The Hunters and the Prey - Chapter Twenty-Three
Author: Milady Dragon
The moment Pepper used that Disarming spell, she knew she'd made a mistake, but she really didn't like swords aimed in her direction, let alone in Tony's, not after his kidnapping a couple of years back.
Still, she could see just how shocked Sir Steven had been by her casual use of magic. She should have remembered that, back the last time Sir Steven would be able to recall, magic had been cut off from the world, a myth that populated most of the children's tales. There had only been the artifacts of the Time of Wizards that had been left behind, and most of those only meant trouble, since no one knew how to use them.
From the stories, Sir Steven had gone up against the Skull, who'd been rumored to have a powerful magical artifact. It was possible that very artifact had been what had exiled the Paladin to the Void. Only Sir Steven knew if that was true or not, and at the moment he seemed content to let her sit him down on one of the sofas in the sitting room, as he watched her closely…or, more likely, he was watching Happy, the little dragon very curious about their guest and wanting to meet him personally. Pepper knew her dragon, knew that Happy was having a very difficult time sitting on her shoulder instead of jumping onto the Paladin, but she was shushing his excitement through their link, and seemed to be accepting of her concern that he might accidentally get hurt if Sir Steven reacted badly.
At least he'd left his sword out in the hall, but Pepper thought it was more because he didn't know quite how to react to all of this than forgetfulness.
"Bruce," she called over her shoulder toward the magical theorist, "would you mind bringing Sir Steven a glass of brandy, please?"
Bruce had wisely decided to not go out into the hallway, obviously not wanting to overload Sir Steven with too much stimulae. She heard him assent even as Pepper was getting the man settled and comfortable, Tony hovering just to the side. The Cardinal Wizard knew her husband wanted to ask all sorts of questions, but was refraining in saying anything for one of the few times in his life. Pepper was grateful to him for showing his restraint.
She'd reward him later.
A snifter appeared in her peripheral vision, and she accepted it with a murmur of thanks. "Here," she handed it to Sir Steven, "this might help."
His hand only trembling slightly, the Paladin took the offered glass after setting his shield down against the side of the couch. His blue eyes locked onto Pepper's own as he sipped slowly, the pallor in his handsome pace fading a little as the brandy relaxed him.
"I'm sorry about that," she apologized. "I forgot that you didn't have much knowledge of magic."
"Just what things that got left behind," he confirmed. His brows drew together. "You're a Wizard? What did you mean, Cardinal Order?"
Pepper stifled her sigh. Instead, she sat beside him on the couch, motioning Tony and Bruce toward other chairs. She needed to give Sir Steven her undivided attention; she was going to have to be the one to break the news.
This wasn't something she'd considered, and the short-sightedness bothered her. She'd been hoping that Jack would have arrived by now, but Ianto had called to let her know that Jack, Clint, and Toshiko had gone out after the Winter Knight. Also, Phil had let her know that the friend he'd asked for help, Andrew, was going to contact someone locally since he wasn't able to come himself. Pepper had been hoping that whoever was coming to aid in assimilating Sir Steven into this time would have been here by now.
No, it had been dropped on her lap, and she was going to have to do the best she could. She only hoped Tony would leave it to her, and not interject anything into the conversation that would destroy any headway she'd make.
There was one way to get Tony out of the room… "Tony, will you contact the others at Ianto's and let them know our guest is awake now?"
He looked as if he wanted to argue, but Pepper simply raised an eyebrow and gave him a quelling look. She wasn't going to put up with him possibly putting his foot into it, not now. The last thing they needed was for Sir Steven to become even more traumatized than he already was.
The minute dropping of her husband's shoulders communicated to her that she'd won this round. Pepper would take the victory. "I'll need the key."
Long ago, Pepper had tuned her mirror to Tony, but to use it he still needed a key…one that she kept with her, unless she was going to be away from the castle. She didn't want him calling up all and sundry just because he was bored.
When at home, the Cardinal Wizard wore the key on a bracelet that Tony had given her as an anniversary present. She slipped the platinum chain with its enchanted bangle off her wrist, handing it over. She didn't say anything; he already knew how it would work. All he had to do was say the name of the owner of the mirror he wanted to contact, and the magic would do the rest.
He didn't look happy, but Tony did as she'd asked. Really, she'd promised Phil that they would call as soon as the Paladin was conscious, so it wasn't as if she was making up a task for him to do, in order to get him out of the way. So, he couldn't look at it that way…but, knowing him the way she did, he would.
Bruce, though, she allowed to stay. The man was calm and discrete, and wouldn't say anything awkward.
At least, she hoped he wouldn't.
"If I can ask," she began, "what you remember?"
Sir Steven frowned. "I'd gone after the Skull. There were rumors about weapons he was enchanting using this artifact he'd discovered, called the Tesseract. Anything that powerful couldn't be allowed to be used on our allies, so me and the Commandos went in to stop him. I…remember facing him, and wrestling with him for the Tesseract…I'd overpowered him, pretty sure there was a death blow, but after that…nothing. Darkness. That's about it."
Pepper nodded. That made sense. History said that the Skull had been defeated by the Paladin, although nowhere is it stated exactly how it had been done, but then Sir Steven had seemingly vanished into thin air. Perhaps they should follow up on what had actually occurred? Although, Pepper doubted there would be anything to it, knowing just what had happened to the Skull would set Sir Steven's mind more at ease. Or, Phil might know, since he was an aficionado of that time in history.
She'd also have to ask Ianto what had happened to the Tesseract; he'd most likely know, since he was also the Master Archivist for the Wizard's Guild. A powerful magical artifact didn't need to be out there in the world, uncontrolled, if he didn't have it in the Archives somewhere.
"That tallies up with what we know," she agreed. "The Skull was, indeed , stopped, although I don't know the details."
That announcement earned her a small, grateful smile. "Good." Then he frowned once more. "Then what happened? How did I get here?"
Now came the hard part. "For you to understand the next part, there's a few things you need to know…"
Pepper began her explanation with the resurgence of magic. She didn't go into any detail about how magic had been locked away by Master John Smith in an attempt to stop a future that would have led to utter destruction; that would be later, when Sir Steven had more of a chance to assimilate into this new time he'd found himself in.
She gave him a short precis on the three Wizard Orders, once again nothing too in-depth. He seemed to be accepting it fairly well, but she had to wonder how long that would last.
He seemed to be handling things pretty well so far, although Pepper hadn't really gotten into how much time had actually passed since that final battle he could recall. She did assure him that they had won, although it had come at quite the cost. Sir Steve, being a product of war, had understood.
It wasn't until she mentioned Hydra that she got more than a simple nod and the few questions at her story.
Sir Steven sat up, his grasp on the brandy snifter tightening enough that Pepper was a little concerned for the integrity of the glass. "They're still around?"
That just confirmed the Avatar's claim that the cabal had been present back during the Century War. "We didn't know about them until recently."
"They were secretive. I only knew about them because the Skull was their leader. But they were bad news."
"They've changed a little since then," Pepper said. "They've evolved into a cabal of Void Wizards, who are out to disturb the balance and grab power for themselves."
The Paladin snorted. "Yep, that sounds like Hydra."
She made a mental note to bring up Hydra again…once she was done explaining.
It was at that point that Tony rejoined them. "We're about to be descended upon," he reported.
Pepper glowered, and her husband held up his hands in surrender. "Like you weren't expecting that when you asked me to call."
Alright, she had.
So, Pepper turned back to the Paladin. "What we think occurred, was that this Tesseract sent you into the Void."
Sir Steven's expression was vaguely disbelieving. "But you said this Void was a source of magic…"
"It is." She wished she had time to explain Magic Theory to him, and the physical manifestations of Void and Deep Ways, but she didn't. However well she could speak about the Deep Ways, Phil was really their best authority on the Void. "But both Void and Deep Ways exist beyond our world and they can be entered if one is powerful enough. You've been trapped in the Void."
"If that's true…then how did I get out?" He still wasn't quite understanding, but Pepper could certainly understand why. He hadn't had much of a background in magic; hells, magic had been gone during the war. It was going to take a lot to get him caught up.
"One of the men coming here is the one who got you out," she answered. "Our current Grand Master of Voids, Phil Coulson. He's the most powerful Void Wizard in the world at the moment." She wasn't going to bring up the near-immortality. That wasn't required for these explanations.
"But," Sir Steven argued, "Wizards don't exist. I know you claimed to be one, and that there are more out there, but if you've been around…why haven't you all come forward to help fight?" His tone was accusatory, and how could Pepper blame him for that? Wizards could have saved lives back then…or just as easily taken them, if they'd been working for the Despot and Hydra. "And when did magic come back, anyway? Wouldn't that have been announced or something? Just how many Wizards are there?"
They were all questions Pepper had expected, but that didn't mean she could give him answers that would make sense without bringing up being trapped in the Void for centuries.
There was only one thing for it, really.
Taking a deep breath, Pepper looked Sir Steven right in the eyes. "You were in the Void a long time."
"How long?" It had the snap of an order to it.
Pepper didn't take offense, because he was a Knight and the Paladin of the Western Lands and was used to giving orders to his men. Besides, there was something about the man that made her want to be honest with him, so it was easy – well, to a certain degree of easy – for her to tell him the truth, even though it was most likely going to destroy his world.
She reached over and took the hand not still clutching the brandy snifter in hers. "Sir Steven…you were in the Void a long time…over three hundred years."