Camelot was ash.
Arthur was gone.
The Age of Legends had ended.
And I was bored.
Utterly. Profoundly. Eternally bored.
Avalon hummed behind my thoughts, eternal and unchanged, while the world rotted in slow historical decline.
The Fate aspect of myself sighed.
"You always grow restless after a king dies."
"Yes," I replied to myself, stepping through a portal. "It's terribly inconvenient."
The air shifted.
Himalayan winds.
Kamar-Taj.
The monks barely noticed my arrival. Illusions folded around me instinctively, magic parting like respectful water.
I entered the library.
Dust. Ancient ink. Primitive spell theory.
Adorable.
I lifted a tome.
Touched the script.
Connected.
And the universe shuddered.
The page burned with white light.
The room vanished.
I stood in a realm of endless gold.
Before me stood three presences vast enough to bend galaxies.
Oshtur's wisdom radiated like a star.
Hoggoth's power felt like a gravitational collapse contained in fur and fang.
Agamotto's gaze pierced through every timeline I had ever seen.
"You resonate," Agamotto spoke, his voice layered across centuries.
I smiled faintly. "I do try."
Oshtur stepped forward.
"You are not merely mortal."
"I was," I replied. "That phase was brief."
Hoggoth's presence rumbled.
"You hold Avalon."
"And far more besides."
They examined me.
Marvel Merlin's ancient authority.
Fate Merlin's incubus divinity.
Wizarding Merlin's mastery.
The Dragonlord's raw birthright.
Finally—
Agamotto inclined his head.
"The mantle requires no trial."
I blinked.
"…That's it?"
Oshtur's eyes glimmered.
"You are already beyond the position."
Power flooded into me.
Not overwhelming.
Not crushing.
Just… acknowledgment.
The Eye's blessing.
The Trinity's sanction.
The mantle bending willingly.
When I returned to Kamar-Taj, the sitting Sorcerer Supreme was on his knees.
Not in submission.
In understanding.
"The Vishanti have spoken," he said quietly.
I tilted my head.
"Oh dear. Was I not supposed to skip the apprenticeship?"
He laughed weakly.
"The title is yours."
And just like that—
I became Sorceress Supreme.
Far easier than I expected.
Which was mildly disappointing.