Part 9.3
In which The Avengers get an accidental lesson in magical theory.
Rose quickly summoned up her emerald green ball of energy and combined it with Hermione's. The violet and green swirling glowing mass shot towards Mjolnir and then seemed to transform into a liquid state as it encompassed the hammer. Out of it floated runic-looking symbols. But they were not like the Norse runes on Thor's hammer, but completely different.
"Rose, what's that?" Teddy asked his godmother.
"Remember when we were doing single-use active detection spells?" Teddy nodded. "Remember what I told you about the classification levels?"
"Yeah. The most modern, simplest ones are done in English while using verbal guides but are the easiest to stop with guides for. Then the ones from the sixth to the mid-twentieth century use mostly Latin guide words, with some old English, Old Norse, and a bit of the most common Japanese dialect at the time. We only learned up to there." Teddy told Rose dutifully like a student who had learned the theory well enough to recite.
"Well, there's a third classification. From the third century BC to the sixth century had the only true witch hunts, some traitors made accurate magic detection artifacts during that time, so few survived enough to reproduce and continue magical lines. House Black was the only European house to survive that period because they invented unplottable wards and several others that are now woven together and that Professor Dumbledore used to create the wards the wards I grew up under, the ones your Uncle Neville, Aunt Luna, and the kids live under. But before that, there was the Merlinian system. Back when muggles were still capable of accepting that which they could not control, magical developments flourished. They used the Merliniam system. Named after its first pioneer, whose first name has been lost to history, Merlin, it was a language that was more finely attuned to magic than anything else. It's also incredibly complicated and incredibly powerful. It was made illegal by the ministry of magic but your grandmother is the last person left of an ancient legacy who learned Magespeak, its most common name, as a first language. Hermione, Nev, Luna, and I learned it and Selene is also learning it, albeit as a second language. Although it's incredibly dangerous it's also the best to use. That's why just like Selene and Rolf, Andromedas locked the memories of learning it away in your mind until you finished your education. Those are probably the most powerful of temporary active detection spells in Merlinian that Hermione's readings are giving her now."
Watching and listening from Clint's contact and earpiece, Fury muttered, "Fuck." This was not just a small moment of his past coming back to haunt him, this was his entire life before SHIELD, stretched taut, just waiting to burst free.
"What are they telling her?" Teddy asked.
"Well, Hermione is currently making a simulated copy of the enchantments, since it's not a single enchantment but layers of interwoven enchantments intertwined with each other. Then she's going to take that copy, and since enchantment copying is extremely difficult, the copy is nowhere near as strong as the original, she can pick it apart to see what enchantments are there and how they are interwoven and overlapped to act together in certain ways. The Merlinian runic system there is telling us the magical properties of the base materials, as well as any anomalies, and a bit about the magic style. See that first rune? That memory we left unlocked. Want to tell me why?"
"Because that's the rune Blackir, the signature rune of House Black. And since I'm both the Heir to House Black and grandma is its most direct descendant, I can use it to concentrate my magic? Right?"
"A bit more than that. See the squiggle end right there? That's the extension for certain family magics. Your metamorphic lets you be most in tune with it, that's why you're getting headship on your second magical maturity."
"And what's Hermione seeing right now?"
"Teddy," Rose smiled fondly at him, "we covered spotlighting two weeks ago. Remember how you promised Shuri you'd show her spotlighting too? Do you want to try it? It's slightly harder, well, really, it's different to project your magic in such a way so that even muggles can see it. Hermione's only spotlighting herself, so as not to waste her magic, but you shouldn't need yours right now. It'll kind of feel like the difference between a Patronus and a projector Patronus where you layer on a message."
Teddy closed his eyes and a wave of royal blue energy spread out and certain things lit up. Tony Stark had a glowing pale reddish purple light in his head and another in his arc reactor. Mjolnir's runes lit up and strings of multicolored light wove through its now translucent form. Hermione Rose and Teddy glowed in extremely bright violet emerald and royal blue respectively, while Thor was growing an electric yellow. Stevie's shield had a pulsing pale grey thin later to it, and Clint noticed another, slightly larger, pulsing grey over Rose's arms, back, boots, and inside her braid. The grey must be vibranium, so it seemed she had come here armed to the nines. Whether for offense or defense Clint didn't know but had a gut feeling it was for the defense of Teddy. It might just be him imagining himself in her shoes, and Lila and Cooper in Teddy's, but it was the same feeling that stopped him from killing Nat and instead brought her in.
"Teddy," Rose told her godson in a slightly hushed voice, "You can open your eyes now."
"Whoa!" Teddy exclaimed in a similar awed but hushed whisper. "I did this? If I can do it again, Shuri'll love it."
"Teddy, this was all you. I've told you, you're more powerful than you think. Your second magical maturity is in three days, but I don't think you have to wait that long. Are you tired?"
"Rose, I'm fine. I feel wonderful. Better than wonderful."
Rose's fond smile was now one of pride. "Teddy, I don't think dad had his much at your age. This is a great power, and as long as you make sure to stay yourself, not to lose yourself to the power, you have the potential to become the greatest sorcerer in the known universe."
"Really?"
"Really. That's not just my pride as your godmother. Few are blessed with this potential and even fewer with your ability to wield it."
"Does that mean I can stay for the entire night?"
"Yes, Teddy, it does."
Thor waited for a bit for them to enjoy the proud moment, Rose's face looking like his father's when he had first wielded Mjolnir in battle. Then he interjected, "Will you try lifting Mjolnir?"
"I'm not at my full potential either way, so I'll pass."' Hermione told Thor, who was still glowing yellow.
"What about you, Rose?" Steve asked.
"No." She stated firmly.
"Why? Scared you won't be able to? It's not a problem, none of us could." Stark added in his bit.
"No," she responded, paused, then added, "Scared I will."
"Why?"
"If I lift that hammer, Thor's right. I get his spot in line for Asgard. And Odin's so fuckin old even AEsir aren't supposed to live that long, so he's kicking the bucket soon enough. And like it or not, if I were personally on the throne of Asgard, there would be universal civil war."
"Why? What is so bad about you if you were worthy of Mjolnir you would not be accepted in my position?" Thor was genuinely curious. Even though she didn't like him, she was still a good person, or at least that's how it seemed to him.
Clint looked at her, trying to hide the curiosity in his gaze. Would she reveal the secret they had already figured out?
"Because, Odinson, I doubt your father will appreciate someone more powerful than himself. If I wanted Asgard, I would have it. There is the blood of millennia, hundreds of generations of mages in my blood. I have the active blood of Celestials running through my veins. I have the magic of Primordials, and," she took out the strange glove-shaped necklace, "my life's labor. I know I can trust myself, but can your people trust me? I have four of the six infinity stones. They cannot be taken from me even upon my death, which, is not close by." She breathed in and out. "And I have one more advantage. I have the blood and power of death running in my veins. The blood of Peverell, and the spirit of the hallows. Unless you truly want me to have your position on Asgard, I will not touch your hammer, Odinson. Not because I fear being unworthy, but because I do not look forward to the truth if I do. Secrets are kept for a reason, and Barton, if you know what's right for the world, you will think twice before revealing certain ones." And she disappeared.
"I had better go after her. She just sent a magical beacon to anyone within the next few universes, and I do not want her alone, in case any of her plethora of enemies are close enough to do any real damage. Teddy, come on. You can leave the energy here, Stark's equipment won't be able to do anything with it."
Teddy reluctantly popped away as well, but not before telling the Avengers. "You had better not make Rose mad for real. Unlike with Loki, when you finally go far enough over the line, she has no boundaries. And you will not survive the encounter. Your souls will, but only if you're lucky." And then he spun on the spot and was gone as well.
"Thor, do you know anything about this magic? Your mother knows it, you said at one point."
"This is a different type of magic than I know. But it seems the colors are those of the basest of soul magic."
"So what do those colors mean?"
"I never learned magic, I am a warrior. But it seems that though Midgardian mages are different from ours, he is still extremely powerful, most likely more so than Loki, especially at his young age."
"Do we know what celestials are? Or how she can have the blood of death running through her veins?"
"Celestials are in Fury's database."
"The blood of death is only legends, myths from before my forefathers ruled Asgard."
"Myths are always grounded in reality, Thor. What do they say?"
"Eons ago…"
Miles away, a teenage girl felt the surge of energy on the other side of the planet, and responded in kind, directly to its source. "Pietro, we're getting out."