Chapter 12- Tea and Talks Finish

  Citadel – 3rd Floor Private Sitting room- 2008- 10- 22 (Noon)

  Exodus-

  For the next hour and then some, his lord, their host Nath'aniel, and the druid chatted about random things. Much of it was things of little note, such as some magic tidbit or two that the two magic users compared. The only really high moment was when the druid was shocked when she found out that they had fought and beaten the High Evolutionary and his creations.

  Apparently, her group had been keeping tabs on him for some time, even before he got to the Savage Lands. The mad scientist had caused havoc wherever he seemed to set up shop. Yet she and her order hadn’t yet taken action because he wasn't a big enough threat to the world as the group of sorcerers saw it. Until of course, he was, and he had amassed enough protection that they now didn't want to take the risk to deal with him.

  The knight hid behind one of the pilrs, his back to them, but he had one of his extra sights watching the trio as they chatted. His other extra sight was on the ‘pilr’ that was actually the team’s shape-shifter.

  The knight shook his head when the bald woman touched her ear. It reminded him of the woman he met all those centuries ago, when she had long blonde hair and wore animal furs. Not the oriental stlye robes she wore now.

  Anger took him when realizing that she was one of the people who had taken him in and then wiped his memory of his time with them. It was when he had been on the run after settling a couple debts after his powers first manifested. So when he reacted to this, Psylocke had appeared before him. While her real sword was still sheathed in her sash, however, her telepathic threats were enough to calm him down.

  Yet now the telepath was frowning. So he made a neon blue construct out of the room's light between his hands. It read, 'WAT?'

  “Her thoughts have massively sped up. I think she is using that time rock thingy.” Psylocke told him mentally.

  So he reworked the construct so it read, ‘FGT?+’

  “What? And why the plus sign?” She telepathically asked him. He reshaped the blue lights into the shape of two stick men punching each other. Exodus then heard her soft ughter inside of his head at the sight. When she calmed down, Psylocke shook her head and telepathically told him. “No, it’s fine, I think she was going to offer him something, but instead of just making the offer she saw the results of the offer with the time thing first.”

  Then the two of them stopped conversing when Gwenevere cleared her throat and said. “There is one more thing that I wanted to discuss with you.”

  “Good ahead.” They heard the mage tell her.

  Exodus watched as the druid rested her elbows on the table and intertwined her fingers before continuing. "As I have said with the stone I can see things before they happen. Before the battle at the Sun Temple, I used the stone to gauge the difficulty of another battle. However, during that trip, I learned what the Sun people were up to so we scrapped that battle pn completely. That said, the vision may have information that may be of value to you.”

  "The information that you have shared is already a treasure on its own. You don't need to share more if you wish to simply leave now." Nath'aniel told the woman when she paused.

  "No, this is information that you need… you are aware of a man having taken over the Man-ape tribe yes." She told them but waited for his lord and the mage to answer. When they nodded she continued. "We were under the impression that this outsider, as the Savage Lands call them, was a priest or disciple of Sekhmet. Worried that such man might call upon his god, especially with the prophecy in the air at the time, our pn was to face this man and prevent him from starting a battle with Frey.”

  "A reasonable conclusion, given the events and information at the time," Nath’aniel muttered.

  Then his lord added. "It is odd that the mercenary hasn't done anything since taking over the tribe. I am told that these man-apes are quiet the force down here."

  “That is because the Wakandan is no more," Gwenevere told them. His lord blinked at this news.

  While the mage asked. “What’s a wacandian?”

  “It’s the nation that the group you call the Inheritors have formed in the modern day.” Magneto answered. Then he asked the woman. “Are you certain? He seemed skilled and I was certain he was Enhanced.”

  “I didn’t say that he was dead, I said he was no more. He was serving as personal host to the Lion God when I met him.” The druid expined.

  “Ahh, poor bastard… Wait. Hold on a minute, he must be in his female state.” Nath’aniel stated after hearing the expnation.

  “Spot on, Founder.” Gwenevere agreed.

  His lord waved his hands back and forth confused, and said as much. “I am missing something here. He is a she, what? And why does Hard-case serving as host mean he is gone?”

  Nath’aniel answered his lord expining. “Even before their ascension to godhood, the Heliopolitans were gender fluid. That is each could be male or female given their needs or state of mind. For most, their personality did not change much. Thoth and Bast are prime examples of that. However, for a rare few, their personalities completely change when they did the switch. If Sekhmet were active in the Savage Lands we would know of it. The rivers would be red with the war and bloodshed and he would be reaping death all around us.'

  "As for being a 'host', in this case, it is a literal case. Remember that the Heliopolitans, unlike us, have ascended. Like Cuhra, Hathor, who would be the lion god's female state, could literally climb inside of a person, and wear them like a suit if she so wanted to."

  “Correct again Founder, when I met this Hard-case he was being used as a skinsuit by Hathor, Goddess of Fertility.” The druid agreed again. As she smiled, the knight saw the younger version of her again.

  “So what does she want?” Magneto asked the druid.

  Gwenevere pointed at the mage and said. “Him. More specifically she wants to be a mother for his future children.”

  His lord ughed and then he pointed out. "Well, I think given her current skinsuit there would be a few difficulties with that.”

  “She said that her host wouldn’t be a problem, given her powers.” the druid reported.

  “Yes, that would be within her power set.” The mage agreed.

  While Magneto brought back his confused face. The druid added. “Although Hathor admitted that she would settle for being your midwife… The real gift that she wanted to offer you, Nath'aniel, is her blessing. So that anyone you have a child with, would be a full-blooded mage."

  Nath'aniel chuckles at that, before looking over at Exodus' lord and muttering. "Apparently you weren't the only one thinking about that problem of mine." It was the druid's turn to have a confused look.

  Then Magneto expined. “One of the members of the Brotherhood can copy a person down to their genetic level. While we haven’t had the time as of yet, she has agreed to be a surrogate mother for him. Once he provides her a sample of a mage for her to copy.”

  “And as I expined to her at the Newmen compound. Mage DNA is complicated. It’s not as easy as you tribesmen of the nd.” Nath’aniel snapped back.

  “Regardless, knowing how people work, she didn’t offer this blessing for free. So what does the Egyptian Goddess of making children want in payment for her services?” Magneto asked the bald woman.

  Gwenevere started with the obvious saying. "Besides wanting to be the patron deity for whatever nation you will eventually create. I am guessing she is still sore that Bast beat her to it the same for Wakanda.”

  “Well I have enough to do before I found anything, let alone a country.” The mage muttered.

  He watched the druid sighed before continuing. “But before I mention the other thing she wants, I have a question of my own. I already suspect, but I would like confirmation. Do you have a Servant?”

  Both Exodus and Psylocke frowned when Nath'aniel said. "No." But then he added. "I have two." the telepath in front of him then vanished in a cloud of purple sparkles. The knight watched with his extra sight as the mage pulled back the sleeves of his robes revealing the tattoos to the druid.

  "Bind points and command spells," Gwenevere muttered in surprise.

  A moment ter both Psylocke and She-Devil materialized on either side of the mage.

  Then the druid stared at the two women, after a length of time his lord requested. "He answered your question. Now what does Hathor want from us?”

  “Sorry, it just seeing history in person is so much stronger when you don’t expect it. You must understand no one, in the thousands of years since the idea of binding people or spirits was first suggested, has anyone gotten it to work.” The druid rambled instead of answering. She still seemed shocked at the two women standing beside the mage.

  “Not even my surviving kin?” Nath’aniel asked her.

  "No, not even the other Founders. Admittedly they were busy trying to build an organization that would eventually become our Order, the Masters of the Mystic Arts." The sorceress took another short moment to bask while staring at the two women beside the mage. Then she finally answered his lord's question. "Hathor is under the impression that you have a Grail, and she hopes to have some say in its use.”

  The mage burst out ughing at that muttering “Ascendancy, I wish.”

  While the mage continued to ugh Magneto asked confused. “A cup?”

  “No, not a cup. But a Holy Grail, or more than likely the Holy Grail, given their rarity.” The Ancient One answered.

  “As in Jesus’s Grail?” his lord asked again. The druid shook her head in response.

  When Nath’aniel calmed down, he said. “The Grail is a seed… and trust me, just like the Time Stone, and the other ones, I would know if a Grail was on this pnet in a heartbeat. And it’s not.”

  “A seed for what?” Magneto asked.

  “Legends say that it will grant a wish to the one who awakens the Grail.” The druid answered his lord.

  "Well I don't have one, so we can discuss and theories what it is at a ter date," Nath'aniel suggested.

  “When? It took us months for you to get to expining what she has around her neck." His lord asked the mage, while pointing at the druid’s neckce.

  “How about your next session with me?” The mage suggested.

  Exodus knew that of all of the Brotherhood, his lord went the most often to take a turn. The two of them often discuss a modern machine of convenience, and the mage would expin how his people built something simir.

  "Well, this has been fun, too bad it took us so long to arrange it." The Ancient One said as she pushed herself away from the table. Yet before standing she again touched her neckce.

  Nath’aniel did the same, muttering. “I will walk you upstairs to the Portal Room. You should be able to open a portal of your own inside the room.” Once he was standing both of the Servants vanished in a puff of sparkles. Then the two magic users walked first to the door and then out of the room.

  Before the doors even finished closing, the pilr he was watching shrank and reformed into Mystique. He also stepped out from the cover that he had been using. Exodus knew that his lord knew they were there the moment he stepped into the room.

  “Really, both of you needed to stand watch?” His lord snapped at them.

  The shape-shifter spoke, before he could say anything. "With the weapon she has of course we snuck in and kept an eye on her. Remember till he finds the time to sit on this pce's control thing, if he dies we all do too."

  His lord looked at him, but the knight just shrugged in agreement.

  Mystique continued her rant. "Look, with this insight into this upcoming battle, this 'Battle for New York', we should use this to our advantage."

  "I agree, the younger members need more experience," Exodus muttered.

  The mother either ignored or didn't hear him, as she continued. "This is a real opportunity, Erik. We could change how the world sees us, think about it, if we got there first, before these Enhanced, we would be hailed the heroes for stopping the invasion. Your mage friend is already set on going if you didn't miss it."

  "While that may be the case, we would also be swallowing all of the risks." Magneto pointed out.

  She smmed her palms on the table at his interruption though. Exodus materialized a pair of light rapiers in the air above and behind the woman. "We are a force to be feared, we should remind them of that… Mutants are in danger out there. And we are doing nothing! If we save them, they have to accept our presence."

  His lord started at her a moment before replying. "You think we are being idle, but we are not, doing nothing. We are preparing the next generation of us. Unlike you and Sabertooth, many of us are all still aging, Raven. And if we just rush them, your kids and mine, into things, all we will do is break them… Look I know what this is about. You are upset that we still haven't settled things with this Cable person. But much like your proactive suggestion, we have no leads. If we did, we would be going after him or them."

  Exodus shifted and moved the two bdes so when she stood up and shape-shifter snapped, so she would impale herself on them. “Then put me back out there, I will get you a lead.”

  Magneto leaned back, as the worker robot started to clean up the table. As the machine worked he said. "Not in the state you're in… We dodge a bullet with SHIELD stepping in and keeping the allied fleet from approaching our doorstep. The st thing we need is for you to go out there and even accidentally cause a scene. It may cast all of us into a war we cannot currently win.'

  "The three of us have the biggest targets on our backs, and while the bounties for us, are on our alter-egos, that doesn't mean some people won't figure out who we are. So for now, unless we need to, the three of us need to y low"

  Mystique growled at him, before leaving the table. On her way to the door, she bumped into one of the other robots. The machine stopped and watched the shape-shifter leave. As the doors closed Exodus noticed that the blue woman was rubbing her shoulder, like she had done more damage to herself than the machine.

  “Something you wanted to add?” His lord asked him.

  The knight nodded before saying. “Two things, the first, I know this ‘Ancient One’ from before I was entombed by the demon.”

  “She was one of your druids?” Magneto asked surprised.

  Exodus nodded again, before adding. "She had hair then and wore furs, not robes."

  “Are you going to confront her about it?” His lord inquired.

  “I am not sure.” The knight admitted.

  “And the other thing, you wanted to talk about?” The mutant leader asked before he stood up.

  "I think we need to talk about Psylocke," Exodus admitted after a moment.

  “What about her?” Magneto asked with a frown.

  “I worry that her goals and ours no longer align. Not only because she is tied to him via some magic spell, but also because she is sleeping with him.” the knight started with. “And while, I do think that Nath’aniel is a boon to us, not just because of the Citadel or the materials it stores. I think his desire to help is true, and he is a good lord, let alone a good person.’

  "But as it sits, if there is a conflict within the Brotherhood. The way we settle it is by vote. A vote that is cast by you, Mystique, and Psylocke, and I wonder how long till her vote, is his vote."

  “A good lord eh… and you say that as if it is a bad thing, his mind is on the same level as mine and Charles’, if not higher.” His lord argued, before crossing his arms in thought.

  "However he is not a mutant and we are the Brotherhood of Mutants." Exodus reminded his lord.

  “I will keep it in mind, but keep this concern to yourself, at least for now. After all, Psylocke will not be the st woman to start sleeping with the mage." Magneto ordered before leaving.

  Exodus nodded, and let his thoughts drift back to the druid, and what scraps he had of his time with her and her people.