The Wizard and the Void - Chapter Eight
Author: Milady Dragon
Mistress Maria Hill made her way down the street, heading toward the unique appearing house at the middle of the block of other, more normal, looking homes.
Even in this residential area, there was quite a bit of foot traffic. But then, New Andrade was one of the largest cities in the Western Lands, a major seaport and trading hub, the gateway to the Western Lands. It was also one of the oldest cities, first settled by people from the United Kingdom and lands farther east, looking for more freedoms than what they had had in their homelands at the time.
New Andrade was also the Baronial seat of Amdrastan, and if she'd come by horseback it would have taken her three weeks from Triskelia. Luckily for her, Teleport spells were fairly common, either in a Wizard's gramariya or via various types of enchanted items, and for a Great Wizard of her caliber it had been simple to cast the magicks that would get her there quickly. She could have Teleported directly to her destination, but that would have been rude without announcing she was going to arrive first...and might actually ger her cursed before the owner of the house could recognize her as an ally.
The house she was striding toward, Iliad flying overhead, was a multi-story building with an ornately designed circular window in the top floor, looking out over the city. The spell work around the place was obvious to her, all Protection and Silence and UnPlotability and one that increased the inner dimensions of the place without it being obvious on the outside.
It was an elegant spell, one that Maria wished was in her repertoire. However, it was much too powerful for her, and would most likely remain so.
But it wasn't for the man who lived in that house.
Taking the steps up to the front door, Maria announced her presence both magically and by using the heavy brass door knocker. The Silence spell was so good she didn't even hear the knocker fall from where she was standing, although it would have been loud within. Iliad landed beside her, chirping curiously.
The maroon painted door opened for her.
Maria couldn't help but smile. "Good day, Master Wong." She bowed slightly.
No one knew if the man standing in the doorway was a Wizard. Too many of her colleagues believed that Wong was nothing more than a librarian, which was actually true. Master Wong, though, was a powerful Great Wizard in his own right, he just didn't see the need to show off.
Master Wong simply stared at her with that inscrutableness that was natural to him. He was a little shorter than she was, a little stout but in good physical condition, wearing plain brown robes that fell to his knees, under which were equally brown breeches and flat-heeled boots. On his belt he had the traditional Wizard's dagger sheathed at his waist, but there wasn't any sign of a wand…or a dragon.
Maria had seen Master Wong's dragon, but he'd always been cagey on the dragon's name. Sometimes she wondered if it actually had a name.
"Mistress Maria," he greeted her, his voice flat. "Please, come in."
He backed away from the open door, letting the Great Wizard and her dragon into the cool interior of the house. The foyer ran the entire height of the building, and was tiled in a colorful, abstract pattern, leading up to a wide staircase that ran straight up to the second level. The stairs were rich wood, without benefit of carpet, the bannisters highly polished and gleaming. The walls were papered in deep blue with gold accents, and there were rooms leading off the foyer; Maria knew – even though she had only been here twice in her life – they led to the dining room, sitting room and, toward the back, a massive library that practically hummed with magic. There were free-standing shelves and tables with arcane items mixed with kitschy knickknacks on them scattered about, and a couple of leather chairs and sofas decorated the open front area. Several tall candelabra, with actual candles and not the more usual magical glowglobes, were spaced about the large room, but were not burning as light came in from the large, rounded window, the swooping separators making patterns on the walls and staircase.
"Is Grand Master Stephen available?" she enquired politely. "I know I'm dropping in unannounced, but it's important I see him as soon as possible."
"it must be if you're here without letting us know you were coming," Master Wong answered disapprovingly. "You're lucky that the Grand Master isn't busy."
With that, he headed around the stairs, toward the back of the house…toward the library. Maria had never actually been within the library before, and found herself looking forward to it. A Grand Master's magical collection had to be magnificent.
The door was open, as if the Grand Master had been expecting her…which he might very well have been, as far as Maria knew. Master Wong ushered her into the immense room, and Maria had to stop and gape at the sheer size of the chamber beyond. She could now see exactly where the Dimensional Expansion spell had been cast.
The library was nearly five stories high, lined with shelves with rolling steps at intervals. Books, scrolls, and various other types of documents sat on those shelves, arranged in a system Maria wished she had more time to examine. There were also glassed-in cases holding all sorts of artifacts, all of them magical, and the Great Wizard wanted to touch each and every one of them, to feel all that ancient power under her fingertips.
A large skylight took up most of the ceiling, letting in the natural light, which was supplemented by glowglobes that were spaced about the room. There were chairs and tables spaced out around the library, all of them old and well-worn but cared for. The entire place buzzed against her magical senses, and she would have given anything to be able to have seen this place without the urgency of her errand hovering over her.
"Mistress Maria," the voice was behind her, and she spun on her heel at once, ready to defend herself even though she knew she had nothing to worry about in this house.
To cover her surprise, Maria smiled. "Good day, Grand Master."
Stephen Strange, Grand Master of Great Order, was older than Maria, with a neat goatee and gray streaking the black hair at his temples. He was a handsome man, with the faint cast to his skin of the Middle Eastern Empire, although he had the flat Andrade accent. He was dressed in a blue tunic and black trousers, his magical cloak about his shoulders, and his dagger and wand at his waist along with several pouches and bags that carried various sorts of spell components.
He greeted her with a welcoming smile. He moved toward her, hand outstretched, and Maria accepted the handshake, the scars on his hands obvious under her fingers. The Cloak waved at her as well, and from Iliad's emotions through their link he wanted nothing more than to play with the enchanted garment. Still, he obeyed his training and stayed by her side.
It was considered impolite to chase after the Grand Master's Cloak of Levitation.
The Grand Master's dragon, Agamotto, was curled around the rungs of one of the ladders. Agamotto was more of a serpent than a true dragon, and was the only dragon Maria had ever seen that didn't have wings. His gold and green scales glittered in the sunlight as he regarded their visitors with silvery eyes.
"I'm sorry for dropping in on you like this," she apologized.
"If it wasn't important, I'm sure you would have called first," Grand Master Stephen quipped. "Please, let's sit and you can explain to me what brings you all the way to New Andrade."
She accepted his invitation to sit, taking one of the comfortable chairs that had been put in front of the fireplace, Iliad curled up at her feet. Grand Master Stephen took the chair opposite, Agamotto joining his Wizard, draping himself over the back of the chair, those silver eyes still watching closely.
"Master Wong," the Grand Master said, "would you mind bringing us some tea?"
Maria would have preferred coffee, but it wasn't to everyone's taste. Besides, she liked tea just fine, just not as much.
Wong didn't look very happy, but then that was his default expression. He turned and left them alone.
"Now," the Grand Master urged, "why don't you tell me what's bothering you."
Maria explained everything she'd learned from Nick: about Hydra, and them trying to recreate the Deathless, and about their attempted recruitment of Master Phil Coulson to their cause, only interrupting herself when Wong reappeared with the tea, in a teapot that looked to have been from the Far East.
"And it turns out that Coulson is actually the Dark One," she added, a little disgusted with herself for not having figured that out sooner. She'd never really officially met the Void Wizard, but she had seen him at various meetings and Quorums, and had sensed in him magic a bit more powerful than any other Void she'd ever been acquainted with. Still, he hadn't acted as if he was some sort of homicidal maniac, so she could forgive herself for not tumbling onto the fact that he was the one of the vilest creatures in the Western Lands.
Master Stephen took a sip of his tea. "Interesting," he mused. "And you say Master Phil claimed that this cabal was attempting to create a Void version of the Deathless?"
"It…" she blew out a rough sigh, "it seems impossible. I mean, we all know how Harkness became Deathless, and I can't see anyone being able to replicate that."
"You'd be right about that. Mortals can't do it; Lady Rose had, according to reports, been an exceptional young woman performing under the most remarkable of circumstances. There truly is no way to replicate the exact events that led to the Deathless."
"One of the people in that meeting asked if it would be such a bad thing." Maria had begun to consider what the Hawk had asked, back in Nick's sitting room, because in a way, he was right. "That we've all learned that there's a balance to the universe, and wouldn't it make sense to have another Deathless to balance out Harkness." The Hawk had actually been talking about Grand Master Ianto, but it still fit the circumstances.
Master Stephen gave her a rather enigmatic smile. "And you think the universe hasn't already corrected that exact thing?"
Maria felt her jaw drop. "If that was the case, why don't we know about it?"
The Grand Master arced an eyebrow at her, as if that was more than enough of an answer.
It wasn't, and the Great Wizard wasn't afraid to say it.
"There is a being called the Unearthly Child," Master Stephen explained indulgently. "According to Captain Harkness himself, she admitted it to him during the events of Genosha reappearing a century ago."
Alright. Maria had to nod, even though this really didn't answer anything. Perhaps this Unearthly Child had been a resident of Genosha, the co-called Island of Magic, that had vanished over a thousand years ago and then reappeared in the middle of the ocean about a century back, causing a great deal of coastal destruction by the ensuing tidal wave that had hit nearly every country around the oceanic rim… including New Andrade itself. Now, the people who lived there were fully integrated back into the world, and had given much of its magical knowledge to the Wizard's Guilds as a gift, even if they were still a bit insular.
Dragons also were born on Genosha, and would travel through magical portals to their intended Wizards. As there hadn't been but a handful of Wizards at that point, no one had really given it much thought. Now, however, there were nests all over the world, all using the same magical portal system to find their Wizards when the time was right. Maria reached over and rubbed Iliad's head, glad that she'd been one of the privileged few to receive one.
"I know of the Child because Grand Master Ianto has actually met her," Master Stephen continued. "I, personally, have not, but I would like to someday. I understand she has quite the gift of prophecy as well." He sipped from his teacup again. "To change the subject, I get the impression that you don't trust this Master Phil Coulson because he was once the Dark One."
"Of course I don't trust him. Even if he hadn't done what he'd done in the past, just the fact that he's a Void should have precluded anyone from trusting him."
Master Stephen shook his head sadly. "It seems as if your teaching Master truly was successful in selling you on that old, incorrect, rhetoric against the Voids."
Maria bristled. Master Thaddeus Ross had been a wonderful teaching Master, and she didn't like the Grand Master speaking against him.
Before she could rebut what Master Stephen had said, he was speaking again. "Do you know, I didn't want you to become the Head of Great Order? Because I believed you were too inflexible in your attitude toward both the Cardinal and Void Orders, and we needed more progressive thought in that position instead of the same, hidebound, attitudes that you were indoctrinated with."
The Great Wizard was shocked by what she'd just heard. Master Stephen, the Grand Master of her very order, had wanted the Quorum vote to go against her? And she was just now hearing about this? Maria couldn't believe how utterly angry she was at his words, and Iliad reacted to her anger, hissing at the Grand Master. Maria slammed the cup down on the table beside her chair, not caring that she cracked the ceramic, rising to her feet with the urge to storm out.
Master Stephen, though, didn't seem at all bothered by her temper. "Sit down, Mistress Maria," he ordered, sounding pleasant and yet there was enough force behind the request that she obeyed without realizing she was doing it. "Don't even pretend you didn't at least suspect that there were those among your own order that felt you weren't the proper person for the position. And, despite my personal feelings on the matter, I have always supported you. However, you are so bound up in the old stories that you haven't bothered to question if they're correct."
"The old records state that controlling the Deep Ways and the Void is wrong," she snapped. "No one should have that much control over such fundamental forces."
"I think it's far past time I give you a lesson in the facts of the universe." With that, Master Stephen stood and walked toward one of the shelves, taking down a book bound in rich blue leather and bringing it back, handing it to Maria. She accepted it, feeling the magic in the book tingling against her palms.
There was no title pressed into the leather; only a gold leaf design inset in the exact center: a circle, within which was a figure eight with different layers to it.
"That," the Grand Master said, taking his seat once more, careful of the dragon still perched on the back, "is the memoir of a certain Master John Smith, a Wizard of our own order."
"The John Smith?" she whispered in awe, every single bit of anger leaving her as the implications of what she was holding struck her.
The story of Master John Smith was as convoluted as it was wonderful. It was compulsory learning with the Master Great Wizards who taught history, a cautionary tale on taking fate into a person's own hands and what damage that sort of thing would do; of playing God and paying the ultimate price.
Master John had been the friend of the man who would become the Deathless. He had been the lover of Lady Rose Tyler, the woman who'd changed their friend into the immortal who still walked the world, because she'd taken on a power and hadn't had enough control to use it properly.
Master John had also been able to travel in time.
He'd seen a time when the Wizards had destroyed the world in their bid for ultimate power. The few Wizards left had implored him to change the future, giving him a spell that would lock magic away, so that no one would be able to use it.
The spell had been flawed.
In order to make it work, Master John had had to give up his own name, so he went to a time where no one would remember him. Then he cast the spell, thinking he'd done the only thing he possibly could, calling himself the Doctor from that moment on.
The problem was, not everyone who remembered him was dead.
There was the Deathless.
Eventually, the magic broke through the bonds that had held it, giving birth to the first Wizards in an age: Harold Saxon, Void Wizard; and Ianto Jones, Cardinal Wizard. It had led to where they were now, with new Wizards being born every day.
"Master John once believed as you do," Master Stephen said. "He believed that using the Deep Ways and the Void was a sacrilege, and that no one should do it. However, he came to the conclusion that he was wrong, and that memoir explains just how he arrived at that decision."
Master Maria frowned. "Why haven't I seen this before now?" She had no doubt that he was telling the truth. She could tell just from the magic that surrounded the book; she was familiar with the long-gone Great Wizard's magical signature, having had the honor of seeing some of his surviving spells on a couple of items at the Guild House. This journal had belonged to Master John Smith, it was obvious.
"Because that is the only copy left in existence. The others have all been destroyed, because there are certain factions among the Great Wizard who don't want the truth to come out…and that includes Master Thaddeus."
"I…don't understand." She didn't. It didn't make sense. Why would her own order want to do something like that?
"It's all about power, and prestige. As I'm sure you're aware, the Cardinals and Voids combined are equal to the number of Great Wizards."
She did know that. The Greats were supposed to walk the edge of the coin, with the Cardinal Wizards on one face and the Void Wizards on the other. And yet, there has always been more Great Wizards than the other two orders.
"Master John, in his book, says that, in his own home time, the Cardinals and Voids had long been gone, with only the Greats remaining. While we cannot be certain, my fellow Grand Masters and I believe that the Greats manipulated things so that the other two orders died out. Master John says practically the same thing in there." He gestured toward the book clutched in Maria's hands. "You see, the Cardinals and the Voids don't control those elements, Mistress Maria…they are an actual part of the Deep Ways and the Void, and they cannot live without either one. The Deep Ways and the Void flow through each and every one, like their own life's blood. You cannot separate them from the ancient powers without killing those Wizards who are a very part of those forces. Unlike a Great Wizard, who can be separated from the primal magic and survive. Doing any such thing would kill the Cardinal or Void Wizard involved. And Master John writes about that very thing happening." He gave her a look. "You don't honestly think that Grand Master Ianto would want to extend his life the way it is? Or the Deathless, for that matter? They have no choice. The Deep Ways are a part of their very souls."
Maria was stunned. She'd been taught that the Cardinals and the Voids were simply given the ability to manipulate the Deep Ways and the Void, and that it was inherently wrong to do so. One simply didn't play with such powerful forces and not risk their very soul. It had made so much sense to her at the time, but if that wasn't true…
Oh, she'd heard this sort of thing before, but had discounted it as propaganda spread about by the Cardinals and Voids. However, her own Grand Master was saying it and, if he was speaking truly, Master John Smith had said the very same thing in his book.
The very book she was cradling in her hands.
Her very world was tipping in a completely different direction. It was something she hadn't even considered when she'd come to the conclusion that she needed to tell the Grand Master of her Order what she'd learned at Nick's castle.
"And this, with the Voids wanting to somehow attempt to recreate the Deathless, would play right into our very order's hands, especially after the determined discrediting they have been perpetrating against the Cardinals and the Voids."
"Can't you stop it?" There had to be a way…Maria could see it, now that Master Stephen had pointed it out, and she was ashamed of herself for believing the myths of the past. It was going to take a lot for her to get out of the mindset of her previous lessons, and the beliefs of a lifetime, and it wasn't going to be easy for her to curb her own behavior, but she could see it needed to be done. If only she'd listened before now…
"I've tried," Master Stephen admitted. "I've done what I can to change the minds of our order, but the lies are now too pervasive. My predecessor didn't help with things, but it wasn't because she believed it herself…she simply thought it wouldn't come to be as bad as it is now."
What he'd said…it made her think about what Nick had revealed about Coulson…about Master Phil, and maybe she should get used to giving him the respect she should, even if he'd once been the most evil of all the Voids since the first. "Nick – Baron Triskelia – told me that Master Phil had been cursed from the moment his parents had found out he was a Void Wizard, because of the propaganda put out by the Great Wizards. They had him convinced he was evil by the time he got to school…"
Master Stephen's dark eyes were sad. "I'm only surprised this doesn't happen more often. But, you say he's willing to infiltrate Hydra in order to discover what they're up to?"
Maria nodded. "Nick trusts him, as does Mistress Pepper…who seemed to have known just who this Master Phil is, because she's his daughter's teaching Master."
A single eyebrow rose. "Are you saying that Mistress Pepper…" His voice faded out. "Oh, this must be the Novice Daisy she's fond of going on about, although she's never given a last name for her most promising student. And she's the daughter of a Void Wizard? That doesn't usually happen, as magic types run in families…"
"Novice Daisy is adopted. From what I was able to learn, she was an orphan that Master Phil found and raised as his own. Nick…he said that Daisy saved the man's life. It showed him that he could be both a good man and a Void Wizard."
"That is what it certainly sounds like." Master Stephen set his empty tea cup aside. "Look, I understand the sheer hatred that the Dark One engendered in people. The things he did were vile. However, it sounds as if he's changed, and I've always been fond of second chances, after getting one of my own. I know you were hoping I'd somehow condemn this plan, because of Master Phil's involvement – "
That had Maria wondering just how easy she was to read…
"But I think this is the best way to figure out what exactly is happening."
Her head was telling her that he was correct, but her heart still held all those prejudices that she'd learned at her master's feet. She clutched the book in her lap, knowing it was going to take some time for her to digest what the Grand Master had told her.
"I believe I would like to meet this Master Phil when this is all over," Master Stephen said. "It seems to me that he perfectly embodies the balance: a Void Wizard with a Cardinal daughter. That is what we need during this time of schisms within the orders."
"Even though he was responsible for so much death and destruction?" Maria asked, amazed.
"Any man who can turn his entire life around, after being in the darkness for so long, is a man to be admired. It is rare for someone to be able to remake themselves, and for love…yes, Master Phil is a singular person indeed. I would definitely like to make his acquaintance."
"So you're saying you think he shouldn't face any sort of consequences for his actions?" She couldn't believe what she was hearing.
"There are many more ways of punishment than standing trial for your crimes," the Grand Master said serenely. "And, if Master Phil truly has had a change of heart, I can guarantee he's suffered many of those sorts of punishments, and every single one of them is self-inflicted."