.

  “Why?” Erik asked unaware of the nd that they were discussing.

  The mage gave a touch of the history of that world saying. “There has been a civil war ongoing on Mespelheim since forever. Between the two dominant races there, the Fire Giants and the Fire Demons."

  Gwynevere agreed. "Correct, the raiders somehow got themselves caught between the two major forces at that current time. Seeing no other way out, they sought any method of escape. In the end, they settled on creating a distraction before making a break for the dark tunnels and escape from the world.'

  “And the distraction they used was to sneak into the unguarded Castle of Inferno, once inside they made their way to the northern wing.”

  “They didn’t?” Nath’aniel excimed in mild horror.

  The sorceress nodded before finishing the tale. “And they removed the shard of Everice buried in the temple of Surtur, it took him an hour or so, but he woke and began to rampage. Both forces didn't know how to stop him, so they baited him and used what limited magic they could, so when Asgard used the Bifrost next, and so the Giants and Demons basically banished the massive savage man a few minutes after their ritual was complete.”

  The story was paused as a Utility construct approached the table before it started pouring tea into each of their awaiting cups. Both Erik and Nath'aniel watched as Gwynevere sniffed the aroma the tea was releasing.

  “Smells lovely.” She muttered.

  "You should let it breathe for a bit before tasting it," Nath'aniel suggested.

  “Yes, and finish your story. Where did Surtur end up? As I recall in Norse mythology, he was the first Fire Giant and would be the one to start Ragnarok.” The mutant leader requested.

  So she did. "He was, and he is also the first Fire Demon, but that is a different story. Well, he and a team of Asgaridan merchants arrived at Jotunheim’s First Market pza. Unsurprisingly the hungry, angry Fire Demon didn’t blink and just continued his rampage killing and gorging on souls of those present.’

  “The Frost Giants still had their Casket at this time, so King Laufey ordered its use. However, all it did was hurt and slow the Fire Lord down, in the end, both LauFey and Odin were needed to trap and resend Surtur back to his home world.”

  She then took her first sip of the tea. The two men followed her example, but they didn't need to bask in the taste, as they had drunk this blend of tea before. Gwynevere tapped her chin before saying. “It’s fruitier than would have imagined.”

  "It was why such a good blend to get this one to enjoy real tea," Erik said, pointing at him.

  Nath’aniel briefly gred at the mutant. He took another sip just ahead of asking the sorceress. “So I assume someone eventually learned that it was the Dark Elves that let Surtur out, but how did that lead to their world being bombarded?”

  The Ancient One nodded before answering. “King Laufey demanded wergild for the death of one of his sons to Surtur’s rampage, there was nothing that the Fire Demon owned that the Frost Giant sought, so he id the debt on the Dark Elves. The various cns refused to pay, and the cn who were truly responsible had gone into hiding, nowhere to be found."

  When she took a moment to take another sip of her tea, the mage muttered. “So it led to war.”

  Gwynevere nodded again before expining the end of her story. “A short one, Laufey started it with a series of attacks, which basically conjured and dropped a gcier the size of a mountain on the Dark World. When word of that reached Asgard, Odin stepped in again. For overstepping, Odin took the Laufey’s eyes, that was a peaceful three hundred years where the Giants didn’t raid anyone.”

  Hearing this caused Nath’ainel to withdraw into his thoughts. He recalled his time in that world and the people he met there. The other two used the time to sip at their tea and break out their hard snack.

  Then he asked. “Did the Night’s Spire survive?”

  “It did.” She admitted after taking a breath.

  “Who holds court there?” the mage asked.

  “No one.” She immediately said but then added. “The Bck Guard have barred its doors, and refuse all that attempt to enter. They say it will remain so till they meet a warlord of 'unquestioned repute'. That was over two thousand years ago."

  "So the Dark Elves are even more scattered than before," Nath'aniel muttered, she hummed in agreement as she dipped one of her cookies into her tea.

  Erik waited for the mage to take a sip of his now much cooler tea, before asking them. “No offense, but all this talk of fantasy creatures makes me need to ask. How dangerous are they?”

  The Ancient One did not hold back her answer. “Do not think them weak because of their name, Master of Magnetism. If you were to face a Giant not only can they be more than twice your height and width, but they are creatures of both flesh and spirit. Like the mages, their home world’s magic comes easily to them. Meaning they all have ranged options without need of weapons or tools.’

  "As for the elves, this world's stories of them being simple archers and swordsmen are vastly outdated. I think that you might find many simirities between their armed forces and this world's, only their officers are also users of the mystic arts. Don't even get me started on the Dwarves, the little arms dealers."

  “Still toiling away in their mines and workshops are they?” Nath’aniel jested.

  “I said don’t get me started on them.” the sorceress repeated.

  The mage rubbed his chin in thought before saying. “I should probably reach out. My father had dealings with one of their guild halls. I should make sure that I don’t have any outstanding debt with them.”

  “Probably, the only people more strict and adherent to the w than them are the Angels.” Gwynevere agreed.

  The mutant smirked before asking in jest. “Can we get started on them?”

  The bd woman chuckled a bit, and then Nath’aniel said. “No, I think it is time we get to the real reason why you are here.”

  She nodded, before forming a circle with her hands, as her hands swapped pces the top one now on the bottom. Her neckce opened and revealed the glowing green marble stored inside of it.