Chapter 118: The Ancient One Visits Again
"Breaking and entering," Ethan said, picking up the tea things, "is technically illegal. You do know there's a door downstairs."
The Ancient One sat in his chair with the composure of someone for whom doors had never been strictly necessary.
"I did announce myself," she said. "You came upstairs the moment I arrived. You've become quite sensitive to spatial disturbances."
Ethan set the kettle on and decided he wasn't going to win this particular argument.
What he didn't say, because he'd been thinking it: She couldn't get to the first floor. He'd felt it when she arrived — the Homestead's defensive layer had redirected her portal. She'd ended up on the second floor instead. The Fortress was working exactly as designed, and it had, apparently, just tested itself against a Sorcerer Supreme.
He filed that away with quiet satisfaction.
"The Space Stone," she said. "You have it."
"I borrowed it from SHIELD." He sat across from her. "I'm returning it." He paused. "Eventually."
She looked at him with the expression she used when she was choosing which of several truths to lead with.
"The Homestead," she said. "The barrier on the ground floor. You didn't gain those from studying the Stone."
"No," he agreed.
"And I can't read your mind to understand how you did it."
"You mentioned."
She was quiet for a moment. He watched her consider him the way she considered things that didn't fit her existing frameworks — not with frustration, but with the patience of someone who had been wrong about things before and had made peace with the experience.
"When I first came to you," she said, "Strange was on the path I had foreseen. Car accident. Kamar-Taj. The progression was clear." She looked at him. "Now I look at that thread and it has changed shape. Not broken — the accident will still happen, Strange will still come to Kamar-Taj. But when he arrives, you will have been there before him." She paused. "You've changed the context he walks into."
Ethan thought about Stephen Strange. His college roommate, currently still a neurosurgeon, who would be in a car accident before the year was out and would arrive at Kamar-Taj looking for healing and finding something he hadn't expected.
"Is that a problem," Ethan said.
"It's a variable," she said. "The question of whether it's a problem depends on what Strange becomes." She looked at him steadily. "I've been considering whether Strange is the right choice for the next Sorcerer Supreme. Or whether someone else might be better suited."
"Not me," Ethan said immediately.
"Why not."
"Because I live in Hell's Kitchen. I run a school and a restaurant. I have people here who need me here." He kept his voice level. "The Sorcerer Supreme needs to be everywhere. I need to be specific."
She considered this.
"What if the New York Sanctum came to Hell's Kitchen," she said.
Ethan paused.
He had made that suggestion as a half-joke, the way you say things you want without actually expecting them. She hadn't dismissed it.
"The Sanctum has been in its current location for centuries," he said.
"Buildings move," she said. "Rarely. But they move." She looked at him with the faint suggestion of something that was almost humor. "The Sanctum's purpose is to protect the convergence point of the New York ley lines. If the ley line anchor could be established elsewhere—"
"You're actually considering this."
"I'm always considering things," she said. "That's what I do."
He looked at her.
"There's something else," he said. "You came about the timeline, not just the Stone."
She inclined her head. "The disruptions from your activities are larger than I initially anticipated. The events at SHIELD. The Raimi universe missions. The Homestead's establishment." She paused. "There are more powerful threats approaching than the one you're already preparing for. The Infinity Stone collector is not the only one."
"I know," Ethan said.
"Do you."
"I know enough," he said. "I know more than I can act on currently."
She was quiet for a moment. Then: "You should treat the people protecting this city as colleagues rather than assets you're managing. The Avengers — some of them — are not your enemies."
"I know that too."
"Steve Rogers—"
"Is a person who was pointed at the wrong target by someone who wanted a distraction," Ethan said. "He's not a problem. Pierce is a problem."
"Pierce is almost resolved," she said, with the calm of someone reporting weather. "His own actions are catching up with him. What concerns me is what comes after — when SHIELD is destabilized and the Avengers need someone to hold the line and they look to the people they have rather than the people they need."
Ethan thought about this.
"You're telling me to keep the door open," he said.
"I'm telling you that the world is larger than Hell's Kitchen," she said. "And that the people downstairs are more capable than you're using them for."
She stood.
"Earth-42," she said. "Before the week is out. I'll send you the details tonight."
"You could send them through the door," Ethan said.
"I could," she said.
She didn't promise to.
The air shimmered once, briefly, and she was gone — through the room rather than any portal, because that was how she preferred to move when she was making a point about the nature of space.
Ethan sat for a moment in the quiet of his room.
The Sanctum, he thought. She didn't say no.
He went back downstairs.
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