The feeling of being discovered with your hand in the cookie jar.
Very slowly, I maneuvered myself around a large stack of items until I couldn't see her anymore.
Everyone knows if you can't see someone, that means they can't see you either.
[Well done.] Ddraig complimented my stealth abilities.
I peeked around the side to see her still sitting there, drinking a cup of tea.
She gave me a little wave as I pulled my head back.
Yup, completely undiscovered.
"Would you like a hand?" I heard her ask. "I don't often visit the London Sanctum, and woe be it for me to ignore a new initiate."
"Nope, I'm good!" I answered back.
That sounds like permission to me.
I looked at her as I grabbed something off the table without looking, took the hat off my head, and pushed it inside, hiding it inside my storage ring sneakily.
She brought her teacup up to her lips, not uttering a sound, merely raising an eyebrow.
I grabbed something else and stuffed it inside. I think it was a doll or something; I wasn't too sure.
I found a rubber ball that had spikes hidden inside.
Was that a bottle of wind?
Honestly, I lost count of how many things I took under her watchful gaze.
My eyes landed on a suit of armor standing tall.
I then looked at her and then back at the suit of armor.
"It behooves me to think I was unaware of such a talented individual. To resonate with so many relics, why, I feel like I haven't been doing my job properly to overlook such a recruit as yourself."
"It's okay; everyone messes up sometimes. It doesn't mean you're a failure or anything." I made sure to reassure her.
"I did not believe myself a failure, but I appreciate your kind words." She responded evenly. "Though do remind me, you mentioned a teacher to Master Alexander. I would love to know who raised such a promising student."
"Bob?" She repeated. "What a…unique name. And their family name?"
"They don't have one. It's tragic really, orphaned at a young age and all that. It's best if we never speak of it again."
"Of course, of course." She nodded along. "I'll be sure to keep this in mind when I look for him back at headquarters." She punctuated the last bit. "Of which, I'm sure you're very familiar with."
"Yes I'm very familiar with… the… mountain." I vaguely recalled what the guy from before said.
"Yes, the mountain." She repeated again. "The very normal way that everyone refers to it."
"Yes, very normal." I agreed.
"Quite." She set her teacup down. "Perhaps I'm getting on in my old age; I may have forgotten the real name. Since everyone obviously only refers to it as the mountain, could you please refresh my memory?"
"Yes, just the name. It should be rather easy, yes? For an Initiate that just left the Mountain, I'm sure you haven't forgotten already."
"Of course I know the name." I said with a straight face.
"I have no doubt." She smiled. "But if you would please remind me, for my own sake." She said, looking at me expectantly.
"….I don't believe that's it, no." Her lips twitched.
"Are you sure?" I asked her this time.
"I'm fairly positive."
"But you said you don't remember." I pointed out. "Maybe your memory really is that bad?"
"That's a possibility, I suppose. But I believe the lack of Greek architecture and lack of Greek gods don't lend credence to this assumption."
"….it was a test; you passed. Well done."
"Thank you, I'm very happy I passed your test." She replied without missing a beat. "Could you please tell me the real name now?"
"Ah, I believe we're getting closer, but fortunately, many of my associates have eyes and can see it well enough to know otherwise."
I cleared my throat. "That was just a joke. I do know it."
"Please." She gestured for me to continue.
She blinked in surprise. "I admit that was a very good guess. I actually visited Kun Lun once; their Immortals are quite impressive. And it's one of the rare few places to still find dragons in this world."
"I can give you partial credit for that one. Not many Sorcerers of Kamaj-Tar even know about the existence of Kun Lun beyond some vague myths and legends." She added.
"I just wanted to flex my knowledge. Obviously, the correct answer is Kamaj-Tar, which I was going to say next." I said unblinkingly.
Her lips twitched again. "You're quite shameless, aren't you?"
"Ah, Kamaj Tar, I'm already feeling homesick. With the...mountain. And the buildings, and of course the sorcerers, which I know all about." I ignored her.
"Yes, it sounds like you have extensive memories and nostalgia for it."
"Anyways, I don't want to keep you. You obviously have a very important… role at Kamaj-Tar; don't let a simple initiate like me keep you preoccupied."
"Surprisingly, I'm not very busy right now. Being the Sorcerer Supreme, my duties, while important, come and go with the wind. For instance, there was an attempt by a certain entity whose name I dare not speak to try to breach the barriers of this world not but earlier today. Likewise, sometimes something much smaller slips through the world's barriers that take less priority. If I'm too busy to handle the smaller matter, I can just banish them temporarily to the Mirror Dimension for later."
I looked at her. "That sounds like a made-up title."
Her lips twitched into a smile again. "Every title is made up."
"Touche." I couldn't argue with that.
"It makes me sound rather grand, if I do say so myself." She chuckled humorously. "But I digress; please continue with what you're doing."
"Yes, picking relics. Please help yourself to anything that catches your eye."
"If there's something in this room that interests you, by all means, you're welcome to it."
"Alright, I pick you."
She seemed to visibly stumble for a brief moment. "I'm not a relic." She quickly caught herself.
"I'm a person." She clarified. "It's rather objectifying to be treated as a relic, wouldn't you say?"
I pointed at a literal arm being propped up in a glass case.
"….I believe this is one of the rare times where I'm rendered speechless. Usually, I'm doing this to other people."
"You said anything in the room." I crossed my arms. "Are you going back on your word?"
"You really are quite bold. But unfortunately, I'll have to reject you; objects only, I'm afraid." She just chuckled, taking a sip of her tea again.
"Your robes." I said, making her choke on the sip of her tea.
"I am astounded by your shamelessness." She put her teacup down. "Are you telling me to strip naked? I'm not sure if I should feel offended or flattered. Though, I suppose it's not every day that a handsome young man asks me to take my clothes off to my face."
"Would it make it less awkward if I took my clothes off too?" I offered.
"No, I'm afraid not." She replied rather dryly. "Though speaking of robes, and lack thereof. There seems to be another initiate wandering the streets not far away that has lost his robes. Quite the oddity, wouldn't you say?"
"You're not implying that was me, are you?" I looked at her with clear offense written on my face. "I'm offended by the insinuation."
"Oh no, of course not. We're just on the lookout for Batman, roaming the streets of London, assaulting sorcerers and stealing their clothes. You know, normal matters that we deal with." The sarcasm in her voice was obvious.
"You must live an interesting life." I commented.
"Would you believe that's not even the strangest thing I've said this year?" She looked at me and let out a tired sigh.
I hummed to myself because I've said similar things in the past. "Can I really take anything I like?"
"I hesitate to say yes considering what you told me you wanted previously."
I rolled my eyes and grabbed a bunch of random things and put them away to gauge her reaction.
"So you won't mind if I just sweep the room, huh?" I asked again.
"To be honest, the relics in here aren't very valuable. Of course I would never diminish the historical significance that some pieces may hold. But as far as power and usage, well, let's just say that no one's in a hurry to come look at the relics here." She said simply. "I suppose I should point out that doesn't include the Ebony Blade that you discovered earlier. But I don't believe you really care about that since you went through the effort of putting an additional seal on it. Which I am thankful for; I hadn't even realized that it had slowly loosened its bindings until now."
I blinked, digesting all that, and found myself frowning. "So it's all junk."
"I wouldn't quite call it junk." She trailed off, silent for a moment before continuing. "However, It wouldn't take me long to refill the room with items of similar worth. I'm aware of a few…let's say Dark Magic Users that could do without their hoards of relics."
"Now I lost interest." I harumphed. "I hope you're proud of yourself."
"Well, how about I extend an invitation to Kamar-Taj?" She offered suddenly.
I found myself blinking again. "Seriously?"
"I wouldn't be so rude as to joke about this." She nodded.
"No, I mean why are you inviting me to your home? Seems a bit silly, you know, considering…?" I pointed to the robes that I…borrowed.
"Hmm, consider it an apology." She seemed to settle on.
"…oh?" I was genuinely surprised because I think it's pretty rare that I actually receive an apology from situations . "Color me curious."
"I admit I jumped the gun, so to speak. I can say without any guilt that I'm not perfect. I make mistakes sometimes, and I do my best to rectify them. When I threw you into the Mirror Dimension, I did not have the time to properly evaluate the situation. And while you didn't suffer any harm, I can see how it would be perceived from your perspective."
"Wow, you're seriously apologizing."
"You know, that's all I would honestly ask for." If someone sincerely apologizes for a minor offense towards me, well… I can forgive them. "Not to look a gift horse in the mouth, but I'm genuinely curious as to how we arrived to this situation."
"Ah, that is a rather curious question. To be vague and mysterious, I simply…checked certain paths forward." She hummed to herself. "Suffice to say, I was quite wrong in my initial assumptions."
"And those assumptions would be…?"
"A demon intent on wreaking havoc."
"That's pretty racist to immediately assume." I pointed out. "Besides, I'm half human."
Her lips twitched, not rising to my jab. "Hmm, let's just say that after thoroughly checking what would happen if we tried to…exorcise you back to your 'home,' things ended up in Japan."
I narrowed my eyes, my mind quickly running through the possibilities of what that meant. "Clairvoyance? Some type of limited future sight with added parameters?"
It was her turn to blink. "You are rather intelligent, aren't you?"
"Only matched by my handsomeness."
"And shamelessness, it seems." She snorted.
But she was intentionally obtuse with her wording. Obviously due to my wording, she couldn't predict my existence in full, only noting that her future ended up in Japan through some means, which heavily implied some things.
Though, I'm just making guesses in the dark.
I'm both impressed and hesitant that someone has the ability to predict me to that degree.
She clasped her hands behind her back. "Suffice to say, with the clues you revealed, it was easy to deduce that you weren't exactly a foreign element in our normal terms."
Ah, she's talking about me revealing my Japanese ID. The fact that she knows about that isn't very surprising, but she could put two and two together there.
But even so, we were both clearly dancing around any big 'reveals.'.
Hmm, I don't really know where to go from here. I was happy to just cause a bit of mischief before leaving beforehand.
"Alright, I wouldn't mind visiting your mountain."
She smiled and waved her hands; that same sort of 'portal' from before opened up, a cold air entered the room along with it and I could see out the other side.
"Please." She gestured, and I shrugged, walking through it.
Six out of ten, my portals are better.
But I looked around and took in the scenery. It was quite literally in the mountains, with no real civilization around us other than the immediate…. I don't know what to call it.
A temple? A monastery?
Something like that, very Buddhist in appearance, even if it didn't seem to subscribe to that doctrine. I was fairly sure we were somewhere in Tibet with more mountains surroundings us.
And there were a bunch more of these monk-dressed people walking around. And they shot glances at my companion, their eyes filled with respect and awe.
I guess I'm with a big shot then.
"Welcome to Kamar-Taj." She stated with a bit of a grandiose tone. "Here, all the Masters of the Mystic Arts train. To be ready to defend the world from Mystic threats." Nᴇw ɴovel chaptᴇrs are published on novel-fire.net
"Masters of Mystic Arts?" I repeated.
Her lips curled up. "You can just call us Sorcerers as you have been doing. It's the same thing, really."
"Why are you dressed like monks?"
"Pardon?" She looked at me.
"Monks. Why are you all dressed like monks?"
"...Why is that what you're focusing on?"
"It's just strange is all." I shrugged.
She shook her head and gestured for me to follow. "The majority of our duties involve handling native spellcasters. Those who accidentally stumble into the Mystic side of the world and do something they shouldn't, all the way to the millennium-old dark sorcerers who intend to summon demons or other monsters."
"So you're the magical police."
"In a manner of speaking, that isn't incorrect. Though we don't really 'police' the magical populace unless they do something that threatens the world in some way. If some hermit wishes to dabble in the darkest of arts privately without anyone coming to harm, who are we to tell them otherwise?"
"Hmm, that's a rather interesting take." It's usually a very firm hand when an organization takes this kind of role. The fact that they leave people alone even if they're doing some bad things unless others are harmed is a refreshing surprise.
I noticed that there were actually a lot of people here. I saw a bunch before, but easily hundreds of these sorcerers coming and going. In fact, plenty of them were doing that whole portal thing.
I would get a better look at it later to see the concepts behind it. Overall, this place was rather interesting, and I was happy to explore it at my leisure.
"Ancient One!" Several people came up and bowed politely to my guide.
I looked at her with my lips pursed. "That seems rather rude; you don't look that old."
The newcomers seemed taken aback by my calling them out.
However, the supposed 'Ancient One' merely chuckled. "It's simply a title. And you should be wary to judge someone by their looks. I am rather old." She then turned to the one in front. "Master Mordo, how has the cleanup progressed?"
"There are no lingering remnants of the battle remaining. And the surroundings have returned to normal." He said, hands clasped tightly behind his back.
"Wonderful. We were lucky that we caught the attack in time and were able to minimize the damage." She nodded, glancing at me. "Please meet an honored guest of ours."
"A new initiate?" He asked, clearly eyeing my clothing. "Aren't those robes given to those who have been here some time already?"
"I stole them." I informed him.
"I thought it was Batman?" The Ancient One said humorously.
"Oh right, that's the excuse I was using." I forgot; I was more so taking in the surroundings and whatnot.
She curled her lips up, nonplussed by my admittance. "You can consider him an initiate of sorts. He has some previous knowledge, however. So no need to treat him like most newcomers."
The named 'Master Mordo' didn't seem to like me very much based on the way he was staring at me.
His eyes roamed over me rather…sternly. "And what…knowledge and experience do you possess to join the Masters of the Mystic Arts?"
"I'll have you know that I'm an excellent magician!" I said proudly, flicking my sleeves to obscure taking out a deck of cards from my storage. "Go ahead, pick a card, any card." I held them up for him.
"Oh how wonderful! I haven't seen a magician perform in years." The Ancient One clapped enthusiastically. "Go ahead, Master Mordo."
For some reason he was looking at both of us like we had two heads.
Hesitantly he pulled a card from my deck.
"Alright, memorize your card." I began to shuffle thoroughly. "Now put it back on top." He silently followed my directions, but his actions were…stiff. With his card on top, I didn't make a move. "Alright, now take the top card off."
He silently stared at me before letting out a sigh. "Ancient One, may I ask the point of this…farce?"
"Master Mordo, please follow the instructions." She urged him to continue.
He shook his head but didn't argue. "My card is directly on top; I fail to see—" He picked it up, and the words died in his mouth as he stared at the top card he pulled off.
And he never once saw me mess with the cards.
The Ancient One, however, clapped politely. "That was well done."
"…..How?" The sorcerer with the card in his hand was flipping it front to back in utter confusion.