- 177A Bleecker Street -
I stood outside a very nice looking building of weathered white stones and red brick accents. Square columns stretched four stories high, capped by jade green shilling.
I approached nervously, my finger hovering over the bell. The fact that the door didn't automagically open was disturbing.
Please don't smite me.
*DING DONG!
…
The large double doors clicked, the sound of a locking mechanism before the ache of badly oiled hinges.
A bald asian man appeared, his features familiar yet subtly different from what I remembered from the movies.
His brow's rose slightly as he spied me.
"Can I help you?"
I nodded, swallowing my nerves. "I'm here to see The Ancient One."
The man's brows rose even further, his eyes widening, then he tilted head. "She… isn't expecting you, give me a moment." He turned and slammed the door in my face before I could reply.
… what do you mean she isn't expecting me.
About ten minutes later the door opened again and the bald man ushered me in.
I spied the grand staircase, the fancy braziers, before following him up and through a long hallway. We stopped at a large oak door, where he gestured for me to enter.
I took a deep breath and stepped in.
The room was large, bland really, I expected artifacts and magic not paintings of boats and gardens.
In the middle of the room was two velvet couches separated by a small coffee table. Sat comfortably on one of the couches was a very pretty bald lady dressed in comfortable yellow robes. She was reminiscent of her appearance in the movies, if a little more youthful and relaxed.
Her wizened eyes glanced over at me as she placed down a tea cup.
"Please, do come in. Tea?"
I nodded, "Please and thank you." I replied politely taking a seat across from one of the most powerful beings in the universe.
She lifted the teapot, gracefully pouring a steaming honey-scented cup for me, passing it over and taking her own and looking at me expectedly.
"Well, to what do I owe the pleasure, Mr…?"
"Riven, Riven Thorne."
She smiled, "Mr. Thorne, a pleasure — yet, I can't help but wonder why you've sought me out?"
What? Is she fucking with me?
"Really?" I asked, carefully.
The Ancient One smiled, placing her tea cup down. "Indeed Mr. Thorne, for I cannot see your past, present, or future. You are quite the anomaly."
My throat tensed, a chill crawling up my spine.
"Is that… bad?"
She shook her head. "No. Unusual? Yes, but not unheard of. Would you do me the pleasure of explaining?"
I nodded my head slowly, thinking about my next words carefully.
"Well, I'm Riven Thorne, High School sophomore, and… one day I awoke with strange powers — and knowledge of the future." Despite the absurdity of my words, The Ancient One merely nodded.
"I see… and you've sought me out because you wish to understand these 'Strange Powers?'"
"Yes."
The Ancient One tapped her mouth gently. "Would you help defend our dimension from external threats?"
"I wouldn't be opposed to it, but I'm still in high school…" I said rubbing the back of my head in slight embarrassment.
The Ancient One chuckled, waving her hand to dismiss the concern.
"Worry not Mr. Thorne, I plan to take you as my disciple so any scheduling concerns are easily remedied."
My eyes widened in surprise, I couldn't help but stammer out, "W-hat? Why? Just like that?"
The Ancient One grinned at me like I was prey, sending goosebumps running up my arms.
"For one, " She said, counting her fingers, "It's refreshing to meet someone who I haven't seen die — and I mean that quite literally — Two, it'd be remiss of me to ignore the waves of power I feel coursing through you. It's unlike anything I've ever seen. And three, if you had lied, the runes in this room would've turned you back into cosmic dust." She finishes with an almost motherly smile.
…
I felt a droplet of sweat seep from my forehead.
What have I gotten myself into…
—
I spent the entire weekend at Kamar-Taj, with a massive grin plastered to my face the whole time.
The moment I laid eyes on portal to Nepal I couldn't help but smile. Magic! True to god fucking MAGIC!
The Force was awesome, don't get me wrong, but it was a hidden power — at least until I can condense enough force — magic on the other hand? Tangible, vivid and utterly mind blowing.
Tao (The Ancient One), began by bringing me to a large eastern-dojo like room. She stood to the side, holding her arms behind her back.
"Show me."
So I did. With a simple yank of my hand I pulled a spear free from its rack. It flew across the room slapping into my palm.
Then threw it lightly, catching it in space and making it spin until its sharp point pointed at a distant wall.
With my other hand I began channeling a ball of force before slamming it into the butt of the spear.
It shot across the training hall like a bullet before impaling the wooden wall.
I then took a deep breath and let the force flow through my body, letting strength flood my muscles and reinforce my skin.
I jumped, flipping meters through the air and landing softly—then I blurred. My visage disappearing and reappearing in a sudden burst of speed.
Then I stopped, turning to Tao.
"I also have a sort of precognition and semi-omniscient sorta empathy…" I explained before seeing her brows furrowed in thought.
"Uh… is everything alright?"
Tao looked up at me, deep in thought. "You're not a Telekinetic."
I nodded, "Not exclusively no—"
She waved her hand sharply, "You may have Telekinetic abilities, but you do not use the same Internal Energies that a typical Telekinetic would, namely Psionic energy." Tao tapped her chin, "The energy you're using is more akin to Universal Energy — the ambient energy of our home universe — for a moment, I thought it was an Extra-dimensional Energy… yet I feel no external presence, no link to a dimension, its as if the energy is coming directly from you, but at the same time it is not. Do you understand my dilemma?"
"Sorta?"
Tao gave me a soft smile, "To put it simply you are using an energy I have never seen — and that, Mr. Thorne, is quite impressive."
I chuckled at the absurdity of the idea, Tao was the Sorc Supreme, and really fucking old. "Thanks I guess, but, there's still one more thing to show…"
Tao's brow quirk as I Force pulled the spear I had launched previously back into my hand. I turned to Tao, her eyes staring expectantly at the spear in my hand.
With a subtle smirk I made the spear vanish.
Her eyes widened in surprise, "What?" She muttered.
I chuckled and made the spear reappear from my Storage.
"I also have access to some sort of Spatial Storage thingy."
Tao's mouth opened slightly, before her lips curled into a kinda creepy grin.
"It seems I've been quite lucky with disciples as of late." She said, approaching me with casual steps, "It is more than access, Mr. Thorne, this thingy you have makes you a little more than a high schooler with powers, its incredible really…" She chuckled, now only a step away from me. "Mr Thorne, it seems to me you are a Dimensional Lord--"
"—W-What?!" I stammered out, yet before I could even wrap my head around what that meant Tao's hand snaked towards my head so fast that even my Force Sense failed to react.
"We will talk after you return."
Return?! FROM WHERE?
Then she tapped my forehead.
"Open. Your. Eye."
—
For a short moment of eternity I was decimated. My molecules ripped apart into cosmic dust, soul rended into fractals and devoured by a cosmic butthole of universal proportions, only to be spat out into a never ending journey of dimension suffering. I felt presences loom in the galactic darkness, eyes hiding behind quantum foam.
I kept screaming until I was suddenly standing again.
But I wasn't back on Earth, Tao was nowhere to be seen.
I was in my dreamscape again. An endless plane of white, like an arctic desert smoothed flat by eons of weathering.
I looked around in confusion, until something caught my eye.
Tennis balls? Is that the baseball bat I stole, wait a minute…
I wasn't in my dreamscape… I was in my fucking Spatial Storage!
Then, as if the realization itself was a key the world shattered into an endless void before I rocketed back down to Earth like a meteor, slamming back into the dojo and falling face first onto the woven training mats.
"How was your trip, Thorne?" Tao asked from above me, the smug smile on her face clear for me to hear.
I could only groan.
—
Kamar-Taj was a breath of fresh air, literally.
I forgot how nasty living in a city like New York was, and the contrast to the crisp peaks and clean halls of the monastery really nailed it in.
I was given a room along with an introduction to Mordo and Wong, and also introduced to Strange, who was still a disciple.
"Hello, Riven, Riven Thorne." I said, shaking the quivering man's hand.
"Strange. Dr. Strange." He introduced.
I smirked, thinking about a line from Tao. "Oh? You're a practicing doctor?" I asked innocently.
The man tensed, his shaved face and mustache quirking and he forced out a smile.
"Well… no, not currently—"
"Thats unfortunate, it's a pleasure to meet a fellow disciple anyways, I'll see you around Strange." I had to stifle a chuckle as I walked away from the man. But I could clearly feel his embarrassment and rage through the Force.
Unfortunately, as much as I wanted to start slinging spells and conjuring portals through space, Tao made it clear that no such slinging was going to happen until I completed some very essential foundations.
Namely, learning Sanskrit, Latin, Ancient Tibetan, Hiero-fucking-glyphics, and a number of dead languages I had never heard of. I also began to learn the differences between energy sources. Extra-dimensional Energies were like Dormamu, or the Chaos/Dark and Mirror Dimensions (Which is also labeled as an alternate dimension, whatever that means), technically, my Spatial Storage was really an Extra-Dimension, A Time & Space Dimension, but confusingly not "Extra" dimensional, since it was a part of me, qualifying as an Internal Energy (Chi and Psionics). The craziest realization was that the Force itself was coming from my Spatial Dimension, and since it was MY dimension, the Force was subsequently, mine.
I am literally the Force.
The convoluted consequence of such a thing was not something my puny, apprentice robed mind could comprehend, so I ignored it, for now.
My short weekend days were as grueling as my sparring sessions with Mike, only mentally numbing too.
I'd wake up at the butt-crack of dawn to join a number of other disciples to train forms, and meditate. Then I'd join Strange as Mordo beat the shit out of us, before we both limped to lunch and then the library for our studies.
It was nice.
Peaceful.
Unlike Strange I didn't need to use my astro-projection to read at night, since I already had access to my time-dilated dreamscape. The dilation was around five hours for every one hour slept.
One of the biggest boons was the realization I had during my dimension journey of acid-induced suffering.
My dreamscape wasn't a manifestation of a Force ability like I'd previously thought, which made sense considering how tired I felt when I wake up, but an ability of my Spatial Storage instead.
I could access anything within my Mind & Storage. I could summon people I knew, though their capabilities would be limited to what I had seen them do. I summoned Tao and she sorta just stood there, as I hadn't seen her do anything but conjure portals.
Then she conjured a portal around my neck and decapitated me.
Never fuck with Tao. I vowed myself when I later awoke in a cold sweat.
For the most part I spent my time reading books I had temporarily borrowed from the library.
Basic language primers, magical philosophy, Dimensional foundations and 101's, how not to get my soul trapped by a demon — all interesting stuff.
I also found that by channeling the Force through my eyes and brain I could enter a sorta academic Force-Trance. Increasing my learning potential massively, as I began flipping through pages three times faster than I could normally, my eyes whipping back and forth as I tore through sentences like it was nothing. My brain practically hummed as the Force helped transfer the information directly into my mind, like some sort of A.I brain-chip.
By Sunday night I felt like an entirely new being. My mind swirled with knowledge and foreign words, geometric symbols and runic scripts. I had an insatiable look in my eye, one that made Tao laugh when she saw it.
"Oh I know that look, Thorne, do take care of yourself, the Mystic Arts are amazing, I agree — but, it is equally as important to remember restraint and self-care." She said lightly gripping my shoulder. A wave of minty relaxation washed over me as I felt her magic ripple through the Force.
"You are to return every Monday and Wednesday after class, as well as Friday and Saturday. I know you have a life outside of here, and I implore you to live it — and worry not, this will only last until you become a Master of the Mystic Arts."
I dryly nodded my head, already grimacing at the travel costs and balancing act between Magic and Martial training with Mike, which I did not plan to drop, at least until I could reliably put him on his ass.
"C-can I get a portal home? Please?"
Tao smiled at me.
"No."