coveted magics, 16
“Don’t you want me to come with you?” Gwen questioned, having wrapped Harry all the way into one of their tight hugs. Not too tight, though – that only happened when Gwen was overexcited. “Or is there some rule about the uninitiated not being allowed at Kamar-Taj?”
Harry sighed, and shook his head, which he had room to do since he was almost a whole head taller than Gwen. Not that she could see it like this, though. “There’s no rule like that, a lot of newcomers find their way to Kamar-Taj as their starting point with learning magic. I just went straight to the New York sanctum a couple years back since most witches are fully aware of the sorcerers. Technically I’m both now, which is… not unheard of but certainly unusual.”
“Wow, now you’re rambling,” Gwen observed, squeezing just a little bit tighter. “That bad, huh?”
“I mean, I’m only taking an extremely dangerous path to prepare to fight the source of my lifelong nightmares,” Harry said dryly in what was a failed attempt to make light-hearted fun of the situation. “You could come, but I just… I feel like this is something I have to do alone.”
Gwen pulled their head back a bit, and then proceeded to bump it directly into Harry’s shoulder. “You don’t have to do any of this alone, but I get it. Go kick ass, or something. Damn, I wish I could actually come down this Witches’ Road with you.”
“Me too,” Harry whispered softly, before pulling away from his best friend. “But only those who are trained in some form of magic or another can complete the trials, with a witch as the coven leader. I swear I’d teach you some sorcery so you could come, but that would just take too long. Based on what Jess has found, we have maybe two weeks at most – which means I want to be leaving for the Road by the end of the week.”
Gwen nodded, and took a step back. “Can I make you some food to take with you on the Road, at least?”
Harry chuckled a little as he worked on opening a portal into Kamar-Taj. “Sure, sounds good. I’d say this trip today won’t take long, but that depends on how much of a pain in my ass Stephen decides to be. See you later?”
“Yep, adios amigo. I’m gonna go check on Tommy and see if he wants to go for a run,” Gwen said, and then vanished in a blur of yellow electricity.
At the same time, Harry stepped through the portal and into one of the larger courtyards of Kamar-Taj. Silently, he hoped that Stephen wasn’t in Kamar-Taj today and instead held up with his duties in New York. Harry had noticed how much of a paternal role he was taking in America’s life, and knew that he would probably object pretty strongly to all of this. Wong, however, Harry knew he could convince, even if he’d be at least a little dramatic about it.
Having hoped that the students would be running through their training drills in the courtyard, Harry was disappointed to have to go on a hunt for his first coven member. It was still somewhat early in the morning, so Harry’s first destination to search was the mess hall, which took about a minute to reach on foot. He caught a few people staring at him along the way, since he very much did not look like someone who belonged in Kamar-Taj, and a lot of them had developed a not unreasonable fear of Witches after Wanda had attacked a year prior. Hoping to diffuse the tension, Harry made a point of specifically smiling and waving at those who looked unkindly at him – a trick that Greenie had taught him some years ago. It might have pissed them off, but it made him look better to everybody else.
The mess hall wasn’t too busy, which meant it must have been the tail end of the allotted breakfast time for trainees. Sure enough though, America Chavez sat in a corner digging into a bowl of maize porridge. Harry scanned the room for any sign of Wong or Stephen, but neither was here. Technically he did need to speak with one of them to make sure that they were at minimum aware of what he was roping their student into, but that could wait. He approached America’s bench and took a seat right across from her.
“Morning,” Harry said casually, as if he any America had spoken to each other more than a small handful of times. “Got a few minutes to talk about something?”
“Oh… Harry, right?” America said through a mouth full of food, so it was a little hard to understand at first. “Sure, what’s up?”
“Yeah, that’s my name,” Harry confirmed. He wasn’t about to make small talk, and he didn’t know how else to approach this conversation than to just be blunt as hell. “Have you heard of the Witches’ Road?”
“Hmmm…” Chavez’s face scrunched up in conversation as she finished chewing. “I think so? I haven’t learned all that much about witchcraft yet, since everyone is still spooked after last year. Also, is it true that Wanda survived?”
Harry glanced around. Nobody was close enough to hear, as long as he spoke quietly. “Yeah. She’s free of the demon that was influencing her, too.”
America let out a sigh of relief. “Thank goodness. I know she seemed all creepy and shit before but I had a feeling that there was something else there, controlling her. So, what’s this about a road?”
“The Witches’ Road,” Harry supplied, and took a breath. He produced the scribed list from his divination spell, and showed it to her. “It’s a path usually taken by witches, but technically traversable by other kinds of magic users as well, even if a witch has to be the one to open the path. I need to travel the Road, and I was hoping you’d help out. Well, I divined a list of coven members, and you were on it.”
“Sure, sounds like fun!” America answered pretty much immediately. “So… what’s it all about? What should I be prepared for?”
Perhaps he was a little self-sabotaging in the moment, but Harry couldn’t just let things be this simple. “Don’t you want to know the risks before you agree?”
America shrugged. “Dude, I’ve been training here for nearly a year now and they don’t let me do anything interesting. I’ve even gotten a decent handle on my dimensional powers too, so like… I kind of just want something new to do.”
Harry let out a sigh, and tried to put on a more serious expression. “America, the Witches’ Road is an extremely dangerous path that even more experienced witches are usually hesitant to travel because most people who go in don’t come out. This isn’t something to do lightly. That said, when I saw your name on the list, I did think having you there would help the group’s safety since you should be able to bail us out if things get too dangerous.”
“See? Sounds like everything should be fine!” America exclaimed, thumping her hands down flat on the table decisively. “Wait… what exactly do you mean by dangerous?”
“Let’s see,” Harry began, recalling what he knew from his own studies of the Road. “Demons, magical trials that are supposedly specifically to do with the fears and weaknesses of those travelling the Road, and I’ve even seen claims that there’s a magical toxic miasma that slowly saps your power the closer you get to the end.”
“I guess it can’t be worse than having to fight the Scarlet Witch?” America offered, sounding less confident but still intent on joining.
Harry was, in a sense, glad that he’d come to her first since she was going to be the easiest to convince – but then again, he still needed to get permission from Wong or Stephen. Speaking of which – out of the corner of his eye, Harry definitely saw the familiar combination of a dark blue outfit accompanied by a billowing red cape. Stephen.
“Mr. Osborn, to what do we owe the pleasure?” Doctor Strange called out as he approached the table that Harry and America were sitting at, choosing to stand at the end rather than sit himself. “One of my more skittish students saw you on your way here and saw fit to let me know, and I get the feeling that you’re not here to study from our libraries this time.”
“No, I’m not,” Harry confirmed honestly. He and Doctor Strange had a little bit of a tumultuous relationship – not because of anything sinister, but rather that Doctor Strange had the opinion that witchcraft was a ‘cheaper’ version of magic than sorcery, as if it didn’t require just as much study and hard work. Still, Harry had learned a lot from the Master of the New York Sanctum, and in some respects really looked up to him. “I’m here to recruit America for the Witches’ Road.”
“No,” Stephen said immediately, voice authoritative and free of any hesitation whatsoever. He crossed his arms, and his cape fluttered behind him as though to back him up. “Absolutely not.”
“But-” America tried, and was promptly cut off.
Stephen pressed two fingers to the bridge of his nose. “The Witches’ Road is perhaps the single most dangerous way of acquiring additional powers, and whatever you may need it for, America is a trainee, with dimension-travelling powers that are sought after by many of those who know of her existence.”
Harry huffed in frustration. He’d known this was coming, but that didn’t make it any less unpleasant to deal with. “With all due respect, sir, are you sure you aren’t just upset that I’m not inviting you along?”
“You’d sure be safer if I did come with,” Strange muttered quietly, but not quietly enough to avoid Harry hearing. Then, he let out a heavy sigh. “You know that I can’t just abandon my duties, so no, I am not upset about missing this little party of yours. Why do you even want to travel the Road?”
Well… Harry really needed to stop and think about how he was going to answer that. There were any number of truths he could offer, and any number of ways of saying it. What would convince the prestigious sorcerer and neurosurgeon Doctor Stephen Strange how important this was? “My mother’s on the loose, and she’s hunting for Chthonic power.”
“Ah,” went the Master of the New York Sanctum. The identity of Harry’s mother was not something he shared often, but Doctor Strange was one of a few who knew, because Harry trusted him above other sorcerers to not choose prejudice and bar him from entering any Sanctum out of unjustified fear. “Next question. Why did you not come directly to us and ask us to take care of this matter?
Harry rolled his eyes. “Do I need to remind you what happened when the London Sanctum tried to capture her a couple centuries back? Besides, how many of your people will be willing to set aside their tasks and interests to take the battle to another powerful witch, and so soon after last time?”
The man pressed a finger and thumb to the bridge of his nose, and sat down at the table beside America, who was beholding the way Harry argued with her mentor with awe. “You make a fair point. If you survived the trials of the Road, there’s little doubt that you would be able to surpass her. Honestly, it’s a miracle that Wanda hadn’t taken to the road before attacking us last year. I will allow this under one condition, which I expect you to swear to.”
America gasped. “You’ll let me go?”
“Yes, so long as you agree that if there is a true risk to the lives of any of your coven… you, America, will use your ability to escape rather than try to complete the trials,” Stephen said sternly.
“Done,” Harry answered immediately, because that was his plan anyway. “I intend to depart for the road in one week’s time. We will meet at my team’s training facility, and use it as a safe location to perform the ritual to open the way to the Road.”
America squealed excitedly, earning a sigh from both Harry and Stephen. It didn’t actually make Harry worry too much - he’d seen what this girl was capable of, and she could handle what the road would throw at her. Truly, there was only one name on the list that caused Harry worries related to lack of skill, and that was the person he was going to visit next - Darcy Lewis. Simply put, he’d never even heard of her.
Tommy woke with a start. He could feel his heart racing and sweat running down his back as he gasped for breath. It had been maybe five days since his parents had been murdered, and he had the same nightmare again. It was more of a memory, truthfully - a memory of that woman, Agatha Harkness, descending upon his home and wreaking havoc upon everything in sight. She laughed as magical energy tore out of the ground at a mere gesture, spearing through Billy’s parents’ bodies. The only reason it hadn’t hit him too was how fast he was. He had barely just seen it coming, and jumped out of the way.
But he wasn’t fast enough. He couldn’t save his parents, Frank and Mary, from this horrible, monstrous witch. The magic tore through their flesh, burning and rending it at once. Tommy remembered the blood spilling out onto the floor, and he remembered all the fear and rage. He had truly tried to kill Agatha that night, but failed at that too. Despite these wondrous superpowers he’d inherited, he wasn’t enough. Maybe he’d never be enough.
The way the sweat stuck his shirt to his back was uncomfortable enough to near send him over the edge, so Tommy ripped his shirt off as fast as he could, feeling a wave of guilt as he quite literally ripped it apart to get it off. With a shudder, he went to the closet near his bed and grabbed a new shirt. Black, with some uninspired brand design front and centre. But it fit him and was a little loose, so it’d do. After quickly wiping his chest and back down with the ruined remains of the ripped shirt, Tommy put the new one on and quitely tiptoed out of his room.
It was weird to think of it as his room. His room was back in Minnesota, in a burnt, ruinous state. This was just where he was staying. A door down from a Private Investigator apparently related to Spider-Man who was in town to help track down the evil witch, and two doors down from his apparent mystical mother from a previous life and the chick she was shacking up with. Tommy kind of thought it was cool that Wanda was with another chick. At his old school he’d been kind of pressured to pretend he wasn’t okay with gay people, but… he knew he wasn’t quite straight himself. Not that he was anywhere near ready to deal with that.
As cool as Wanda was, and as much as she had spent time making sure Tommy was comfortable, he… didn’t want to talk to her about this. It wasn’t that he didn’t think she could help him with it. No… she just wasn’t there that night, when it all happened. That gi- no, that person had been.
Shit, Tommy swore to himself in his mind. He wasn’t used to the whole ‘non-binary’ thing, but he damn well was going to get used to it. As much as he had to downplay it around his friends back in Minnesota, he was smart. It didn’t matter that it was new, he could learn. Quietly, Tommy tiptoed out of the apartment and went to knock at Gwen’s apartment door. It was almost midnight, so there was every chance they were asleep, but if they weren’t… Tommy just wanted some company. Maybe he wanted to go over everything about this whole situation again, too.
About ten seconds later, just when Tommy was about to turn around and go back to bed with the hope of being able to fall asleep again soon, the door opened. Gwen was wearing nothing more than a sports bra and pajama pants, and Tommy quickly averted his eyes.
Apparently, Gwen noticed. “Uh, do you want me to cover up?”
Tommy shrugged, blushing out of sheer embarrassment. “I’ll get used to it. Um… can I come in?”
Gwen nodded. “Sure, but you’ll have to be quiet. My girlfriend is asleep already, and I don’t want to wake her.”
“Her name’s Riri, right?” Tommy asked, trying to get at least some of his facts sorted. “The one who was flying around at the training place with an iron man suit yesterday?”
“Yup, that’s her,” Gwen said as Tommy followed her inside and closed the door behind him. “Unlike Harley, she built her suit from scratch. Don’t get me wrong, Harley’s one of my best friends and I love him, but a bitch’s gotta brag about their girlfriend sometimes, you know?”
Tommy managed to laugh just a little at that. Gwen really seemed cool to him, much more real and willing to talk shit than a lot of people he’d met. “Gay.”
“Damn right,” Gwen grinned. “Hey, want some hot chocolate or tea or something?”
“Hot chocolate sounds good,” Tommy answered, and slumped down at the dining table. For a while he was silent, watching Gwen prepare the drinks - until he felt words in his throat, begging to be let loose. “How do you deal with all this shit? The danger?”
“The sad and unhelpful answer is that I don’t always manage to deal with it,” Gwen answered as she started stirring some chocolate from the fridge into a pot of hot milk. “And it doesn’t help that I can’t talk to my therapist about any of the superhero shit. But I just kind of… learn to cope. Leaning on my friends helps, but when I can’t do that, I run.”
“Like… run away from it?” Tommy asked, apprehensive. On the one hand, that didn’t sound healthy. But at the same time, it sounded almost like exactly what he needed. A local synagogue had organised a funeral for his parents since it wasn’t safe for them to be buried back home, and it was going to happen tomorrow. Tommy didn’t want to go. He just wanted to run away.
“Shit,” Gwen cursed, and then started madly stirring the pot and lifting it off from the flame. “Got distracted, damn ADHD. I don’t really mean literally, but sometimes kinda yeah. I go for runs, real fast. I’ve ended up in different states before, and had to run all the way back, but usually I just do laps out in the countryside.”
“Oh,” said Tommy, “that’s actually kind of cool.”
Gwen then focused on finishing with the hot chocolate, pouring it into mugs and bringing them over to the table. They set them both down, and then spoke. “So, what’s up? You seem pretty… shit.”
Tommy looked away. “Nightmare. I saw… I saw her again.”
“Agatha?” Gwen asked, just to confirm. She definitely noticed Tommy shudder, by the way she frowned right after. “We’re gonna take care of her. Peter’s sister is an incredible PI, and she came here just to track her down. After that? There’s no way that she can stand up to all of us. Hell, Wanda alone can probably take her down.”
Gwen then came to the table with two cups of hot chocolate, and set one down in front of Tommy. He took a sip, appreciative of the way it warmed up his insides - in a far more comfortable manner than the nightmare before. “You sound so sure of that.”
“Dude, there are at least three people in this building who are strong and experienced enough to be Avengers,” Gwen assured him. “Hey, how about we go for another run together after we finish our drinks?”
Barely five minutes later, the two of them were at least ten miles out of Boston proper. Tommy couldn’t help but laugh at the thrill of running this fast, this freely. It wasn’t something he’d ever been able to do with permission before, and after the first couple times he’d gone out like this back in Minneapolis, he’d felt really guilty and outright stopped. But this? This was just what he needed.
“Can I ask you something serious?” Gwen suddenly asked while the two of them ran. It was a weird sensation, being able to hear another person talk while they were both moving so fast.
“Sure, I guess,” Tommy answered, because he felt like if the question came from Gwen of all people, he wouldn’t mind.
“As much as I know Wanda would love it if you stay here with us, I need to check if you have any other relatives you want to go and live with. You know, after the threat is gone and Agatha’s been taken care of.”
…and it was like Tommy had just forgotten about all of that. As they blitzed past a small rural town, Tommy realised that he did. “I… yeah. My grandparents - my dad’s parents - live in Columbus. Shit, do they think I’m dead too?”
“Probably,” said Gwen. “We’ll have to find a way to let them know that you’re okay. Do you want to go live with them after?”
Tommy careened to a stop just past a frosty-looking paddock. He… did he want to stay with them? They were nice people, even if he only saw them a few times a year. But… something inside of him was so certain that was the wrong thing to do. Gwen pulled up next to him a moment later, and the two of them sat down in the admittedly cold grass so they wouldn’t be seen by any cars driving by.
“I-“ Tommy started, and then paused to take a breath. The truth in his mind was that he’s always known that there was somewhere he was meant to go, people he was meant to be with. It just took until now to understand that fully. “I think I’m meant to stay with you guys. Like, I can’t explain how, but I know that Wanda and Billy are my family. I just…”
Then, he started crying. It was all so much. Sure, these were supposed to be his people, but did it have to happen like this? Did his parents have to die? Tommy wiped away the tears, and started taking in deep breaths to try and stop himself from crying any more.
Gwen put a hand on his shoulder, and then gently pulled Tommy into a much-needed hug. “Hey, it’s okay. Trust me, let the crying happen.”
The tears came back, and for a good long while, they didn’t stop.
Sitting on the edge of Jess’s bed, Peter couldn’t help but chuckle to himself about the fact that this was now unofficially Jess’s room for whenever she came to visit, as there was no indication that Wanda would be moving back in here. As a matter of fact, Wanda had already started moving her own belongings into the next room over - Daisy’s bedroom. Apparently, all those two had needed was a little nudge and then they were moving at light speed - or perhaps U-Haul speed.
“What’s so funny?” Jess asked, sitting at the desk across from the bed and scanning through recent news articles for any details on Agatha sightings.
“Just…” Peter started, and then paused, glancing at the wall that separated this room from Daisy and Wanda’s. “We were all wondering how long it would take for one of Wanda or Daisy to make a move on the other, and then you showed up and needed a bed to sleep in and it just happens.”
Jess snorted. “Oh, that gun was loaded and just waiting to be fired. I would’ve been perfectly happy crashing on a couch or in a cheap hotel, but Daisy went and invited Wanda into her bed. I’m absolutely certain they fucked that night, too, so… loaded gun.”
“They both seem like they’ve been way happier since, too,” Peter observed.
“Sometimes people just need to deal with their sexual tension,” Jess provided in response. “Anyway, I can tell by your fidgeting that this isn’t just a social call. What’s up?”
Peter hadn’t even realised he was fidgeting with the loose bed sheets by his side until his sister had pointed it out. “Oh, well. You’ve been studying Agatha’s movements for almost a week now, and Harry isn’t telling me as much as I’d like. I know he’s been busy with all his trauma processing and gathering up his coven for the Road, but… look, my little brother is in danger from a witch who specifically wants to drain his power and probably kill him. I need to know just how worried we all need to be, and what I can do to prepare.”
“Gotcha,” Jess acknowledged, and then turned away from her laptop. She pushed her chair back, got up and then turned around to sit again so her chest was pressed up against the back of the seat. “What do you say we go and hit the town after this to hang out a bit? Maybe show me your favourite coffee place?”
“Deal,” Peter smiled. Jess had been here for about five days now, and the two of them had spent some good time hanging out inside the apartment building, but they hadn’t actually gone out to do anything yet. “I’ll take you to this one place on campus that Harls and I like to go to before class on Monday mornings.”
“Sounds like a plan,” Jess said, returning the smile. For a moment, Peter couldn’t help but notice the resemblance in her smile - she really did have these little features that he shared. Somehow he’d never noticed that, or at least not paid attention to it back in the time before he’d moved to Boston. “Okay, so Agatha is definitely extremely dangerous. Probably fair to say she’s an Avengers level threat. One of the first things I noticed in my research is that despite the fact she was magically locked up in Westview until Wanda destroyed that magic mountain place, not a single resident of Westview has put up any information I can find about her since the day she broke loose. Either she wiped their memories of her, or they’re just that terrified. Either way, not a good look.”
Peter frowned. Magical memory removal was not a notion he was particularly fond of, but he posted those thoughts down before they could turn into an emotional flashback of sorts. Thoughts quickly began running through his head, fending off the threat of a flashback. “Did you find any indications of her wiping people’s memories since?”
Jess shook her head. “Nope. For the most part, what I’ve found is a trail of murders. Every single victim was either a known magic user, or someone whose community’s behaviour hinted at them being magic users too. Things like treating them as a bit of an oddball, seeing strange shit going on around them, outright suspicions of witchcraft and so on. I found a blog post of someone who had initially been grateful to have their local witch be ‘dealt with’, if not for the fact that their witness account of Agatha made her out to be far more terrifying. Some reports say that entire towns of people were completely immobilised, unable to do anything more than watch as a person was drained of their life in front of her. The murder count since her gaining freedom is at around thirteen, now. And some of those people? Reportedly, they were pretty powerful.”
Immobilising entire towns was not a good sign. That kind of thing took a good deal of power. Peter had trained enough now with Harry to know what magical bindings were like, and he could brute force his way out of them, but affecting such a large group of people? Peter felt his gut turn a little.
“Plus, the reports are consistent with what Harry said about her draining power for herself,” Jess continued. “In the first couple of murder cases, people reported seeing Agatha lingering around in the location of her target for a few days before striking, and there weren’t those same accounts of an entire town locked down. Small groups of people, sure, but that was it. With each kill, she’s gotten stronger yet. She’s also drawn a bit of a jagged path from Westview across the country, almost like she doesn’t know where she’s going, but rather that she’s actively locating targets as she travels. My gut tells me that she didn’t know where Tommy lived, but happened across him… albeit from an unusual distance.”
Peter squinted. “From what Gwen told me, nobody was really immobilised when she attacked in Minneapolis.”
“Yeah,” Jess nodded. “The strike on the Shepherds was a bit of a pattern outlier. Her path was less jagged. I’d have to guess that she had a detection range for her targets of maybe… fifty kilometres? But her previous victim before them was in Rochester, and then it seems like she travelled direct between the two locations. From what I recall, Harry said that Agatha can drain the power of any witch, but prefers that of those with Chthonic magic. Would I be correct in assuming that Chthonic magic isn’t exclusive to witches?”
“Yeah, I think so,” Peter answered, thinking to Tommy’s powers. He wasn’t sure whether or not Billy classified as a ‘witch’ or not, but Tommy definitely didn’t. “Tommy’s powers were awakened by Chthonic energy. Might not be magic, but it’s still what Agatha likes to feed off as far as I understand.”
Jess nodded again, taking in the information. “Right, then I’m definitely sure that Agatha can detect that particular energy in a larger radius. Not that it matters anymore when it comes to predicting an attack from her here, since she’ll have been able to figure out Gwen and Harry’s hero identities and trace them back to here. The point I was wanting to make with this is: Agatha detected Chthonic energy in Minneapolis and went straight there, and then directed all of her focus onto her target rather than laying any traps in the surrounds. Statements from the Shepherds’ neighbours detail the house going up in flames and magical spikes in an instant. Even if the minute it took from Wanda sensing the intrusion to Gwen and Harry arriving on scene, Agatha hadn’t completed her attack, she’s still clearly fast and powerful. She’s capable of setting traps, locking down a lot of people, and planning. She knows this city is protected, and she’ll be coming prepared for that. I can only afford to stay a couple more days, so if she doesn’t attack in that time, know this - you guys need to be on guard.”