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After asking the Cloak of Levitation to keep watch, Stephen slept. He slept more soundly than he had in years. He placed the blame solely on Joanna, no Clea's, mind seek. The images he'd seen, plus the experience of trying to read her thoughts under the constant barrage of her mental attacks, had utterly drained him.
Calling Clea by the name she'd been born with was still an anathema to him, but Clea (she no longer saw herself as Joanna) had accepted her birthright, and Stephen had to respect that. Yet in his mind, she would always be "Joanna," his first student, the bitter but sorrowful mother turned awe-struck skeptic who had evolved into a novice sorcerer.
Sometime in the dark and quiet hours of the early morning, Stephen opened his eyes to see Clea reading the Book of Cagliostro. If the mind seek had exhausted him, it had seemed to have had the opposite effect on her. Whatever she had found inside her memories of the Dark Dimension invigorated her, and she used it to her full advantage. Even now at… he stared at a clock…. 3:48AM.
His bedroom was dim with only the ancient lamp atop his desk giving off any light. The soft glow lingered over the shadows hiding in corners of his room. No sound came from the Greenwich Village streets outside. Stephen noted the four windows still hummed with the protection spell he'd placed over the glass last night.
A flutter near the bookshelf in the far corner caught his eye. The Cloak of Levitation had noticed he was awake. She tilted the top edge of her collar in Stephen's direction, an acknowledgement of his consciousness. But Clea didn't so much as glance in his direction.
She turned another page.
He smiled softly. "Interesting reading, isn't it?"
She nodded, too busy digesting the material inside the ancient text to reply.
When he'd first begun training her, Stephen had given her permission to read anything she liked from his bookshelves. The only caveat to this freedom was that she study the books only within the safely of his room. The last thing he wanted was for her to attempt a spell without him. It would not only be careless, but any magical energy generated outside of his room could, theoretically, be sensed by Mordo. The last thing he wanted was for that wayward sorcerer to show up and strike her down before she'd had a chance to discover her skills in the mystic arts.
She turned another page, obviously understanding the Sanskrit spells within. Stephen wasn't about to withhold an ounce of knowledge from her. It was one of the lessons of Kamar-Taj he'd been most grateful for. And that included her reading the Book of Cagliostro. He remembered when Wong had told him the book was too advanced for him all those years ago. Wong had been wrong then, and as he watched Clea read page after page, he realized Wong would be just as wrong now.
Clea didn't seem to be having trouble with any of the non-English texts if the pile of books next to her was any indication. Had she read through all of them tonight? He wasn't sure, but he watched in fascination as she flipped through the Book of Cagliostro like a broken sail whipping in the breeze, free and without a destination. While Stephen took pleasure in her reading about magic, a part of him was wry. He remembered his own thirst for knowledge, even forbidden knowledge. What would have happened all those years ago if no one had been inside the library when he'd tampered with time using the Eye of Agamotto?
"It's incredible," Clea breathed as her eyes flickered from page to page. She absorbed the spells as easily as gulping down water.
Stephen moved to join her at the desk, stretching out his tired muscles. "It's incredible, but it's not very intuitive. You'd have to master the basics before attempting these."
"I wish I could do even one of these spells," she whispered.
"May I?" Stephen reached for the book.
Clea handed it over. As soon as she let go of the text, her face fell into a look of sheer exhaustion. She yawned.
He couldn't suppress his grin. "I was going to suggest trying one of the dark ones, but maybe we should try tomorrow. You look tired."
Clea suddenly looked wide-awake. "You want me to try a dark spell?"
"Think of this as an experiment. And a controlled one."
With a flick of his wrist, Stephen split the air around them into the shards of the mirror dimension. Clea stared at the entrance to this new dimension with the awe of a child at Christmas. The look on her face made him smile.
Stephen took her hand. He guided her inside. "This is the Mirror Dimension. When the Ancient One introduced this safe space to me, I was told it was a dimension that was always present but undetected."
"Even by other sorcerers?"
He nodded. "Which is why it's important to keep hold of one of these."
Stephen had Clea's sling ring attached to his belt. As he'd slept, her ring had settled next to his own. He pulled both of them free, slid one onto his knuckles, and handed the other one over to Clea. She placed it on her own fingers with solemn formality.
"I don't even know how to use a sling ring," she said.
"It's easy." He moved to stand beside her. "Think of a place here inside the Sanctum you know well. Visualize it in your mind."
Seconds passed. "Got it," she said.
With his hands on hers, he showed her the basics of creating a portal. But try as she might, she couldn't draw on the Eldritch energy to give her spell power.
Before he could ask if she wanted to try again, her hands wove a different gateway spell, this one with bright purple light. Her fingers twisted in the opposite direction of the Eldritch gateways he was so familiar with. To his surprise, Clea seemed to know this spell by heart. Her hands moved independently of his own.
Stephen dropped his hands and allowed her to work. Had she learned all of this from only one night of study? He watched in stunned silence as the dark spell parted to reveal a gateway straight into her bedroom. She stepped inside and turned back, a huge smile on her face. "Are we still inside the Mirror Dimension?"
He nodded. He didn't trust his voice. Before he could ask her how she had used a spell from the Book of Cagliostro so effortlessly, Clea walked back through to his bedroom. Her gateway shut behind her.
"So, can we try another dark spell now?" she asked excitedly.
He couldn't believe how quickly she was ready to advance. During his early years of training, Stephen had been thrilled just to create a functional gateway. And that had been with the threat of freezing to death looming over him. "We can try a spell from the Book of Cagliostro if you'd like, but I want to warn you that these types of spells are not normally done, even by masters. Most sorcerers consider their use blasphemy against the natural law."
Clea looked shaken. "Then why have me try them?"
"Because you're not human. Because, unlike Eldritch spells which originate from mortality, dark spells originate from a place beyond time."
She lowered her hands. "Trying one of these dark spells won't corrupt me, will it?"
He hesitated. Her eyes were full of unbridled trust for him as a teacher. Kaecilius's corruption from these types of spells, as well as his ultimate betrayal, entered Stephen's thoughts. Should he tell Clea about what happened to Kaecilius and his zealots? Or about how Kaecilius killed the Ancient One because of this exact type of magic she was about to try?
"I don't know what these spells will do to you," Stephen replied truthfully. "I only know the practice of them can corrupt humans. But not all humans have been tainted by using dark magic. The Ancient One drew on this kind of power in order to live for centuries with no ill effects on her body or psyche."
"Have you ever tried these?" she asked gently.
"Only when I had to," he admitted. "And Wong gave me a litany of lectures afterward."
Stephen exited the Mirror-verse, and Clea followed. Thoughts of Wong pulled at his mind, making him feel the urgent need to do something, to find his lost friend and fellow sorcerer.
"You look guilty," she surmised. "It is because you're teaching me?"
"The last time I spoke to Wong, it didn't end well, but my guilt isn't in teaching you. I want to find him. I've checked the cauldron twice after Agent Coulson left. I even meditated before I went to sleep. But still… I've found nothing."
Clea went back to his desk. She closed the Book of Cagliostro and replaced it on its shelf. Her fingertips rested on the spine of the book, her head bowed as if in prayer. He could feel her remorse from across the room.
"Clea…"
She met his eyes.
"Sometimes you have to break the rules in order to serve the greater good. Even Wong knows that, but there is something he doesn't know, and that is the fact that your becoming a sorcerer will not end badly."
"How can you possibly know what will happen once I start using magic, especially considering where I come from?"
He didn't answer her.
Clea sighed and finally came toward him. "I can't use magic from Earth and other living dimensions, Stephen. Every time I try, it feels like I'm trying to swim upstream with white water rapids beating me back."
"A wise woman once told me you can't beat a river into submission. You must surrender to its current, but not here. It's not safe." He held up his hands, one of which still held his sling ring. "It's your turn now, Clea. Create an entrance to the Mirror Dimension."
Clea raised her hands. The air around them started to split.
"Wait!" A man's hoarse voice cried out from behind them.
The Mirror verse dissolved away. Stephen turned toward the sound, and stared in shock.
"Wong!"
Stephen raced to his friend, his hands already creating the spell to drop the enchantments around the threshold. As he worked, he saw Wong try to form a portal, but no magic came from his hands. Wong fell to his knees with a cry of defeat.
The shield around his room wavered as Stephen held back its defenses. He formed a portal for Wong to enter before the barrier could power up again. Grabbing the older sorcerer, they fell through the gateway and collapsed on his bedroom floor. Stephen lifted his hand from where it had supported Wong's back. It was covered in blood.
Stephen sucked in a breath. "Clea…" His eyes looked to her, pleading.
As if reading his mind, Clea nodded. "I'll get medical supplies."
She formed her own portal, this gateway dark to his golden one, and stepped through. The Cloak of Levitation whipped right after her before it closed.
"Wong." Stephen knelt down, mentally assessing the physical wounds on his friend's body. "What happened?"
"Mordo," Wong gasped. "Stole… my magic."
Stephen felt all the air leave his lungs. "What?"
"Mordo… sucked power from me… kept it for himself."
"Where is Mordo now?" Stephen words were as sharp as a blade.
Wong shook his head. "I… don't know. It was after… I went to Illuminati headquarters."
"The Illuminati?" Stephen helped lift Wong from the floor, and eased the older sorcerer on top of his bed. Stephen knew only the basics of the Illuminati, an elite organization that attempted to guide the economic policies and governance of countries around the world. It was composed almost entirely of inhumans or those with special abilities, but they seemed altruistic in their endeavors. Professor Charles Xavier was among its members, and while Stephen had only met the Professor once, he came away from that encounter with the upmost respect for him and his "school for gifted youngsters."
Wong nodded weakly. "Had to get the Eye… away from Nepal…"
"The Eye of Agamotto is safe?"
"For now, yes. Did you know that… some idiot in the Illuminati… wants to… give you admittance?"
Stephen smiled. "It must be my charming personality."
Wong gasped out a laugh. Stephen could tell his friend was bearing hanging onto consciousness. The pillow behind Wong's head was now covered with sweat.
"What about the books in Kamar-Taj, the ones in the Masters section?" Stephen asked.
"Professor X… has them. In his… home. Protect the Eye first… then knowledge… And Mordo… he found me after…"
"What's happening, Wong? How can Mordo even steal power from other sorcerers?"
Wong moaned, and succumbed to his pain.
A burst of purple light flashed through Stephen's bedroom. He pivoted, ready for a fight, but it was only Clea coming with antiseptic, bandages, and tape.
"I didn't know what to bring," she gasped. Her arms struggled to carry the supplies. She dropped them next to Stephen. "The cloak helped me find all of this."
"You both did amazing. It will do for now."
Stephen worked quickly to stop the bleeding on Wong's back. His old friend's face was bruised, but most of the superficial cuts had stopped on their own. Stephen sanitized and bandaged what he could. When he was finished, he checked Wong's vitals. His friend breathed steadily, his pulse was strong. He would live, assuming no one came to finish him off.
"Clea?" Stephen was reluctant to ask her for any more favors, but he had to.
"Do you need anything else?" she asked. "More bandages? Or maybe some water?"
"No, I think Wong will be all right for now. I have to ask you to do something for me."
"Name it."
He smiled. She seemed so confident. But her inexperience could very well be her undoing. "I have to find Mordo. Which means leaving Wong. Can you watch over him for me? Make sure he rests so his body can heal?"
She nodded. "Of course."
"Mordo is stealing mystic power from sorcerers," Stephen said. He darted to the Cauldron of the Cosmos and leaned inside its depths.
"Mordo can do that? How?"
"I don't know."
Clea observed Stephen. A mixture of quiet acceptance and apprehension rested on her face. He forced himself to turn away as he spoke clearly into the cauldron. "Where is Mordo now?"
His voice echoed back at him from the bottom of the cauldron. Purple mists drifted out and filled the room. Stephen waved it away as light flared from the bottom. As the flash of light dimmed, Stephen finally glimpsed Mordo.
The traitorous sorcerer strolled inside the Kamar-Taj, kicking through what was left from fluttering pages of novice texts. Mordo seemed to sense he was being watched, and looked up at Stephen. He smiled.
Hatred filled Stephen's soul. He forced himself away from the cauldron. "I have to go." Stephen formed a portal as the Cloak of Levitation attached herself to his shoulders. He glanced back at Clea. "Wait for me. You're going to be okay."
She nodded. "It's not me I'm worried about."
At first he thought she was talking about Wong, but her eyes betrayed her feelings. Stephen dropped the gateway, and strolled up to her. He touched her face, caressing the soft skin of her cheeks.
The cloak gave him a push, so hard he almost crashed into Clea.
"Subtle," Stephen muttered to the cloak on his back. "Real subtle."
He didn't kiss Clea. Maybe he should have, but he couldn't read her face. And thanks to the interference from the zealous cloak behind him, that level of affection felt wrong now. Instead, he pulled Clea close and held her to him. He breathed, and she breathed with him. He felt her relax in his arms.
"I'll be fine." They were the only words he could think of to reassure her.
She didn't let go of him.
Stephen brushed his lips against the top of her head. He closed his eyes, and merged his aura with hers. A wave of comfort left his spirit. It spread a blanket of warmth around her, filling her with strength. All the emotions he had locked away inside he now gave to her. She squeezed him in a tighter embrace.
She absorbed the gift, and her fear stilled. "Thank you," she whispered.
"You're welcome." He pulled himself away from her, and emptiness took the place of her presence.
"I'll be back soon," he said. "Make sure Wong doesn't do anything stupid."
Stephen reformed his gateway into the Kamar-Taj and hurried through before his heart could change his mind.