The Wizard and the Void - Chapter Three

Author: Milady Dragon

Phil couldn't help but want to pace, but instead he stood almost at a parade rest, hands tucked behind his back, as he waited in his casting chamber for his visitor to arrive.

Clint Barton was coming.

He hadn't seen Clint in years. When he'd decided to fake his death and to hide his Dark One nature from the rest of the world, he'd played with the idea of contacting Clint and Natasha – especially Clint – to inform him of his still being alive. In the end, he'd decided against it, for what had seemed like the best of reasons at the time.

The Void Wizard's casting chamber was deep in the heart of the mountain, a circular room that was shielded and warded against all sorts of incursions. It was the place where Phil cast his most powerful magicks, and where he prepared his potions and wrote his own spells, knowing the chamber would keep any sort of accidents from escaping out into the world.

Not that he had that many. Phil liked to think he was meticulous to a fault, and mistakes were pretty rare. Although they did still happen every once in a while.

This was also where he often brought Daisy, so she could practice her own magic. She wasn't as careful as she could be, but then she was young, and the risk of damage was significantly greater. There was, in fact, a blackened scar in the rock where one of her spells had gone awry, and it had been the wards about the place that had kept the earthquake from moving much beyond the mountains around them.

Daisy was far too powerful for her age, and sometimes that power manifested in very interesting ways. That was the reason he'd created the gauntlets she now wore; the first time her magic had burst forth it had caused a rockslide farther up the mountain. Mistress Pepper – or Pepper, as she'd insisted – had been impressed with the metal gauntlets and had asked him about getting a written copy of the spell work he'd put into them, the better to help other children who would have trouble with their own powers until they had either the training or the maturity to handle their power competently. He'd been happy to do so.

With a quiet chime and a 'poof' of displaced air, Clint Barton appeared within the chamber, near the plinth where Phil kept his personal gramariya, the magical ring he'd borrowed from Marcus the only thing that would have allowed him to actually pass through the sheer amount of warding Phil had done, or to even find the Keep in the first place.

The Elf hadn't changed much in the nearly eleven years it had been since Phil had last seen him. His hair was a little longer and a little lighter, most likely from spending a lot of time out in the sun. His ears were just as sharply pointed, but sometime in the last decade the Elf had added a couple of piercings to his left earlobe, the gemstones – Phil thought they might have been amethysts – glittered in the light from the magical glowglobes that were spaced out along the walls. If anything, his shoulders seemed a little wider, his arms a little more defined in his dark purple, sleeveless tunic. His shooting brace had been replaced, the ancient leather thing he'd worn back during his time with them gone and a dyed purple one was wrapped around his forearm snuggly. His signature bow and quiver were at his back, and a sword was at his hip; Phil could also count at least four knives on him…two tucked openly into the tops of his boots, one on the opposite side of the sword, and the fourth slid into a sheath woven into the material of his quiver.

Phil guessed there were more weapons hidden on his person. Clint never went anywhere without being armed to the proverbial teeth.

Those familiar, kaleidoscopic eyes were staring at him. "Well," said the voice that had once haunted his dreams…and still did, he couldn't lie to himself about that, "Nick said you were alive, but now that I see it for myself I'm back to wanting to either hug you, or hit you. I haven't decided which one yet."

It took Phil a couple of times clearing his throat before he could reply. "Either one, it's up to you."

Internally, he was hoping for the hug, but was expecting the punch.

Clint, however, didn't move. His face was wearing that blank expression that had most people wondering when the murdering would start, but Phil knew that it hid a lot of emotions that his friend simply couldn't express. "I just want to know why you never contacted me, Phil. I thought…" his voice broke, and he glanced away. "I thought we were friends."

Gods, how was he supposed to explain? How he still had nightmares of Loki stabbing him – killing him – and then awakening as the Void had kicked him out, as if he hadn't deserved the peace of death? How, still disoriented, he'd staggered off the table where he'd been put – where his body had been laid out – and had been alone, everyone whom he cared about gone, leaving him surrounded by the dead, when it was obvious that Phil, himself, wasn't? He'd escaped that horrible morgue, not at all sure what he should do…only to find himself in the middle of a war being waged by Loki, using the demons he'd conjured up out of the Abyss in order to destroy everything in sight.

How he'd found Daisy, hiding from the fighting, so scared she almost stabbed him with a knife she'd picked up from somewhere.

Even now, this far away from the events of that day, Phil couldn't talk about it. The words caught in his throat like thorns, horrific and abhorrent. There was no way he could even begin to explain. Even Marcus, whom he'd gone to for help after everything, didn't know the entire truth, and yet he'd helped Phil in spreading the news of the Dark One's death and had offered the Void Wizard the broken Shield Keep as a place to stay.

Melinda didn't know, either, and she was the one who'd truly helped him get his life turned around. She'd shown up on his doorstep a couple of months after he and Daisy had taken up residence, bringing along a husband Phil hadn't known about, not judging him for what he'd done, but taking the arrangements for the repairs out of his hands adroitly, leaving him free to help his new daughter through her own nightmares.

Phil wasn't afraid to freely admit that Daisy had saved his soul, because there was no telling what he'd done with his life if he hadn't found her. Possibly, it would have been more of the same idiocy, and that had gotten him mistaken for dead and left in a morgue among the corpses.

He was just afraid of saying certain other things that might get him into trouble with certain other people, more specifically the one standing in front of him, face so blank it was positively accusatory.

"I just…" Phil took a breath, to gather his scattered thoughts. "After everything, I wasn't the man I once was." Now, that was an understatement; any anger at the world had vanished the moment he'd seen that little girl in that alley, cringing away from the fighting, and in that moment he'd made his decision to become the best man he could be for this child who'd needed him as much as he'd needed her. "I needed a fresh start, and by the time I was settled in with Daisy, so much time had passed. I didn't think…it was fair for me to suddenly pop up in your lives again, not after so long."

Clint was back to looking at him with this eyes that seemed to see everything. Would they also be able to tell that he wasn't being completely truthful, that there were things he wasn't saying? All Phil could do was meet his gaze, and pour as much of his sincerity into his eyes as possible.

They stood there, staring at each other, for so long that Phil actually managed to lose track of time. Back when they'd run together, the Void Wizard had harbored an intense crush on the Elf, but he'd disregarded it, as it simply hadn't fit into his world plan to not ever have a happily ever after. No, he'd believed he didn't deserve to be happy, being a Void Wizard, and everyone knew that Voids were evil…at least, that had been what his parents had claimed. His teachers at the Wizard School, and Mistress Suzie Costello, the Wizard who had become his teaching Master, had done their best to convince him otherwise, but children always seemed to worship their parents, and how could his mother and father have been wrong?

Of course, he knew differently now. Phil had lived the last eleven years as a man who wanted to do the best he could for his own child, and he hoped that, someday, Daisy would understand that. However, back then as was now, Void Wizards had gained the reputation for evil, mostly through the actions of the Great Wizards, who swore that the ancient books had to be correct despite evidence to the contrary.

Phil had read the old texts. He still wasn't quite sure why the Greats were so positive that their attitudes were correct, since all of the propaganda from that time had been written by their own kind without any sort of reliable evidence.

Mistress Suzie had been a good person. She'd been correct about there being both good and bad Void Wizards, as well as good and bad Cardinals and Greats. Phil wished he'd been able to tell her that he finally understood what she'd been trying to tell him before she'd died, but he'd come to the realization far too late to make her aware that her lessons hadn't been in vain.

"Well," Clint finally broke the silence, "let's get this shit taken care of, and then I can decide what I actually want to do. Then, maybe you might feel more like telling me the truth. Because, I have to say, you're a terrible liar."

"No, I'm not!" Phil protested.

"Did you just admit that you did lie?"

"No, of course not!" Where had that come from? "I'm not a terrible liar."

Clint smirked. "Yeah, you kinda are. You have tells, Phil."

"I deny that I have tells." What in the hells was Clint on about?

"You do. And I'm not gonna tell you what they are, because I don't want you to attempt to get rid of them. It's nice to know that, after so many years, I can still know when you're not telling the entire truth."

Phil was stunned. He'd thought he could bluff his way through this initial conversation, but it turned out he'd been wrong. He…didn't know what to do with the information he'd just been handed.

Fortunately for him, Clint was willing to let it slide for now. "How about you introduce me to this daughter of yours, then?"

It was the one thing he'd never thought he'd do, and yet he'd dreamed of: one day, Clint would meet Daisy. "Alright," he sighed, anything to get away from the subject of his death and new life.

There was a lone staircase up into the Keep proper, and Phil led Clint up it. The casting chamber was far underground, so it took them a bit to get to the entrance to the Keep, but by the time they'd arrived at the door into the Keep's hallway Phil was a bit more in control of himself.

"I didn't agree with Marcus that I needed back-up," he admitted as he ushered Clint through the secret door. "And I would have said the same thing if he'd sent anyone else, so don't take offense to that."

Clint snorted. "No offense taken. You might have changed a lot in the last eleven years, but it hasn't been that much. Apparently, you're still the most self-sufficient bastard in the entire damned world."

Phil wasn't so sure of that, but he wasn't about to mention that thought.

The moment he was through the hidden door, Clint was attacked by an overly excited dragon. "Well, hello beautiful," he greeted Lola, letting the red and black dragon practically tackle him back onto his ass. Luckily for Clint, he landed on the carpet, and not the stone of the passageway they'd just exited from. He gave her a skritch behind the crest as she attempted to crawl into his lap. "Did you miss me? I missed you too."

Phil couldn't help but be amused by his dragon's antics, at the same time feeling all of her love and joy flooding his mind. Clint had always had a certain rapport with dragons; he couldn't feel their emotions, but they loved him just the same. He couldn't even feel jealous at how Lola was reacting to the Elf's presence…because, deep down as far as Phil could push it, he felt the same way. He was happy to see Clint again and, while his reasoning to hide from everyone but Marcus had been sound, he had to wonder if it was, in Clint's case, more to do with the need not to be rejected. Phil had already been through enough of that sort of thing in his life.

After a few minutes, Phil started to chivvy Lola away from the archer. "Come on, let him up," he laughed, tugging lightly on a wing in order to get her attention. "He wants to meet Daisy and you're distracting him."

He could feel the pout dance across his mind as the dragon disengaged.

"We've got time, girl," Clint added, clambering to his feet and rearranging his bow and quiver, which had gotten knocked out of place on his back by the overenthusiastic cuddling he'd received. "I'm not going anywhere. Not this time." The look he gave Phil spoke volumes: defiance, and still a little anger, but also hope that he'd be welcome.

Phil barely resisted the urge to hug him. "You can stay as long as you want." Forever, his treacherous thoughts prompted.

It appeared that his…attraction…to Clint hadn't faded out in the least.

"Come on," he said, clearing his throat, "it's this way."

They left the passage, stepping fully out into the hallway…where Melinda was waiting, arms crossed over her chest. She gave Clint her usual flat expression, but Phil could easily read into it her gladness at seeing the Elf again.

"Clint," she greeted, her voice inflectionless.

"Melinda," he returned, his tone cheeky. "Glad to see you haven't changed from your old warm, loveable self."

The flat expression morphed into an irritated eye roll. "And it's nice to see you haven't grown up all that much."

Clint laughed and, with a long step forward, was hugging her. Melinda returned it, her face relaxing into a smile. "I'm mad at you for not getting word to me," he murmured just loud enough for Phil to overhear.

"Not my story to tell," she answered, letting go and moving away. "Or else I would have."

"Thanks for watching his back."

"It's only because he can't do a good enough job of watching it himself."

"Excuse me," Phil interrupted, "but I'm standing right here."

Melinda lifted one, sardonic eyebrow. "So?"

This was Melinda. She didn't give two shits for a person's feelings. Phil adored her, and if things had been different he might very well have, at the very least, slept with her.

However, things were very different. And one of those things was the husband Melinda had brought along with her. The second was standing there in his corridor, looking at the Void Wizard as if he was somehow afraid he was going to vanish again.

Phil wanted to reassure him. Now, that Marcus had let the proverbial cat out of the bag, there was no way he was going to go back into living in that same bag. He'd been content on his own, with Melinda and Daisy here, but seeing Clint again had set something loose in his chest that he hadn't known was wound tighter than a spring until it was gone.

"So," Daisy's voice drawled, "this is the infamous Clint Barton."

His daughter stood there, Skye draped like a living shawl about her shoulders, her hands on her hips almost defiantly as she stared at the newest arrival in intelligent appraisal. Skye, though, the moment she caught sight of Clint, was aimed like a lightning bolt at the Elf, colliding with his chest and greeting him profusely.

That had Daisy losing her slight standoffishness and laughing delightedly. "I really wish I knew just what it was about Elves that had dragons going all gooey."

"You and me both," Phil confessed. No one really understood it but it was, at times, funny to watch.

Clint hugged Skye tightly, keeping the wriggling dragon from slipping out of his grasp. "And who is this lovely lady?" he cooed, using the fingers of one hand to tickle the blue dragon's belly. Lola must have thought it was cute, judging from the cooing she made, both aloud and down her link with her Wizard.

"It's like that with these two Elf friends of mine," Daisy continued, coming forward to peel her dragon away. Skye huffed, but allowed herself to be reeled back in. "You've met them, Dad…Jemma and Leo, from school."

He had, indeed, met Daisy's Elvish friends, and Lola had been all over them as well, just not to the extent that she was with Clint. Both Jemma Simmons and Leo Fitz were Great Wizards, and he'd liked them from the first time Daisy had brought them – and her entire group of friends – home over one of the school holidays. They were about the least judgmental people he'd ever met, for Great Wizards, and Phil hoped they'd always remain that way.

"It got so bad one time," she went on, "because Trip's dragon, Knight, kept bringing Jemma gifts, that Leo got jealous. He didn't show it, of course, but his dragon, Turbo, certainly gave the game away…"

"Luckily for me," Clint admitted, "it doesn't keep up for long, or else I'd have a veritable entourage of dragons and not be able to get anything done."

"Yeah, Knight eventually calmed down, just like any other dragons do, but it's still hilarious to watch whenever a new dragon meets those two."

"Clint," Phil decided that official introductions were in order, "this is my daughter, Daisy, and her dragon, Skye."

"I'd say that my Dad told me all about you, but he really didn't." Her eyes met Phil's. "And I'd really like to know why, since it's obvious you two know each other really well…"

"You'll have to take that up with your Dad," Clint said, "because he didn't even tell me he was alive. I had to find out from our old friend, Marcus, who thought I did know."

"Ouch," Daisy flinched.

"Exactly."

"I had my reasons." They'd seemed like good ones at the time, but now Phil was beginning to wonder.

No, he couldn't have second thoughts. Telling Clint could very well have been a disaster, especially where the Wizard's emotions were involved. He still didn't know exactly how he'd survived Loki's attack, although it was obvious that he had..

"Either they were really good ones," Daisy said, unconsciously echoing his thoughts, "or they were really bad ones that should be apologized for." She crossed her arms, as if waiting for an explanation. Skye, back to perching on her shoulder, chirped at him curiously.

Phil raised a single eyebrow, waiting. It was obvious she wanted to say something, and it was just a matter of time before she spoke.

It didn't take long at all.

"What are we going to do about this Void Wizard thing?" she demanded. "I'm sure that's why Clint's here, right? So there has to be a plan beyond going in and spying on them."

It was Clint's turn to raise an eyebrow, and this one was in Phil's direction. He could still look totally intimidating when he wanted to. It was a good thing that sort of expression didn't work on Phil anymore; he'd gotten used to it years ago.

The Wizard couldn't hold back the eye roll if he'd tried, so he didn't. "You are not doing anything, Daisy. This is something I'm doing…with Clint as my back-up."

"But, Dad!" she protested.

"You wouldn't be able to get within half a day's travel from the meeting place without broadcasting your presence," he pointed out. As a Cardinal Wizard, Daisy would stick out like a sore thumb around any concentration of Voids, and it was worse because she was so powerful and yet so young. "And I simply won't risk you in this." He stepped forward, cupping her cheek in one hand. "You're too important to me, and the Voids wouldn't hesitate to hurt you if they thought you were spying on them."

Her shoulders slumped; Skye held on with no problem. "Alright, yeah… you're right, Dad. But there should be something I can do to help!"

If there was any doubt that Phil loved his daughter to bits, it would have been swept away in that moment. Her need to help him was just as strong as his need to keep her safe, and he was so very proud of her in that moment.

"Mistress Pepper said you could come and stay with her," Clint's soft voice broke into their moment.

That had Phil glancing at him in surprise. "You saw Pepper?"

Something flickered in Clint's brilliant eyes, but the Wizard couldn't identify it, and it was gone in a heartbeat. "Nick called her and Mistress Maria in to give them a heads' up. Natasha was there, as well, and it's also even money whether she'd gonna hit you or hug you when she finally sees you in person."

Phil hmphed. "That seems to be the prevalent opinion of my hiding my survival from people."

"Can't blame them, Dad."

No, he really couldn't.

"I do think you staying with Pepper would be the best thing." Phil didn't mention that it would also mean Daisy would be around Baron Tony, who Phil did hold with a great deal of respect…not that he would ever admit to it. Tony Stark had done wonders for his Barony when he'd wrested power away from Obadiah Stane, who'd in fact stolen it from Stark's own father. Things were finally settling there, and with Pepper helping as well as having the cachet of being the Head of Cardinal Order for the entirety of the Western Lands, Ferrous had gained far more prosperity than it had had in decades.

Besides, Pepper was Daisy's teaching Master, and as such Phil trusted the Cardinal Wizard with his only daughter's life.

Daisy did perk up at that. "This means I can hang around Baron Tony's workshop!" she squealed.

Well, this might not have been such a good idea, then…

She pulled Phil down just enough to be able to kiss his cheek. She then, to the Elf's evident surprise, kissed Clint as well. "I'm counting on you to watch my Dad's back," she warned, giving him her best Coulson eyebrow. Phil was pleased that she'd 'inherited' that from him.

"Yes, ma'am," Clint agreed, not being at all condescending and taking the responsibility that Daisy was giving him seriously.

Phil couldn't help the warmth that bloomed in his chest at the sight of his only daughter interacting with the man he…well, he couldn't even say it, really. He just wanted to see more of that sort of thing, because it meant a lot to him that they get along.

Giving Clint one last, searching, glance, Daisy turned and flounced out of the hallway, Skye holding on tightly, toward the stairs that led up to her room. Phil watched her go, the smile on his face something he wasn't even aware of until he caught Melinda giving him a knowing look.

The Wizard cleared his throat. "Melinda, Clint and I are going to discuss our plans. We'll also need to talk about the Keep's defenses…which you'll be in charge of while we're gone. We can't take the chance that the Hydra Voids might want to snoop around here if they think they can get away with it, especially now that Garrett managed to find the place despite it being unPlotable."

"I'll wait until you've caught up and then join you both in the study," she agreed. "Because being in the same room with the pair of you is going to be a trial."

She didn't dignify Phil's glare with a response. But then, she really didn't need to.