Magic's Price

To the majority of humanity there is only one reality in which all that is exists. But in truth there are myriad realities, dimensions and pocket universes in which a myrid of life forms exist. And in many of those realities the laws of magic, not science, reign supreme. And many of those realms are ruled by despots who long to impose their rule and reality over others. But until recent times the difficulties of crossing the dimensional barriers ensured that few attempts could be made and those few that succeeded found their efforts to enslave the people of earth stopped by Earth's resident Sorcerer Supreme.

The Sorcerer Supreme defended the earth from incursions from other realms as well as from those who would use the mystic arts for evil purposes. Granted extended ( but not unlimited ) life spans ( tho they could still be slain ), the Sorcerer Supreme's many duties included the training of a disciple to take up the mantle of Sorcerer Supreme should either old age or wounds bring about the end of the present Sorcerer Supreme.

Since the dawn of mankind had it been until, during the reign of Doctor Stephen Strange as Sorcerer Supreme, there came apon the omniverse the War of the Seven Spheres. Originally a battle between diametrically opposed mystical entities the war quickly spilled out of control. The myriad incarnations of Chaos and Order, Light and Darkness, Good and Evil and other manifestations of the forces of Magic fell apon one another in a attempt to make their 'mantra' the supreme 'mantra' of the omniverse.

And as the war raged, the barriers between realities began to thin and falter, allowing passage where none had been possible before. Foreseeing how events would be played out and realizing that alone, he would be unable to defend earth from not only the increased dimension incursions but also the arcane spillover from the mystic war, Doctor Strange gathered together all of those who possessed the greatest abilities and talents for working the mystic arts and trained them as quickly as was possible to prepare them to aid him in the dark times coming. Many would die, sacrificing their lives in the defense of earth and its people. But those who survived continued their training, learning all they could as they continued to defend humanity from the seemingly endless arcane threat from the outer realms. These few would spread out across the globe, positioning themselves to meet the continuing menace.

Katherine 'Kitty' Pryde spun through the ether, barely avoiding the twin bolts of mystical fire that smashed through her hasty erected shield. Kitty grimaced as she felt her skin tighten and redden from the heat of that near miss. But she banished the pain from her mind as she commanded her cloak of levitation to propel her away from her attacker while simultaneously flinging a volley of bolts of bedevilment back at her attacker.

Years of experience allowed her to summon the bolts without the incantations used by many others. Arocon, a mageling from the Yith realm staggered under the assault, his own shields buckling. But before she could press her attack, Arocon's imps, magical creatures composed of negative energy, attempted to swarm her. Again her cloak pulled her away as she released a last volley of spell bolts at the imps, not to scatter them as she had when this battle had first began but to force them into a tighter mass. With them together between her and her main enemy, Kitty had a few moments to prepare a more effective counterattack.

Still moving away from Arocon, Kitty called out a plea to Seraphim. And in answer to her call, a bright, clear blue bubble of protective energy formed around her. But Kitty continued her spell casting, reinforcing her shield until she felt the first of Arocon's spell bolts strike it, wearing away at the glowing barrier.

Kitty responsed with her own spell bolts which wore away at Arocon's shielding. For a moment it was a standoff, with neither gaining the advantage. Then Arocon's imps began their attack. Contact with her shields of positive energy destroyed each imp which struck it but the exploding negative energy of the imp destroyed more of her shielding then any three spell bolts from Arocon.

"I have you this time Shadowcat." crowed Arocon, "Here, in this realm, with my preparations and 'allies' my power is supreme. Surrender now and I may be ....merciful."

Kitty had seen his kind of 'mercy' before and wanted none of it. Instead she called apon the power of Watoomb.

"Winds of Watoomb, answer my call,"

"scatter my foes, prevent my fall."

Instantly, hurricane strength winds spun around Shadowcat, throwing her foes into disarray. But even through the howling winds Kitty could hear Arocon beginning a counter spell.

'Enough's enough,' thought Kitty, 'I can't keep fighting a defensive battle, I've got to turn this around while I still can.' 'His imps give him to much of an edge, they've got to go. And all at once, Arocon won't give me enough time to deal with them one at a time.'

A dozen ideas past through her mind in a moment. She settled on one.

'Its a risk but I've got to take it.'

Having decided Kitty began her spell casting. There was just enough of her shielding bubble left to do what she was planning but she knew she would be vulnerable during the casting since what she was doing would change her protections into something else altogether. Placing her trust in Watoomb's winds to hold her enemies at bay a few moments more she continued her spell.

Around her, Seraphim's bright, blue hued bubble seemed to disappear save for the slightess indication of its presence marked by the merest distortion of the air around her. Kitty turned toward Arocon as his counter spell dispersed the Winds of Watoomb.

"I don't know what you're planning witch but it won't work!", screamed Arocon as he rushed toward her, spellfire in hand.

Kitty only reached up to touch the amulet at her throat. Like her cloak of levitation, the amulet was a gift from Rintah, one of Dr. Strange's earlier disciples, who had given them to her before returning to his own home dimension to aid in its defense. Both cloak and amulet had been worn by Strange early in his career as a sorcerer.

Light exploded forth from the amulet, the light of Agamotto, the intensely bright light of truth. Even as the light shone forth Kitty flung her own personal energies into the mystic sphere about her, enhancing it further. And when Agamotto's light struck the sphere, it was magnified and intensified a thousand fold. For a brief moment, Kitty Pryde stood in the center of a new born sun. No corner of the battlefield escaped the outpouring of light. Around her Kitty heard countless explosions as the wave of positive energy struck and destroyed each and everyone of Arocon's negative energy imps.

Kitty drifted, scanning the area, she was exhausted, the spell having taken more out of her then she had expected.

'I haven't had a decent rest in months.' thought Kitty, 'Arocon must have called in every marker he had and then some 'if' he was behind all the attacks I've been fending off of late. Between them and my regular 'work load', its no wonder I'm so worn out.'

She spotted Arocon a short distance away. He showed evidence of having been too near one of the exploding imps and was also clawing at his face and writhing in pain.

"You witch, you've blinded me!!" Arocon screamed out as he began to fire off bolts of destruction in random directions, trying to strike her. Taking care to stay clear of his undirected attacks, Kitty began to softly spell cast, counting on the background din of this micro-verse to disguise her efforts. Mere moments later rings of blue energy flew from her outstretched hands and wrapped about Arocon, holding him tight.

"Give it up Arocon, you are bound within the Seven Rings of Raggadorr. In your present condition you can't break free, surrender."

"NEVER!! Not again, not after all my efforts. I will not. For too many years you have defeated me, time and time again. No more!"

"DORAMAMMU!!" screamed Arocon, "Hear my plea, grant me thy power and I shall pay any price. Aid me and I will strike down a disciple of the hated Dr. Strange!"

Kitty backed away as quickly as she could as Doramammu answered Arocon's call. He began to glow as fire erupted from his eyes. Around him the Seven Rings of Raggadorr began to unravel. Kitty realized that the rings would hold for but a few moments more and began to spell cast with a vengence. She was in no shape to duel with someone being empowered by Doramammu and knew it.

'Only one chance, one shot, time enough for one spell so you had better get it right the first time girl.'

"I call apon the Fires of Faltine,"

"through the power of Hoggoth's Hands,"

"and the Seven Suns of Cinnibus,"

"join with Cyttorak's Crimson Bands!"

Even as she finished her cant, Arocon turned toward her and with a mere shrug destroyed what was left of Raggadoor's Rings. His eyes, blazing fire, turned toward her and she knew he could now see her. Arocon raised his hands, pointing toward her and unleashed a blast of unimaginable power.

Just as the Crimson Bands of Cyttorak formed around him in a tight sphere. Properly reinforced (as they were), the Crimson Bands of Cyttorak could contain the power of a small star. But as Kitty watched unbelieving, the crimson sphere expanded to twice its original size.

'How much power did Doramammu grant him?' worried Kitty as the sphere continued to grow and arcane energies began to spew forth from between the bands. Suddenly the sphere expanded to four times its original size.

"Seraphim save me!" was all a disbelieving Kitty could think to say.

And as if in reply to her plea the sphere suddenly retracted to its original size. Slowly Kitty drifted down toward the sphere of Crimson Bands, listening intensively. But her senses, mystic and mundane could detect nothing.

'Well,' thought Kitty, 'I've got my second wind now. I think. Best to try and deal with him now while he must be dealing with all that spell backlash.'

Carefully, with a defensive spell ready on her lips, Kitty banished the Crimson Bands around Arocon. And in their place there was nothing, Arocon was gone! Kitty spun around, fully expecting to see Arocon behind her but there was nothing.

"Oh Lord!" exclaimed Kitty. ' He must have been destroyed by his own spell, when it couldn't get out it must have turned on him. If he was lucky, he was disintegrated, otherwise Doramammu claimed him. And Doramammu hasn't been in a very forgiving mood of late.'

"I'm sorry Arocon, I didn't want it to end like this."

Wearily Shadowcat turned away, Arocon and his imps were gone but she still had to repair the damage done by their battle as well as repair or replace the various detection and alarm spells Arocon had destroyed to lure her here. Without them, other dimensional creatures could get far too close to earth before anyone realized they were there. Massaging her hands, Kitty began her work.

Several hours later Kitty floated through a carefully crafted dimensional portal into her main 'work' room (designed and constructed for major spell castings ). A gesture closed the 'gate' as Kitty floated down to the floor and then through it.

'Nice to know my phasing powers still work.' Mused Kitty as she continued through her home, passing by a room barren save for a glowing, skull capped sword which floated in mid air, surrounded by myrid arcane wards. As always her presence caused the Soul Sword to flare and fight against its containment. Kitty ignored it and the memories it invoked and continued on.

'Not, I guess, that it really matters given that all the nasties I'm fighting now a days seem not to realize that my phasing powers are supposed to make me untouchable. Of course given that phasing doesn't protect me from most magical attacks and thats what most of them are throwing at me I guess its no big surprise.'

Kitty drifted down into the library, a huge two story tall room with a balcony around the second floor for access to the higher shelves. Books of magic and sorcery sat packed next to books of cutting edge advanced physics. Huge windows, looking out on an ancient European forrest filled the room with light.

'I may be out in the middle of nowhere because here is where Europe's major ley lines meet but at least I have a beautiful view.'

'Well, back to business. Arocon nearly had me that time. I'm getting too predictable. I've been falling behind in my studies. Time to change that.' So thinking and taking a moment to stifle a yawn with her fist, Kitty spoke out a line of simple spells and in response two ancient leather bound books appeared on her desk.

'Only two, Stephen or one of his disciples he's training must be using the rest. Hope he gets them trained fast, I could use the help out here. Doctor Doom is the only other high level mage out here and he's too damn hard to work with.'

Opening one of the books, Kitty undid her cloak and threw it over a nearly chair. But before the edges of the cloak had finished fluttering it was picked up by a woman of oriental origins who straighted it out and hung it up on a nearby coat rack.

"Ming!" growled Kitty in a jovial tone, "How am I ever going to give this place a 'lived in' look with you cleaning up everything before it even becomes clutter."

"I think we have been here quite long enough that the mansion has that 'lived in' look, Mistress Pryde." replied the woman in a profession manner. Ming began to say more but was interupted by a purple blur which flew by her toward Kitty.

"Lockheed!" exclaimed Kitty as she hugged the small dragon with one arm as she continued to flip through the pages of the book with the other. After several moments of caressings and joyful murrurings Lockheed then hovered in front of Kitty and with a series of yaps, growls and other assorted sounds gave her an obvious dressing down.

Kitty only grinned impishly throughout the tirade. When Lockheed finished Kitty reached up and tickled him under the chin.

"Sorry Lockheed," replied Kitty as she snatched him out of the air and hugged him again. "There wasn't time to grab you before I left. It was an emergency and you were in the middle of reinforcing the mansion's mystical defenses."

Lockheed had been with Kitty throughout her training and had learned quite a bit. Along with his flaming breath, Lockheed was now an able little spell caster, making him doubly helpful.

'If I'd brought him with me,' thought Kitty, 'maybe things wouldn't have gotten so badly out of hand and come to a tragic end. Ah well, no use fretting about it now. Whats done is done, just don't let it happen again.'

Placing Lockheed back on her shoulder, Kitty sat back down and began to intensely study the pages of the book in front of her.

"Mistress Pryde?"

"Please Ming, you can call me Kitty."

"That would not be proper,Mistress Pryde. Would you like me to make up a meal for you now or will you be going straight to bed?"

"Maybe just a lite snack Ming, I don't think I'll be turning in anytime soon. This latest fight showed me I really need to start hitting the books again real hard." acknowledged Kitty absently. "Oh, and a pot of strong coffee too, please."

"Of course Mistress." replied Ming, who began to slowly back out of the room but her eyes locked with Lockheed's. She tilted her head, raised an eye brow and looked at Kitty, a slightly worried look on her face. Lockheed's reply was a barely noticeable nod of his head. Ming nodded in response and closed the door as she left. Lockheed fluttered down from Kitty's shoulder to the desk in front of her.

"You know Lockheed, one of these days I'm going to get her to call me Kitty and not Mistress Pryde. Heck, at this point I'd settle for Mistress Kitty." commented Kitty as she continued to study the pages before her.

Lockheed stood there for several minutes, barely moving until Kitty reached out to turn the page of the huge book. Lockheed grabbed that hand.

"Huh!? Whats up Lockheed? Is something wrong?"

Saying so Kitty reached out with her arcane senses, touching the wards that protected the mansion, checking for damage or forced entrance. Lockheed rarely disturbed her when she was studying and always for a good reason. Detecting nothing amiss Kitty returned her attention to Lockheed.

"Whats wrong Lockheed? Did you receive a message from Doc Strange or one of the other mages while I was gone?"

Lockheed shock his head and flew over to a small table by the door, picking up an envelope and returning with it to the desk.

Stifling another yawn Kitty took the envelope from Lockheed. Turning it in her hand she noted that it was addressed to her but lacking a return address. She detected no arcane touch apon it. It had been cut open, either by Ming or Lockheed and likely read by either one or both. She laid the envelope back down on the desk and then flipped through several more pages of her book.

"Am I right in assuming that the letter is of an mundane nature Lockheed? Along the lines of Hiya, haven't seen you in awhile or Guess who just had a baby type thing?"

Lockheed reluctantly nodded in agreement.

"And it's nothing that has to be taken care of immediately?"

Lockheed hesitated for a moment, looking at the letter, than nodded an reluctant affirmative. Kitty reached over and scratched him behind the 'ears'.

"Well then, I'll deal with it a little later, right now I'd better study up a bit. Arocon called Doramammu into that fight.." Lockheed's eyes widened at that.

"..so I want to read up on the spells that are designed best to deal with him, just in case."

For a moment Lockheed seemed to waver but than leapt up onto the back of the chair Kitty was sitting on. Taking that as assent Kitty returned to her reading.

Darkness was all around her and Kitty struggled to be free of it but her spells didn't answer her calls and she felt the first touch of panic. As she attempted to recall how she had come here she saw something moving out in the arkness. She shouted out the words of a spell to dispel the darkness but her words were just words and echoed hollowly in the blackness. As if emboldened by her failure the unseen stalker seemed to come closer. Suddenly a clawed hand shot out of the darkness, ripping into her arm.

Kitty screamed.

And awoke back in her library, the arm that had been clawed firmly in the grip of Lockheed, who was humming loudly.

'Oh god, it was just a nightmare. No, scratch that. It was NIGHTMARE. I went and fell asleep at my desk again (for the millionth time) without casting the spell that would keep the dark lord of the dream realm out of my head. If not for Lockheed...'

Kitty looked back at Lockheed who was ending his 'spell hum' and was once more giving her a reproachful look. Kitty just reached over and gathered him up in her arms. Because of their deep bond Lockheed was able to bypass her arcane defenses and help her in ways other mystics couldn't. Even Doctor Strange would have had to enter the Dream Dimension to aid her but Lockheed could work through her, cutting off Nightmare's attack without having to go to all of that trouble. He'd done it many times before.

'Nightmare will never learn I guess.'

Still holding Lockheed, Kitty stood up and stretched out her body and looked about. There was a carafe of coffee on a small serving table next to her desk. Touching it revealed it to be cold.

'Ah, I remember, Ming brought this in just a bit before I fell asleep. I was so into my book I didn't even have a cup. And since Ming doesn't want to risk waking me when I'm sleeping (which she thinks I don't get enough of) its still here, about the only way I can achieve clutter in this place.'

As if thinking of her caused her to appear, Ming entered the room carrying a small covered tray. Picking up the carafe of cold coffee and mug she replaced them with the covered tray. Lifting the lid, she revealed a cup of steaming tea and a dish of bite sized sandwiches.

"This should stave off your hunger while I prepare a more proper meal. I suspect you will want a bath and change of clothes given that you have been sleeping in your present set for some 20 hours."

"20 hours!?!"

"Ming, you know I shouldn't be sleeping that long, what if something came up while I was in bed?"

"You have not slept in your bed for several weeks at the least Mistress Pryde. That chair has been your primary sleeping area. And as you can see...", Kitty's eyes followed Ming's hand as it pointed to the far end of the library where an open door led into a small dark room in which a glowing sphere, the size of a standard atlas globe, floated.

"...your Orb of Surveillance shows nothing amiss."

"Okay, okay Ming, I'm sorry, you're right and I'm wrong," replied Kitty with a smile, "And I do feel much better for the rest."

"Then I shall leave you to your snack and prepare your bath. When you are done your bath a more proper meal will be awaiting in the dining room, for both of you." Saying so Ming exited the room.

Walking over to the table Kitty picked up the cup of tea and one of the sandwiches.

"You can have the rest Lockheed, I'm not really hungry at the moment."

Kitty's stomach growled at her claim but she ignored it, Lockheed needed to eat more often then she and he likely hadn't eaten since before she left to battle Arocon and she knew he stayed besides her while she slept so he likely hadn't eaten for over a day!

Swallowing the sandwich in a single gulp, Kitty sipped her tea as she walked through the library. For a brief moment she thought of the letter on her desk but than decided that it could wait. She wanted to double check her Orb of Surveillance, just in case, as well as the arcane defenses of her mansion. Being in the center of one of Europe's remaining wilderness areas did limit visitors, not to mention that just across the border was Latveria, home of Doctor Doom, who had 'extended' his 'protection' to her and her home. That helped to keep mundane threats away.

But there were more than enough arcane problems. Mostly characters who believed it was their right to take power from others in the form of their mystical abilities or objects of power. And with her and Doom being the only major mystics left in Europe and with Doom's rep being what it was (i.e., take no prisoners) most trouble makers ended up on her door steps.

'Ah well, the price of fame and a conscience I guess.'

Reaching down Kitty placed her hand upon the Orb of Surveillance and concentrated, filling the room with the bright light that would reveal the workings of black magic anywhere in the world.

Several hours later Kitty returned to the library, all but bouncing with new found energy and enthusiasm.

'Nothing like a good long nap, a proper hot bath and an even more proper hot meal to make one feel like a complete human being again.' Thought Kitty as she stretched out like a cat.

'Well now, what to do? See if those other books are available to borrow and keep reading or head to the 'practice' room and try out a few of the variations of spells I came up with yesterday before I fell asleep.'

'Humph.'

'Who'd thought I would be a sorceress today, what with my being a computer and physics genus type person. Maybe not so strange after all, spell casting is a lot like computer programing. Just a matter of putting the correct 'words' together in the correct way to create the proper effect.'

But before she could decide what to do she spotted Lockheed sitting solemnly upon her desk, envelope firmly gripped between his hands, his eyes focused firmly upon her.

"Okay, okay Lockheed, I'll read my mail. But don't expect me to write out a reply right away, when I checked my Orb earlier something seemed to be stirring at the outermost limits of my perceptions. So in all likelihood trouble is on the way, possibly even Doramammu."

Saying so Kitty removed the letter from the envelope and began to read it aloud.

"Dear Miss Pryde, This letter is to inform you that my brother, Pete Wisdom passed away on....!"

'Wha !?! But how, why?'

Gripping the letter in both hands, Kitty read it from top to bottom. Twice.

'Wait, this can't be right, these dates can't be right. That would mean I'd been here for....!?!'

Leaning back against her desk Kitty numbly went over her past. And realized just how much time had gone past since that day she and Pete Wisdom had destroyed the Black Air base. They were discussing his joining Excalibur but no sooner did they take off in the Midnight Runner, Excalibur's private jet, than Kurt's voice came over the radio, telling her that Doctor Strange was at Muir Island and that he needed to speak to her immediately.

And her life turned topsy turvey.

In the beginning she split her time between Dr. Strange and Excalibur but as the War of the Seven Spheres began to grow out of control, more and more time was spent on arcane matters. When she wasn't studying, she was practicing and when she wasn't practicing she was often in the thick of a mystic battle. Still, she managed to get away and spend time with Excalibur. Pete had joined up but she rarely spent time alone with him as her visits often ended up with her using her growing arcane abilities against Excalibur's enemies.

And so it went until that dark day when the dimensional barriers were breached at the small town of Freemont, Kansas. Kitty had been with Excalibur when it happened. By the time she reached the area it was already over. The invasion had been beaten back but at a far too high cost. Two of Strange's disciples were dead. No one from the town of Freemont had survived. How they had died still gave her nightmares.

After that day Kitty devoted herself completely to the mystic arts. Contact between herself and her friends and family became sporadic and at times nonexistence. Only Lockheed remained from her former life. Even when she relocated to Europe, her encounters with Excalibur were often brief, nearly always involving some mystic menace. Kitty was determined that what happened in Freemont would never happen again.

But thinking back to those brief visits Kitty realized that Pete always had a cigarette in his mouth and often a drink in his hand. She remembered joking with him, telling him that his nasty habits would kill him one day. And she had tried to get him to stop. But there never seemed to be enough time to convince him. She had told him that Doctor Strange was sure the effects of the Seven Sphere's war would be 'wave' like in the way it would effect earth, periods of chaos followed by periods of calm. They were in a chaos 'wave' but soon they would have a break, all Pete had to do was wait just a little longer.

But the chaos wave continued on, year after year. And now it was too late. Pete hadn't taken care of himself, had eventually left Excalibur and now he was dead.

Kitty swayed as she attempted to gather her thoughts.

'I...I've got to see his sister, and his dad. Apologize for missing the funeral. I should....I should visit the grave site. I...'

Suddenly her Orb of Surveillance began to shine with light. Startled she turned toward it, and wavered, looking back at the letter in her hand. Than the Orb shone with black red light and Kitty knew what that meant instantly. Someone was using blood magic, calling up power by causing death.

The letter fell from her hand, a gesture caused her cloak to alight upon her shoulders as she ran toward the Orb, Lockheed flying besides her.

In the back of her mind she thought, 'Later, I'll deal about Pete later.'