Young Justice: Salem
July 20th, 2010
I arrived at the Tower just before noon and found Kent already waiting for me at the door. Unlike last time, I had no problem seeing the tower, though I wasn’t sure if that was because the protections on it that had hid it previously only worked on a person once like the Fidelius charm or if I’d just been included on a list of authorized visitors.
Kent was mostly silent as he led me into the tower. Only when we were walking through the room of floating staircases did he finally decide to speak up. “You’ve been spending a lot of time with my niece,” he said rhetorically.
“For a certain definition of that word,” I agreed easily.
“Certainly more time than her father knows, I suspect,” Kent said, a hint of amusement in his voice. Then his words turned hard, with just a tiny edge of menace bleeding into them. “And what, exactly, are your intentions towards her?”
That was quite a question to ask. Particularly while walking beside me in his stronghold, within some sort of expanded room that I had no idea how to exit, and holding his primary focus loosely in his dominant hand.
I mentally felt for the part of myself that seemed to house my Planeswalker abilities. I still hadn’t actually figured out how to planeswalk, but if things turned nasty, that was my best shot at getting out of this. I had planeswalked straight through the wards on one of the most heavily guarded places in all of Europe; theoretically I’d be able to do the same thing here.
At the same time, I quickly tried to come up with a good answer to Kent’s question. The problem was, not only did I not know what answer Kent wanted to hear, I really didn’t know myself either. At first, Zatanna had just been a convenient source of information and a valuable connection to the local power structures and the movers and shakers of this world.
Since then however, I’d grown to quite like the young witch. She was sharp and witty, kind and clever, and the best company I’d had in years. Her enthusiasm for all things magic matched my own, and, as my experiences yesterday had shown, there was no denying the physical attraction I felt either.
Eventually, I settled for the simplest option. The truth. Sometimes lying worked, but in this case I had a feeling it would just cause more problems down the line. Whatever else I knew about the man, I was pretty sure that he wanted Zatanna to be happy, as long as that happiness did not come at the cost of her well being.
I shrugged, doing my best to hide the tension in my muscles and the way my fingers were curled to catch my wand. “I don’t really know. She’s…an amazing witch. She’s been of great aid in getting me adjusted to this time and, well, if she wants something more than that, I don’t think I’d be opposed, but if you fear for her virtue, I assure you there is nothing of the sort going on between us. I was raised to be a proper gentleman and would never take advantage of a brilliant, wonderful witch like her.”
Kent listened quietly at first, but towards the end let out a short bark of laughter. “Oh I wouldn’t be so sure about that!” he exclaimed, “I’d almost forgot you were a good British boy, but they make girls different these days than back when I was your age. Giovanni may have tried to raise his daughter as Catholic as his parents raised him, but I don’t think it took very well with her. I’ve seen how she looks at you, young man, and I have no doubts she would not be very interested in waiting if the chance presents itself. Why else would two youths your age be poking around an abandoned warehouse?”
I frowned, only vaguely understanding what Kent was getting at, but not liking his tone one bit. “I know that you and Zatanna are close, but that gives you no right to slander her good character. Nor mine, in fact. I appreciate what you have done for me, but to imply that I would take advantage of a young woman in such a way is deeply offensive.”
Kent shook his head ruefully. “My apologies, I meant no such thing. It’s important to remember that not just the things have changed, but so have the people. The youth these days are a lot more open minded than they once were. When Zatanna told me where you ran into the two assassins, well, my mind went to what I thought was the obvious conclusion.”
I could see where he was coming from, and it was an important lesson. This plane was, at least on the surface, relatively similar to my own, but the people were very different nonetheless. I’d need to keep that in mind once I figured out how to planeswalk intentionally. “I will keep that in mind.”
“Good. I liked how quickly you jumped to Zatanna’s defense. It speaks well of your character that you would be willing to stand up to me for her sake. I will reserve my judgment for the time, I think, but I don’t believe that Giovanni needs to hear anything from me tonight.”
“I…appreciate your discretion on this matter.” I paused for a moment, wetting my dry lips with the tip of my tongue. “I don’t think he likes me very much.”
Kent sucked in a breath through his teeth. “Not particularly, no. But it's nothing personal. He’s always been very protective of his daughter, but even more so in recent years since his wife passed. Sindella’s death hit Giovanni very hard, and he’s never been quite the same man since. He shelters her too much. Spending time with you has been good for her, I think.”
That was probably the closest thing to approval I was going to get right now. I didn’t think Kent was exactly thrilled with our closeness, but he wasn’t going to do anything about it right now so that was what mattered. My fingers relaxed and the tension in my muscles eased.
Of course, that was when we finally stepped through a doorway and emerged into a massive, open field of packed earth. The door closed behind us and Kent took a step to the side, then turned to face me. “Now then, if you plan to spend time with my niece, I have no doubt that the two of you will be getting into all sorts of mischief. I’d much rather the two of you be able to walk out of that mischief safe and sound as much as possible.
“I know what my niece is capable of, but you…Well, I learned a little from Black Spider, but there is a difference between hearing about things, and seeing them for oneself.” Kent’s entire body was enveloped in a golden glow and he floated up into the air and away from me. He pointed his glowing cane down towards me. “Defend yourself, Hydrys. Show me what you’ve got.”
And that was about all the warning I got before the cane was surrounded by a glowing ankh and a ray of gleaming golden light descended down towards me like an arrow of celestial judgment.
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I threw myself backwards, not fully trusting my shield charm against the might of an actual wizard, and scrambled for my wand. The first ray impacted the dirt and cut a narrow hole deeper than my wand was long into the ground. The second impacted a hastily cast protego and shattered the poorly formed shield like a hammer smashing a porcelain bowl.
I rolled to my feet and my fingers slid into the correct spots on my wand’s handle. The smooth, well polished wood sang at my touch and I squinted up at Kent, his outline blending in with the sun at his back.
There were three more golden rays flying towards me already. I was pretty sure a proper protego would block at least two, but possibly not three, and the second and third ray were very close together. I stabbed my wand straight towards the three rays, then twirled it through a tight circle. “Aspidano!” I called out, not familiar enough with the Greek shield charm to cast it silently like I would have preferred.
A dull, brown disk about the size of a manhole cover appeared between me and Kent, and the three rays crashed into it one after another with a sound like raindrops splashing against a rooftop. The moment the third ray hit the shield, I jabbed my wand again and sent it flying towards Kent, who promptly shattered it with an ankh-shaped projectile the size of his palm.
I hadn’t really expected that to do much, but it did buy me precious time. A flowing sweep of my wand transformed the earth beside me into a trio of golden eagles, their beaks and talons gleaming like metal, who swooped out of the ground and flew up towards Kent from three different directions.
My sweep turned into a slash and I used a normal protego to block a larger beam of golden light, then fired back with a trio of silent spells, a stunner, a disarming charm, and a knockback jinx.
My spells were blocked with nearly contemptuous ease, and my three transfigured birds were dispersed into clouds of dirt by a translucent wave of gold that erupted from Kent’s free hand.
“Good!” he called out, “Fast on your feet and fast to fight back!” Then he swept his ankh-encased cane like a sword and a wide beam of rapidly expanding golden light followed the trajectory of his cut.
This attack felt stronger than the last, and I wasn’t sure a simple protego would be enough. And, since he’d already seen the spell, I wouldn’t be surprised if the wide beam would try to envelop me if I used the Greek variant again.
Fortunately, this time I actually remembered that this wasn’t a heavily-regulated duel. I took one look at the spell and promptly twisted on one foot, vanishing with a sharp crack and reappearing almost directly beneath and slightly behind the flying wizard. My wand rose and a bonfire poured forth, filling the air between us with roaring flames.
I wasn’t surprised when a mere fire-making charm wasn’t nearly enough to break through the golden shield Kent had summoned to block my earlier spells, but it served as an excellent distraction, making both a lot of noise and light, and shielding me from view.
I apparated a second time, reappearing on Kent’s left, and cast immediately. “Expulso!”
A tiny bead of blue light, nearly invisible in the warm sunlight, flew from the tip of my wand and slammed into Kent’s shield. On contact, it erupted like a bomb, sending visible cracks through the golden barrier but otherwise leaving Kent unharmed.
Kent turned so quickly he would have given a seeker whiplash. A golden ankh as big as I was flew towards me and I apparated away, only for it to change direction and continue after me. I apparated a fourth time, barely managing it before three golden rays like the ones he’d used at the start of the fight skewered me, but this time I’d bought myself a lot more distance and thus more time.
As I had two days earlier, I raised my wand towards the sky and drew on Shadowcrest. “Protego horribilis!”
The dome formed just in time, and the golden ankh shattered against it like glass thrown against a brick wall. A moment later, three rays and a beam as thick as my waist splashed futility against one of the most powerful all-purpose shielding charms known to wizardkind, reinforced by the most potent magical energy I knew of.
Kent, far off in the distance, tilted his head to the side, then pointed his cane up towards the sky. My eyes widened as a column of gold fell from the sky and crashed down into the shield. Sparks of golden light rained down around me and my ears were filled with the scratch of metal on glass as the attack broke against my defenses, but the strain of maintaining the shield nearly brought me to my knees.
Oh, so he wanted to play it like this? I had a feeling this was supposed to be an object lesson, but I wanted to show him that I wasn’t helpless. I had so far shied away from any of my overly-dangerous magics, but if this was how far Kent wanted to escalate, then I was willing to match him. I certainly wasn’t going to be bringing out fiendfyre or the unforgivables, just as I was sure Kent had more tricks up his sleeve that were simply too lethal to use in training, but I could afford to step it up a notch.
I drew a single mote of Black mana from Slaughter Swamp and poured it into my wand. I’d come a long way since my first attempt at using mana to empower my spells, having practiced doing so relentlessly in the past two weeks, though most of my focus had been on using the Black mana from my first land and not the mana of any color from Shadowcrest.
Purple flames pooled like water at the tip of my wand, and then I slashed it sharply to the side. “Fioleto Ill!”
The blazing streak of purple fire crossed the not-inconsiderable distance between us in an instant and cut straight through Kent’s shield like it wasn’t even there. A fraction of a second later, it hit Kent’s hastily raised ankh-cane and the two spells detonated violently on contact, sending Kent spinning through the air and cutting off the spell still pounding away at my shield from above.
Kent caught himself before he hit the ground, but didn’t move to restart our fight. Instead he lowered his cane and floated gently towards me with his hands folded behind his back.
I warily lowered my wand as well and jogged to meet him, keeping my nearly-depleted shield around me as I went out of an abundance of caution.
“That was wonderfully done!” Kent called out as we drew close to one another. “You are a masterful wizard for your age, and a credit to whomever trained you. I doubt many of the students your age down in Atlantis could match you, even without those spells you used at the end.”
I preened at the praise. “Thank you, but it was clear you were holding back! If you’d started with that beam thing right from the start, I would have been in trouble.”
Kent shrugged. “Perhaps, perhaps not. But it is gratifying to see that Zatanna will be well defended if anything does occur. Your manner of teleportation is fascinating and I’m not quite certain how I would defend against it. A hurdle I could cross given time, but an invaluable edge in a first encounter.”
I finally let my shield drop and fully lowered my wand. “Zatanna can take care of herself pretty well, but I completely understand.” Then I changed the subject. “So, do you think we could get back to our lessons now? I’d really like to learn that aether seeing spell.”
“Of course, of course! Just give me a moment to catch my breath and let’s return to a more comfortable room. All this dust in the air is terrible on my old lungs.”
I was, of course, happy too. However, something he’d said had also piqued my interest. “So it sounds like you’re familiar with the Conservatory of Sorcery then?”
“I am indeed. I’ve even gone down to teach a handful of lessons, but the cold water doesn’t really agree with me these days.”
“...do you think I could get an introduction?”
Kent laughed. “You know, you really do sound just like Zatanna sometimes. Yes, yes, I’ll look into it, though I’m afraid it may take some time to get everything arranged. Relations between the surface world and Atlantis have not been in the best place in the past decades, even with their High King helping to found the Justice League.”