(no subject)

[worst_greatest_one]

I've used every cleaning spell I know and then some, but the place just doesn't seem right. I grab my wand and point it at the table, intoning, "Out, out, damned spot!", gratified when only the stain from Genevieve's painting disappears and not the whole damn table. With that there's nothing left to clean, and so I fidget, staring at the foyer and then random points on the walls.

Will he use a portal like he sent that monster through? Will he use the fucking doorbell?

Maybe he's here already, and I turn, but there's no one, not even Baz. He's probably in the kitchens, thinking up a new list of dorky names to call me. It's not as if I don't know I'm being weird. It's just that I can't help it.

I've not met anyone like this Doctor since the Mage, and I want to learn everything.

Comments

[whatpossibilities]

Stephen portals in on the Gardens' walkway. Simon's invitation was so kind, and so sincere that he wants to be respectful, so he walks up and rings the doorbell instead of lingering outside to inspect the grounds like he wants to. Or portalling straight inside like he would have with someone whose opinion he didn't care about.

He's worn regular clothes, but he has Cloak with him in case Simon is still curious. And, privately, he thought Cloak might like this place.

[worst_greatest_one]

The doorbell sounds and I nearly jump out of my skin, shouting "Open!" before I can stop myself. The huge doors of the foyer fly open with a bang, and I rush to meet him, hoping no one else in the castle has seen.

"Doctor, hello," I say with a grin, holding onto the righthand door like it might fly away. "Do come in. We've adjusted the wards, I just need to - " I pop a little flower on his lapel. "Sorry, the last people we had visiting were from the women's choir, so all the charms we have left are flowers. Elsewise the castle might reject you."

[whatpossibilities]

Stephen's glad he isn't standing in the path of the doors as they suddenly burst open like they've been blown by dynamite. Is that Simon's magic? The heady campfire smell is back, and then Simon pops out with a grin and a flower.

"Stephen is fine, and good afternoon. Is the castle sentient, or is it just the wards?" Stephen asks curiously, glancing down at the flower. What a charming idea.

[worst_greatest_one]

"No, it's just stone," I say, "It's not even haunted." I step back to allow him inside. "I think Baz is disappointed about that, his family home was full of ghosts."

Not me, though. Why anyone would want to meet ghosts is beyond me. "We do have a number of charms to keep it clean and safe and all that, so it might seem alive sometimes," I continue. "Baz might join us, but we just got loads of new paperwork. Hopefully we'll fill this place up again."

[whatpossibilities]

"My new home here is haunted by spirits," Stephen remarks as he steps inside and looks around. He thought at first it would be creepier, but when you've the things he has, some errant spirits are nothing. "They seem harmless, though, and have only appeared to me as wisps. Like smoke."

The room they enter into is beautiful and stately, and reminds him a little of the Sanctum. Especially the grand staircase and the plush armchairs.

"What's happened that it's emptied?" he asks, looking away from the furniture and curiously over at Simon. "I should tell you, I know one of your wards from home. Peter? He said you were awesome, for the record."

[worst_greatest_one]

I chuckle at that. "He thinks everything is awesome," I say, and don't add that I don't know how much longer he'll be a ward. I lead him into the sitting room, the nice one the littlest kids aren't allowed into, and offer him a seat.

"There was a star in the sky a few months back," I explain. "Apparently it was a wishing star, though I didn't know it at the time. Anyway, I accidently wished that all the children here would be adopted, and they were. Not that it isn't best for them to have proper families," I add quickly, "But it's awfully lonely now."

[whatpossibilities]

"He does seem pretty happy," Stephen says, taking the seat with a nod of thanks. He doesn't mind Peter's excitable nature, it's a good thing. It would be easy for a boy his age to have a hard time being away from his aunt and friends at school, but he seems to have adapted to life in this dimension.

He seems to be doing better than Stephen feels at times.

Stephen's eyebrows raise at Simon's story. "That sounds like a powerful magic," he says thoughtfully. He'd been told weird things happen here, he's already experienced it a bit himself, but wishing on a star? Like the superstition? "Is Peter the last one, then?"

[worst_greatest_one]

"No, we've had a few trickle in since," I say, "And there's Genevieve and Ben still here. Gen is...how I accidentally wished everyone else away. I just really didn't want to lose her, and it wasn't fair to the other children to adopt just one, so I made a stupid wish and - "

I wave a hand. "No more littluns to object. So now it's Gen and Ben and Peter and probably three more if Baz finishes the papers, which he always does."

I've been looking at scones for as long as I can manage, and I grab one, biting off half before I pour our tea. "Where'd you end up living, by the way?"

[whatpossibilities]

"You're adopting?" he asks, and smiles. "I suppose that makes sense. You must love kids." Stephen never wanted any, but he's also had very little interaction with them in general.

"Thanks you," Stephen says as an aside to the tea, quietly. He picks his cup up, using his magic to make it a drinkable temperature, and takes a sip. It's delicious.

"I was assigned at Bramford, but I've recently discovered another sorcerer here has a lighthouse, of all things, where he keeps his library and his magical relics, yet he leaves it unattended. I decided to move in and take care of the place, which is a similar duty I had back home," he adds.

And he doubts Simon cares very much to hear it, but it feels good to talk about home, so he adds, "I lived in one of what are called the Sanctum Santorums. There was more involved to them than just housing relics, but the lighthouse feels reminiscent of the Sanctum in that way."

[worst_greatest_one]

"I do, it turns out," I answer, coloring a little. It's not as if it's virtue, me adopting. In fact it's probably selfishness, but fuck it. I want Baz and I to have a family, and I want Gen to be a part of it. And Ben wouldn't fit anywhere else. He's trouble, but he's my sort of trouble, and I know we can help him.

I pour my own tea and add a half pound of sugar, drinking before it's properly cool. "So now you live in a magical lighthouse," I say with a grin. I still think a castle's a bit better, but that's pretty cool. "So a Sanctum is sort of a magical museum?" I ask.

[whatpossibilities]

"I'll admit, I've had very little experience with children," Stephen remarks. Unless Tony Stark counts.

He watches in fascination the amount of tea Simon adds to his tea, and then looks up as if snapping out of a daze.

"Sort of," Stephen says, smiling. "They serve as a base for the other sorcerers, and yes, they house magical items. There are Sanctums in New York, Hong Kong, and London, and then our central base, Kamar-Taj, in Katmandu, Nepal, and they're magically linked together."

He pauses, and then continues in case Simon wants to know more. Or he might be boring him.

"Thousands of years ago ancient sorcerers established the Sanctums before the cities around them came into existence because of the volume of mystical energies in those places. The Sanctums harness the energy upon which they were built, and act as Earth's shield against possible threats that exist throughout the multiverse."

"I was Master of the New York Sanctum," he adds.

[worst_greatest_one]

"So you're kind of a big deal," I say with some satisfaction. I thought so. He just has that sort of presence, just like the Mage. I sober, however, thinking of so much magic confined in so few spaces.

"Has anyone ever - " I start haltingly. "Has anyone ever eaten up all the magic in those places? Like, used so much mystical energy there was none left, ever again?"

[whatpossibilities]

"I just had a job to do," Stephen says, far more humble than if Simon had made the same sort of comment while he'd been a surgeon. But in truth Stephen had only been a sorcerer for two years. He might have been a fast learner, and appointed an important position, but he was no Ancient One.

His brow furrows at Simon's question and he takes a moment to think about it. "Not that I've ever heard of," he says slowly. The closest he can think of is Dormammu's attack on Hong Kong, but that hadn't been eating magic, it had been eating the world. "It might have happened in other dimensions I'm not familiar with, but not on Earth as far as I know."

[worst_greatest_one]

"That's good," I say, suddenly feeling awkward. I don't know why I've brought it up, except that he's older and smarter and more capable than me. Maybe he knows how to fix it.

Or maybe, Penny's voice reminds me, he won't like that I can use up all the magic like that at all. I pour more sugar into my tea. "We had a villain at home," I say, leaving off that said villain was partially me. "No one knew how to stop him or fix the magical dead spots he left behind."

[whatpossibilities]

Simon seems uncomfortable, so Stephen is glad when he explains. Even though part of him wants to interrupt and ask him if he forgot that he already put sugar in his tea.

"Magical dead spots," Stephen echoes, trying to imagine it. He knew places of high magical confluence, like the Sanctums, but dead spots? "So they were physical places that magic couldn't be done in? How large were they?"

[worst_greatest_one]

"Pretty much, yeah," I say. "You can feel it, the absence. Like static, or a dry throat. Some are smaller, some are miles across. It depends on how much magic got used up. But isn't it - "

I'm no scholar, but it just seems wrong. "Is magic just finite like that? Once you've used it, there's no more?"

[whatpossibilities]

"Not as I know it," Stephen said, his expression intensely thoughtful. It was frustrating to be held here in Darrow. The universe had never felt so confined. He would have loved to come to Simon's dimension to try and help him solve his problem, to study the magic dead zones.

"The way I use my magic, anyway, is by drawing energy from other dimensions and shaping it. I imagine there are dimensions without magic, but since there are an infinite amount I can't see there being a limit. Especially not in a physical area. But you tap into a different magic, correct? You said it's everywhere, in everything. So if you're using magic from just your dimension, maybe it can be used up somehow."

[worst_greatest_one]

"I suppose," I say with the sneaking suspicion that I'm not smart enough for this discussion. "I'm a bit different from the other mages at home. My magic is like...a star, sort of. Not a nice twinkling star but a big fiery one, angry and burning and hungry all the time for more. I have to use it or it'll burn me up, too. So I think I use more than I'm meant to."

I fidget again. "I just really don't want to make a hole. Not here."

[whatpossibilities]

"You believe your magic can consume you?" Stephen asked, eyebrows drawn in concern. The idea sounded terrifying, and somehow Mordo's words came back to him. The bill comes due. It wasn't how Stephen's magic worked, so he wasn't sure if there was some way to stop it from happening, but he would look into it. Dorian might have some ideas. If only he had his own library here.

"A hole?" he asked, taking a sip of tea. "What do you mean?"

[worst_greatest_one]

"That's what we call the dead spots," I explain. "And yeah, pretty much. Magnus has made me a charm to help absorb some of it, and Baz can take some each day, but if that doesn't happen I start to waste. Like getting a sunburn on the inside. But sometimes, if something bad enough is threatening me, I can't help myself. I just explode and can't control how much magic I use at all."

[whatpossibilities]

Stephen's eyes narrowed and his head tilted slightly to the side.

"Simon, are you the villain?" he asked without judgement. It was just that Simon said a villain back home left magic dead spots, but now he was saying he made them. Either it was both, or Simon had meant himself.

[worst_greatest_one]

The Doctor's head cocks, and I know I've fucked up. "No!" I say quickly, but I've got nothing to say afterwards, and I know how that looks. I try to remind myself that he was going to figure this out eventually, but I'm not ready for it. We've only just met, and now he'll hate me. Hopefully he just leaves in disgust, rather than trying to rid Darrow of another villain.

"I mean, not exactly," I say, staring at my cup. It had been cooling, but now I see steam rising from it again, but try as I might my breaths are coming faster in my chest. "It was the first time I went off, when I didn't even know what I was. I burnt my carehome to cinders, and ever since the Humdrum has been making holes all over England. He's not me, but I think...I think I made him."

[whatpossibilities]

"Deep breaths," Stephen said calmly, like Simon was having an asthma attack, not filling the room with the scent of smoke from his emotions triggering a reaction in his magic.

Stephen's expression grew distant.

"Like your magic made a tangible echo," he tried to surmise with as little as he has to go on. "But it hasn't happened here yet? And no sign of this...Humdrum?"

Which was an odd name, but all things considered so was Dormammu, so was Thanos.

[worst_greatest_one]

"No," says Simon, "But also, I haven't gone off since I got here. I became a dragon once, but that was something else, this place fucking with me and all. We'd know if He was here. You can feel Him. And - "

I swallow. "He looks like me when I was eleven. That's why I think I made him. If I ever go off, and there's a hole, then we'll know for sure."

[whatpossibilities]

Simon's story was definitely one Stephen hadn't heard before, but unique threats came with the territory of being a Master of the Mystic Arts. Just because the Sanctums and the other sorcerers weren't here didn't mean his duties ended. He helped protect Earth, he would help protect Darrow's reality now.

"If that happens, I'll come. We'll figure it out together, okay?"

He didn't even think he needed to tell Simon to call him, he would probably sense a magical anomaly like that.

"Is there anything else I should know about magical threats here?"

[worst_greatest_one]

I give the Doctor a wobbly smile, glad that he's here to help. I haven't been too in danger of going off, and I have Baz, but an older, knowledgeable sorcerer who can see into other dimensions is great to have in your corner.

"Well, there's KIRIN," I say, mouth twisting, "But they're the opposite of magic. They hunted a lot of us, not just mages but aliens, superheroes, anyone not a normal human, and kept us locked up for weeks. They did - " My voice cuts out, and I drink some of my too hot tea. "Things to a lot of us. You don't want them on your scent."

[whatpossibilities]

"Oh, I've heard of them, and I welcome them to try," Stephen says darkly, and then takes a delicate sip of tea. He dares them to try and lay a finger on him or his, or anyone else for that matter, and he'll show them what a Master of the Mystic Arts is capable of.

"Let me know if you see or hear anything from them, alright? I'll take care of it. You won't have to worry about going off," he adds more casually.