Chapter 25: The Mirror and the Sorcerer
The portal opened into cold mountain air.
Wanda stepped through and stopped immediately.
The village spread out below her in layers. Stone walls. Narrow paths. The kind of place that looked like it had existed for centuries without anyone outside ever noticing it.
Above everything, mountains.
"Where is this?" she asked.
"Kamar-Taj," Ancient One said. "A small village in the Himalayas."
Wanda turned slowly. A moment ago she had been in New York. Now she was on the other side of the planet.
"You'll be able to do it yourself someday," Ancient One said.
Wanda noticed the other people. Men and women moving through the courtyards, some reading, some practicing movements she didn't recognize. All of them had a particular kind of focus, like people who had long since stopped being surprised by unusual things.
"They're all sorcerers," Ancient One said, reading her expression. "They study here. They monitor other dimensions. When genuine threats appear in the world, we respond."
"But ordinary conflicts between people, wars, political things, we don't interfere in those. It isn't our place."
Wanda understood that. One person couldn't stop everything. She had learned that early.
She looked around the courtyard for a moment, then asked what was actually on her mind.
"When Leo called you earlier, you appeared immediately. Can you see what's happening anywhere in the world?"
Ancient One smiled. "He is someone I've been watching for a while. His abilities are unusual, and they grow quickly. I wasn't certain at first whether his presence here was good or bad."
"And now?"
"Now I think it's good." She paused. "Most likely."
Wanda thought about Leo. He had been straightforward with her from the start. He hadn't pretended to have no interest in her, but he had also been honest about what he could offer. She didn't fully trust him yet. But she didn't distrust him either.
"What about Tony Stark?" she asked.
Ancient One was quiet for a moment. "People are complicated. Good and bad depend on what you're measuring against. I could tell you my opinion, but it wouldn't be your opinion. You'll form your own."
Wanda let it go.
---
They had barely settled when a portal opened in the middle of the courtyard.
Leo stepped through with the ease of someone who had done it a thousand times.
Wanda startled anyway. Her heart jumped before she could stop it.
"Hi, Wanda!"
She didn't answer.
"Ancient One. Long time. You wanted to talk?"
Ancient One looked at him with the particular patience of someone who has decided to accept an inconvenience. "I have been sensing usual magical energy for several days now. Portals. Time manipulation. Power that belong to magicians of kamar-taj."
Leo waited.
"I traced it to you."
"I assumed you might," Leo said.
"You obtained magic power from another parallel world and you've been using it freely. Healing people. Changing outcomes." She looked at him steadily. "I want to understand your intention."
"Natasha is my girlfriend. She was carrying old damage that could be fixed. I fixed it." He shrugged slightly. "As for the rest, I'm trying to make things better. That's the whole intention."
Ancient One was quiet for a moment.
Leo had expected an argument. A warning. At minimum a careful lecture about consequences and balance and the fragility of timelines.
Instead she said, "I know."
Leo blinked.
"You helped Gwen become Ghost-Spider. You guided Peter into becoming who he was meant to be. You're arranging for Wanda to learn properly instead of discovering everything alone through pain." She looked at him without any particular drama. "All of this makes the world stronger. Why would I stop it?"
"I thought you might say it would lead to greater disasters."
"It will," she said simply. "Greater threats will come. But the people facing them will be more prepared than they were before. That seems like an acceptable trade."
Leo breathed out slowly.
"There is one more thing," Ancient One said. "I hope you'll help not just with their abilities, but with who they are. Their character. Their capacity to handle what's coming."
"Including Doctor Strange," she added.
Leo raised an eyebrow. "He's still a doctor right now."
"He won't be forever. And when he arrives here, he will be brilliant and completely insufferable." She said it without irritation, just as fact. "He needs someone to humble him before that arrogance becomes a problem."
"You want me to be his whetstone."
"I think Wanda might actually be better for that specific purpose," Leo said. "She's going to become extraordinary. Having someone genuinely beyond him to measure himself against might be more useful than anything I could say."
Wanda, who had been listening to all of this quietly, said, "I don't know who Doctor Strange is."
"You will," Leo said.
Ancient One considered. "Both of you together, then. You provide the perspective. She provides the challenge."
Leo didn't refuse. He would be helping Wanda anyway. Strange could be a secondary project. And honestly, after taking Christine from his future, training the man properly seemed like reasonable compensation.
"Alright. But first I want to test something." He looked around the courtyard. "I've been careful with my power for a long time. I'd like to see where I actually am right now."
Ancient One studied him. Then, without a word, she folded the space.
---
The Mirror Dimension opened around them.
Wanda grabbed instinctively for something solid and found nothing had moved. The ground was still under her feet. But the world beyond had become something else entirely. Geometry that didn't follow normal rules. Surfaces that reflected versions of themselves at wrong angles.
She stood very still.
Leo looked around with genuine curiosity. "Impressive control."
"You're welcome to test yourself here," Ancient One said. "Nothing here affects the real world."
Leo turned to face the strange architecture around him.
He had been careful for a long time. Careful with Gwen, careful with Aunt May, careful with every punch in every fight. Always calculating exactly how much force was acceptable and holding back the rest.
He stopped holding back.
The punch he threw at the nearest surface created a sound that Wanda felt in her chest. The wall didn't crack. It collapsed. Not just the section in front of him, the entire structure came apart and the debris kept moving outward until it hit the next thing and collapsed that too.
Then he released his magical energy.
No particular technique. No careful channeling. Just output, the way you might exhale after holding your breath for too long.
The area in front of him simply ceased to have architecture.
Several hundred meters of Mirror Dimension, leveled.
Ancient One calmly shifted herself and Wanda to a safe distance.
Wanda watched from there, unable to speak for a moment.
"Is he actually human?" she finally said.
"Genetically, yes. His evolution has been extraordinary, but he is human." Ancient One watched Leo with an expression that was hard to read. "He has been suppressing that for a long time. This is the first time he has fully released it."
In the distance, Leo was laughing.
"This is amazing! I can do whatever I want!"
He was trying different things now. Speed. Impact. Energy projection. The Mirror Dimension absorbed and restructured around him endlessly.
"He seems," Wanda searched for the word, "happy."
"He is." Ancient One's tone was dry but not unkind. "It's understandable. Give him a moment."
Leo eventually seemed to run out of new things to try. He stood in the wreckage he had made and looked at his own hands.
"Thanos," he said loudly, to nobody in particular. "If you want to come, come. I'll make sure you don't leave."
Ancient One finally moved toward him. "Your growth rate is exceptional, Mr. Leo. However, I want to be honest with you about Thanos."
Leo turned around. "How strong is he actually? The movies made him look—"
"Forget the movies," she said simply. "As a Titan, he is a Skyfather-class being. His physical strength rivals Odin's. Currently, with no Infinity Stones, he would be a genuine match for you."
Leo went quiet. He was recalculating.
"His physical fitness may even exceed yours at this moment," she continued.
"Really."
"Punch me," she said.
Leo looked at her.
"To demonstrate the difference between what you expect and what is real."
"I won't," Leo said.
Ancient One raised an eyebrow.
"You have defensive magic I can't currently break without using time power or going further into my magical abilities. Punching you would prove nothing." He paused. "And I'm not going to punch you."
The corner of Ancient One's mouth moved slightly. She did not push the point.
"The Mirror Dimension," Leo said, changing direction. "Can it be used as a prison? Exile an enemy inside it?"
"It's possible, but maintaining it consumes energy. For long-term containment, other dimensions are more practical."
"What about Hela's dimension? The one Odin sealed?"
"That seal was Odin's personally. I cannot open or access it."
"Pity." Leo looked thoughtful. "I want to challenge her at some point."
Ancient One looked at him with the patience of someone who had stopped being surprised.
"The Dimension Door spell could take you there, if you learn it."
"I'll add it to the list."
"After today's lesson," she said firmly.
---
They sparred.
Wanda sat on a section of stable ground at a distance and watched.
She had expected, based on how Leo moved and how he talked, that his style would be aggressive and straightforward. Hit things until they stopped.
Instead he was observant. He watched Ancient One's movements with genuine interest, not trying to overwhelm but trying to understand. Copying the shape of techniques as he saw them. Adapting as she changed approaches.
Ancient One used the Mirror Dimension constantly, folding surfaces and redirecting angles. Leo caught most of it. Missed some. Adjusted.
Then Ancient One released the Bolts of Balthakk.
Not the thin controlled streams that Doctor Strange would produce in future training sessions. Ancient One's version was two thick columns of lightning that filled the space between her palms like contained storms. They moved toward Leo, then split, then split again, branching into dozens of arcing threads that converged from multiple directions at once.
Leo brought up an energy barrier.
The lightning hit the shield and spread across its surface, looking for weak points. Found none. Dissipated.
"That was impressive," Leo said, genuinely meaning it.
"Again," Ancient One said.
She released it again. This time the split happened earlier, the branches coming wider, the angles sharper. Less predictable.
Leo's shield held. But he could feel the cost.
If I could take Dormammu's dimension, he thought, mostly thinking out loud, the energy situation would solve itself permanently. Dormammu has consumed countless worlds, but He is not a being you approach casually.
Both of them continued the session.
---
When the Mirror Dimension finally closed and the courtyard returned to normal, Wanda stood still for a moment, just letting her senses readjust.
The ordinary stone walls. The ordinary sky. The ordinary cold air.
She looked at Leo, who was standing nearby looking perfectly fine, and then at Ancient One, who looked exactly as composed as she had at the beginning.
"I'm not strong enough," Wanda said quietly.
Not with frustration. Just as an observation. A line on a map telling her where she currently was.
"Not yet," Ancient One agreed. "That's why you're here."
Leo looked at Wanda. "She's right. But you have one advantage neither of us started with. You're going to learn everything properly from the beginning, with a real teacher, before anything goes wrong."
"What would have gone wrong?" Wanda asked.
Leo hesitated for just a second. "A lot. But not now. Focus on the training first."
Ancient One looked at Leo. "And Doctor Strange? You said you would help temper him."
"I'll go see him today," Leo said. "He's still at the hospital, right?"
"Manhattan General."
Leo smiled slightly. "Perfect. I have an errand in the city anyway."
---