Mystic

Stephen finds Tony in the library surrounded by books and smiles almost against his will. Tony looks sleep mussed and concentrated on the words in front of him as he absently taps his foot. “Clearly you’ve chosen a focus,” he says as he sits across from Tony. He almost disappears behind the books and Stephen barely suppresses a laugh at Tony’s short stature.

“Chakras. None of this makes sense,” he says and he leans back in his seat.

“What about it doesn’t make sense?” Stephen asks. He remembered when he did this- it hadn’t been a particularly fun process. Nothing made any sense because he was trying to find a certain kind of logic that simply didn’t exist when it came to magic. Things weren’t linear the way regular sciences were, and frankly half the concepts were flat out absurd. It had been hard for him to reconcile basic logic with the mystical and he was certain Tony would be the same. They had quite a bit in common- this seemed like a natural extension of their similarities.

Tony leans forward and pulls a few books from his stack, setting them out of the way so his whole face was visible, not just most of it. “Chakras are… energy? Mystical energy? This is all fucking ridiculous- what’s next? Telling me to sit in the sun to balance them or some other nonsensical solution to a fake problem?” he asks, rolling his eyes.

“You aren’t paying close enough attention to what you’re reading,” Stephen tells him, getting a dirty look for his efforts. “You’re reading these texts like they’re an extension of popular culture conceptions of chakras. They aren’t, and sunlight doesn’t balance your crown chakra. Balance means acceptance and that doesn’t come easily for most,” he says. It certainly didn’t come easily for him and something was always somewhat off. That was relatively normal though- perfect balance was unachievable because it implied that there was nothing new to learn, that there were no improvements to be made and that wasn’t a space anyone could ever get to. But knowing how to balance your failures, your successes, your knowledge, and your need to learn did wonders for achieving some kind of stability even if something was bound to fall off-kilter for a time. Tony clearly had no balance for any of those things.

“‘Acceptance’,” Tony repeats, letting out a snort. “Okay, sure. And that’ll magically fix all my problems?” he asks sarcastically.

Stephen resents having to teach these things to someone who was so much like himself because he now knew how annoying he was. “No. Perfect balance isn’t possible to maintain and you’re still confusing pop culture with actual magic. Balanced chakras make it easier to learn magic, to access what you’re truly capable of- it doesn’t magically cure all your problems. It certainly helps due to the nature of the way chakras work, but figuring out the best method for finding balance won’t mean you’re in danger of farting rainbows and sunshine.”

While Tony considers how to respond to that Stephen thinks up about five dozen questions to ask Wong about how he learned because the information might be useful in helping Tony come to terms with magic. If he was truly meant to be here at all.

“Why bother with the chakras? You said it makes magic easier but how?” he asks, giving Stephen a shrewd stare.

He shrugs, “like anything else your performance suffers if your mind is elsewhere. The more preoccupied you are the less you focus on the magic and how to work it. Humans have a hard enough time accessing magic, no sense in making it harder on ourselves.” They weren’t, or at least Stephen’s research suggests they weren’t, predisposed to magic usage- unlike the gods Tony has worked with. Humans had no access to the world outside their own unless they had discipline, practice, and a focus item if they were making portals. It was far harder for humans to see beyond what their eyes offered but Stephen has always loved a challenge.

“And if the chakras are unbalanced? Like severely seems how they don’t really maintain balance?” Tony asks.

“Then you’ll have a difficult time with magic. It won’t be impossible, but it’ll be far more difficult than necessary.” It was funny- mostly balanced chakras made no real difference in his life, but when they weren’t suddenly everything magical was ten times more demanding. It was an easy gauge to know when he needed to address something.

“So why me, then? I’m guessing that there’s some sort of mystical reason I’m here,” Tony says sarcastically but Stephen shrugs.

“If there is one I can’t see it. But I wasn’t drawn here like you were- I was brought here by someone who saw potential in me. For all I know my job is to find that potential in you, or maybe there’s some other purpose for your presence here. Or it could be dumb luck. I doubt it’s that but it could be,” he says.

“Are some people naturally better at magic than others?” Tony asks, apparently taking a turn in subject.

Stephen laughs, “of course there are. Wong has been practicing magic far longer than I have but I’m much better at it- hence why I’m the one leading this institution, not him.” Not that Stephen necessarily agreed with that. He still consulted Wong often- it would make more sense for him to lead even if Stephen was more magically equipped for dealing with a threat.

“Do you think I’d be any good at it? Magic, I mean,” Tony says even though they both know what he meant.

“Absolutely,” Stephen says immediately. He hadn’t planned on answering that fast or with as much conviction as he had but he finds he doesn’t regret the words. Tony, he thinks, will be fantastic at magic just as soon as he learned not to be so stubborn and set in his ways.

Tony nods after a brief, tense moment. “So where are you from? Because I’m about ninety percent sure that’s a Manhattan accent,” he says.

Stephen lets out an annoyed sigh, irritated that he couldn’t even escape the ‘where are you from?’ question even here where his race was mostly irrelevant. “I’m from New York yes, and I lived in Manhattan for years, which would explain the accent,” he tells Tony.

*

“I’ve explained this several times,” Stephen tells one of the few other students at the Sanctum.

“You said to put the ring on, hold your hand forward, and draw a circle. How the hell is that helpful?” the student asks.

“Because that is literally what you do to make a portal. I can’t possibly dumb that down any further, so why are you complaining?” Stephen asks. The student turns away from Stephen but the eye roll was so dramatic Tony could see it clear across the courtyard.

There weren’t a lot of other people at the Sanctum but Tony quickly gathers that Stephen has little patience for questions, especially if they questioned his authority. He wonders if this is what it must have been like to deal with himself before Iron Man and realizing that maybe just about everything about himself was a character flaw. Actually that last bit hadn’t really changed much over the years.

“He’s an awful teacher,” Wong says, appearing beside Tony and shaking his head as they watch Stephen give someone a glare with enough annoyance in the facial expression that Tony would just up and quit if he were on the receiving end of the look.

“No shit,” Tony says. “Even I’m better than this and I’m not a good teacher at all.” Unlike Stephen though he actually tried even if his attempts at monitoring Peter’s actions didn’t go well. He had Rhodey keeping an eye on him because that kid has a death wish and someone needed to make sure he didn’t do something stupid and Happy proved incompetent at it. He probably shouldn’t have expected much from him anyways, they’ve only had a million conversations about how annoying kids were and Peter technically counted as a child. But he at least attempted to be good for the kid- Stephen was just embarrassingly bad at trying to teach because he kept repeating the same advice and getting annoyed when his students, if you could call them that, didn’t understand. “Who put him in charge?” Tony asks, somewhat amused by this.

Wong sighs, “he’s better at magic than I am, therefore he sits higher on the food chain. That and there were some other… circumstances that left him as the successor to the last master that was here.”

Circumstances? Stephen has said a few things that alluded to something happening but Tony kept tabs on all things weird and Asia as a whole seemed to be spared from weird incidences. Almost everywhere else has had at least a small incident of something going on there but Asia had basically nothing. But then everyone that wasn’t America has had almost nothing happen to them minus that one time with Thor in London. Tony was honestly annoyed that America was the alien magnet and had been pleased to come to a country on a continent where there were no alien problems only to find out something happened but he didn’t know what. Apparently running away from his problems was not a good solution given that they always seemed to find him.

“Hm. Why does magical power even matter? Stephen might have talent but it obviously doesn’t extend beyond magic,” Tony says.

His comment earns him a laugh from Wong, “I like you. You’re less of an ass than Stephen,” he says. “But having a higher power level means you can track progress and potential much better than the average magic user. I have skills in magic but Stephen can work extremely powerful spells without breaking a sweat. It’s like… the difference between the average engineer and you. The average engineer can be good, great even, but still wouldn’t compare to your raw ability let alone the skill you acquired after that.”

The explanation was more useful than anything Stephen would have provided. He probably would have done a lot of eye rolling and huffing at being asked for an explanation like he was currently doing with his group of clearly frustrated students. “I think an exception should be made, he’s genuinely terrible at this,” Tony says, nodding to the students.

“Why don’t you do ask some questions, you’re more personable,” Wong explains when Tony gives him a confused look.

Yeah, Tony didn’t agree but he walks over anyways because he, unlike Stephen’s other students, wasn’t easy to shut up. “So what the hell is the purpose of this ring thing? Doesn’t look special to me,” he says honestly, examining the ring on Stephen’s fingers. It was actually pretty ugly- and why did the god-awful thing have to go on two fingers? Ugh. His aversion could be related to the fact that wearing rings in his line of work wasn’t exactly ideal, but then Stephen’s previous career meant no rings at all so maybe that wasn’t it. Maybe it was just that the ring was so unattractive- like a small plank slapped on a couple circles. Either way it looked utterly unremarkable.

Stephen rolls his eyes at him, “as I’ve explained like twelve times already it acts as a focus item,” he says.

“Focus between what and what? That’s useless information with no context,” Tony tells him, hands on his hips.

“Between the magic in the user and the external magic around the user- I’ve already said this,” Stephen tells him.

“No you haven’t. How’s it connect to either of those things? Looks like an ugly piece of wood on some metal rings to me,” Tony says.

“You are very irritating,” Stephen tells him. “But the rings are constructed from materials in various dimensions, hence the ability to connect with several different physical spaces, and the contact with the user acts as something of a conduit for the user’s internal magic. The ring makes the actual connection between the physical spaces and the user so they can step through. As I’ve explained,” he says.

Tony snorts, amused with Stephen’s clear inability to judge his own skill set. “Okay- so if this ring is made from materials from various dimensions how did you get the materials to make it if you need the ring to get the materials?” he asks.

Stephen squints at him, “did you essentially ask me what came first- the chicken or the egg?”

“Basically. So how’d it happen?” The small crowd was now gathered closely around, clearly interested in Stephen’s answers but mostly they were amused by Tony’s easy interactions with him, frustration be damned.

“Other beings with different magical means likely brought the materials here and humans made use of them. Not unlike quite a lot of the alien technologies people have been using,” he says. All enjoyment he was getting from the conversation drops with the mention of aliens and he sighs.

“Cool, still ugly as sin though,” he says, spinning on his heel to leave but Stephen calls him back.

“You asked all these questions, but don’t want to test to see if it works yourself? You’re a better scientist than that,” Stephen says in an almost… playful tone. He holds a ring out to Tony with a coy smile, clearly expecting him to test this thing.

He considers just walking away anyways, just because it’d be such an asshole move, but he actually was curious so he tentatively takes the ring and puts it on. “So how’s this ugly ass thing supposed to work?” he asks, looking down at the ring.

“Are you left handed?” Stephen asks and Tony frowns.

“No. I mean technically I’m ambidextrous, but I favor my right,” he says. Using both hands equally well meant he got his work done faster, but given the chance he did everything with his right.

Stephen laughs, “then you have the ring on the wrong hand. Switch and hold your left out in front of you,” he tells Tony.

Tony follows his instructions more to see what would happen than anything. “Now take your right hand and draw a circle with it- imagine a place you want to go. Something you can imagine vividly,” Stephen tells him.

The first place to come to mind, thanks to the earlier mention of aliens, was the wormhole. Tony draws the circle, fully expecting nothing to happen but he’s surprised when sparks fly in the air in front of him. He jumps back out of shock and Stephen laughs, “no keep going, you’re doing great,” he says. The offering of encouragement must be new given how shocked the crowd looked. So he lifts his hands again and lets the residual fear of the wormhole guide his actions as the sparks fly again. It takes a few revolutions but something starts to appear in the sparks. With two more passes of his hand the image was clear enough to see, but still somewhat foggy. That’s when the crowd starts to murmur.

“Tony, where is that?” Stephen asks, his voice sounding a little strange to Tony or maybe that was the ringing in his ears.

“I don’t know,” he answers honestly. His own voice sounds odd too- haunted. “Its what I saw in New York.” He feels more than sees Stephen step in; doing something that closes the portal or whatever that was as he steps in close.

“Are you alright?” Stephen asks, genuine concern written all over his features and his tone.

Tony looks up at him, seeing Stephen’s dark eyes examining his features but it was like he was looking through someone else’s vision even though he wasn’t. “I don’t know,” he says honestly, feeling his mouth move and hearing his words, but the actions were alien to him- like someone else was using his body to respond the way he wanted to.

“I don’t think you are. Go lay down, Wong will take you,” Stephen says. He has to physically turn Tony to face Wong before he realizes he was supposed to move. Wong graciously takes over guiding Tony away.

*

Wong knew about the affects mental health could have on magic but he’d never seen it before now, not like this anyways. Tony’s reaction- and something triggered why he chose New York even if Wong wasn’t entirely sure what it was- was so strong that even the novices felt the change in the air. Stephen certainly had given his own skill but Tony’s natural talent distracted both him and Stephen until it was too late. By the time they realized the shift they both felt when Tony accessed the magic to make the portal was generated out fear, not a high affinity for magic, the damage was done. Whatever was on the other end of that portal wasn’t something anyone was meant to see and Wong was shaken. He couldn’t imagine how Tony felt actually being in that space for a time, let alone recreating it in a portal.

Novices were never that good, both he and Stephen should have known right away that something was off but Wong blamed himself. Stephen was clearly distracted and enamored by Tony- it was his job to ensure that Stephen’s transition into his new role went smoothly, and that he had the proper skill to be the Sorcerer Supreme. This was his failing over Stephen’s- he was the one who had more experience to know that something wasn’t right and he failed to recognize that simply because he had been amused by Tony’s pestering Stephen and then curious about his magic. This was not something he could allow again and now that he knew what Stephen must have sensed about Tony’s mental state he will watch him more closely.

“Sorry,” Tony says eventually, looking up from his spot in a library chair. He was at home in a space with books, something Wong certainly related to, and he thought the familiar and favored environment would help calm Tony. He hadn’t been wrong.

Wong frowns, “sorry for what?” he asks.

“For making… whatever the hell that was. I didn’t… I didn’t know that would happen.” Tony doesn’t look at him as he speaks and Wong can hear how tired he is in the way he talks, and he can see how tired he is in the way he slumps in his seat.

“You couldn’t have predicted that- neither Stephen nor I predicted that and we’re experts in our field, Tony. There is no need to apologize for something that we missed- that I missed. We should have known right away something was off when we felt the way the air changed.”

Tony looks up then, somewhat surprised but the curiosity in his expression is what Wong takes notice of. It was easy to see why he was Stephen’s soul mate- he had been just as inquisitive when he first started learning too. “The way the air changed?” he asks.

He nods. “When you reach master levels like I have, and like Stephen is growing into, you will be able to feel the magic around you. We both felt a surge in magic when you began but both of us foolishly thought that it was natural talent. Stephen wouldn’t know better but I would- no student is ever that good on the first try without a reason and your immediate grasp was linked to a traumatic event. I… maybe I thought it was talent because of who you are- how gifted you usually are. It doesn’t matter now- I should have known right away something was off and I’m sorry for allowing that to continue,” he says.

It was his job; after all, to make sure that things like this didn’t happen. He’d talk to Stephen later about what to look for if this sort of thing happened again with Tony, or anyone else, again. Stephen might be awful at teaching but his skill at detecting magic is excellent- this was something he’d have no problem picking up on. The rest of the skills he needed as a teacher… well, time would tell if he’d learn those Wong supposed.

“I… this isn’t your fault, I should have imagined something else,” Tony says, shaking his head in annoyance though it was obvious that the annoyance was directed at himself.

“I don’t have much experience with what looks to be PTSD but I do know just focusing on something else isn’t exactly how things work. We’re the magical experts here, it’s our job to know what is going on in our student’s heads and how to train them with that in mind,” he tells Tony.

He snorts, “Stephen is terrible at it. He seems to assume everyone knows as much as he does and then gets annoyed when they ask for the finer details because he thinks he already told them when he didn’t. He just knows that stuff and expects them to too.” Yes, so Wong knew. It has been slow going at best to try and teach Stephen how not to assume everyone knew as much as he did but he wasn’t any better at listening than he was at teaching.

“That’s why I sent you in. I saw right away in the library the other day that he reacts well to you, that he actually takes the time to answer your questions. By actually teaching you he’d teach everyone else too.” Wong wasn’t sure if that was because Stephen saw himself in Tony or it was an unconscious affect of being his soul mate but either way he was prepared to capitalize on it for the sake of the other students. It was likely the only way they’d ever learn thanks to Stephen’s stubborn nature. His being completely unaware of his faults was easily his worst trait- or worse, when he was aware of them and thought those flaws were good things. Like his fear of failure- he thought that fear fueled him and made him better, but what it did was focus him on cases he knew he could solve rather than branching out.

Tony might actually have the opposite problem. Soul mates were about balance- Tony’s fear made him reach out into the unknown without thinking things through and unsurprisingly bad things came back with him. He could learn from Stephen’s unconscious caution and Stephen could learn from Tony’s willingness to reach out into unexpected places for solutions. Granted Stephen was further on his journey to balance than Tony was. Wong didn’t need magic to tell him Tony had no stability in his life right now and that he was desperately seeking some, not unlike Stephen when he first got here.

“Why does he react better to me than anyone else?” Tony asks. Wong clenches his jaw for a moment, tempted to spill Stephen’s secret but it wouldn’t be right to do so. That, and it wasn’t his place to tell him this sort of thing anyways. That would be Stephen’s job, and he could explain why he had stupidly held back crucial information from Tony too. Stupid, that’s what Stephen was, but Wong would leave him to clean up his own mess. It wasn’t in his interest to babysit Stephen through his bad life choices unless they had something to do with magic directly.

“Because you’re like him, I think. He must see a little of himself in you and for some reason it makes him more open to what you have to say,” Wong says. He didn’t know how true that was but Tony should get some kind of answer even if Stephen wasn’t willing to give him one, or at least not the most accurate one.

Tony nods and takes a deep, shaky breath. “Thank you,” he says after a moment and Wong shakes his head.

“Don’t thank me- I made a mistake today and at a great cost to you. I don’t deserve a thanks.”