I don't own anything except any original/own characters and any original plot.

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Chapter 16 - Time Off

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"You sure the team will be alright with only two trainers for a while?" I held tightly onto Steve, not wanting to step onto the quinjet ready to take me to Tibet.

"It sounds like you don't want to go," Steve chuckled, kissing me lightly, "Coming up with all of these excuses."

"I suppose I am a bit nervous," I admitted, tugging at my sleeve, "The Sorcerer Supreme is known by magic users across the universe, for me to go and train with her is a huge honor. More than meeting Odin for the first time, and he's the king of the Nine Realms."

"You'll do great," Steve assured me, hands rubbing my arms in a comforting motion, "Even though I don't know a lot of people who can use magic, you're amazing at it. You said yourself that you need time to think over everything that has been going on. Take this chance alright?"

"Okay," I sighed in defeat, leaning up and connecting my lips with Steve's again, kissing him goodbye, "I'll be back soon, hopefully. I'll keep you updated. I love you."

"I love you too," Steve mumbled.

"Hey, you gonna hog (Y/n) for yourself?" Nat and the others walked down the path towards the quinjet, "We wanna say goodbye too."

"You gonna give her a kiss?" Steve sassed, smiling all the same.

"Maybe," Nat pulled me in for a hug, chuckling, "Stay alive out there, alright? It won't be the same without you."

"I was assuming it wasn't, but I'm not the only one who isn't a natural color anymore," I motioned to Vision.

"I thought you would want to have this," Wanda held out one of my spellbooks, "The motions depicted did help me with control. Thank you for letting me borrow it."

"Of course Wanda," I pulled the girl into a hug, "Don't be afraid to contact me if you need help with anything. I will miss you all."

"Love you," Steve repeated one last time as I was stepping onto the quinjet.

As the door was closing I waved goodbye, stepping back when I could no longer see the others. I moved up to the cockpit, inputting the coordinates for one of the airports in Tibet. Tony had contacted them and they were allowing me to land and keep the quinjet there.

The trip there was really quite peaceful. Because the ship was on autopilot I was able to relax and sleep. After a small nap I ate a snack that had been packed, and read through my spellbooks. There was a small part of me that wanted to pull out the communicator at the bottom of my bag and talk to my parents, but I resisted the urge.

"We are now landing."

"Smooth trip," I let out a sigh of relief at the simple fact. Things always seemed to go wrong in one way or another, so a smooth ride to Nepal was wonderful.

I grabbed my bags and slung one over my shoulder, the other rolling behind me as I opened up the ship. A few workers were already there waiting to greet me and such. Tony had that effect on people.

"Heb-bar kaa-su-shu," the workers greeted in unison.

"Gong-to delek," I smiled back, thankful I decided to learn a bit of Tibetan for this trip.

The workers led me through the airport and to the front where a car was waiting for me. A hotel had been booked for the night. Hopefully, the next morning I would find Kamar-Taj and stay there for the rest of my trip. If I didn't it would mean having to call Tony and booking a hotel room again. The stress of that was something I wanted to avoid.

"Tujay-chay," I thanked all of the workers before getting into the car.

While it wasn't a limo, the car was private, and it took me straight to the hotel. There I was greeted by workers in english. They seemed ecstatic to have an Avenger staying in their hotel, even if it was a bit soon after Sokovia. My bags were taken to my room for me and I was assured that room service would be available at any time. The sense of royal treatment loomed over me. Ironic.

Once in my room I didn't do much with it. Looking over the room service menu I was provided, I winced at the high prices listed. It wasn't worth it, that was for sure. Putting some of my essential items into an across body bag, I left the hotel to wander the city in search of Kamar-Taj. The sooner I found it the better.

As I was taking the elevator down to the main floor, I made a split second decision to shift into someone I passed by in the airport. Going out in public as my normal, purple, self would draw a lot of attention I didn't want or need. The Avengers were a controversial subject at the moment.

"You'd think my spellbooks would have a location spell for Kamar-Taj," I mumbled to myself, overwhelmed by all of the people in the streets.

Vendors were shouting out to passerbys, desperate to sell their items. Children were running in circles, laughing and playing make believe. Pedestrians talked loudly, each one preening to be heard over the others. Every once in a while a pet would pass through.

"Wandering aimlessly isn't going to get me anywhere," I stepped into a side alley to get some form of quiet and to come up with a plan, "Maybe I should just go back to the hotel. If I astral project I could cover more of the city in less time."

"Look what we have here."

"Wurn," I groaned, pinching the bridge of my nose. The last thing I needed was for some thugs to follow me. I just arrived in Nepal for goodness sakes!

"How about you uh, give us your bag and we'll have a little fun with you," one of the goons suggested, chuckling and nudging one of his friends. There were four of them, two were a bit bigger than the others, but the smaller ones were both holding knives.

"Not going to happen you nersh," I threw out my hands, my classic discs forming around them. The thugs seemed a bit hesitant at that, but they were more determined than I gave them credit for.

"You think some fancy lights are going to scare us?"

"God, you men can be so dense sometimes," without another word I ran forwards.

Immediately disarming the two with weapons by striking their hands, I toe kicked one of the largest ones. He staggered back and hit the wall, holding his most likely dislocated jaw. Ducking under a rough punch from the other large one, I used the lower leverage and sliced behind his knees with my discs. That was two down.

"Oh wurn," I cried out in pain, staggering when a cool knife slid into the skin and muscle of my shoulder.

"How unhonorable," a smooth voice flowed through the alley, "Attacking your opponent from behind. You aren't even the one fighting for your life."

A cloaked figure calmly walked into the alley, a large basket on their arm. I couldn't discern much because of the shadows caused by the hood, but I could tell that it was a woman stepping in to help me.

"What are you gonna do about it?" The man who stabbed me yanked the knife out of my shoulder, pointing it at the woman.

"Much more than you think I would," a glowing tessen appeared in the woman's hands. Even in my pained state, I had the strength to widen my eyes in shock. She was a magic user.

Within a minute she had the two smaller men unconscious on the ground, bruised and bloodied. She still had the basket on her arm, nothing spilled from it. The two larger men seemed to stir a bit. Rearing back my leg I kicked both of them in the temple, knocking them out cold again.

"Come, allow me to treat you," the woman put a comforting hand on the good side of my back.

"Wait, I can't," I gasped as my natural form came out, the blood on my clothes and the knife turning a deep violet, "I can't go onto the streets like this. This can't hit the news."

"I never said anything about the streets my dear," lifting one of her hands, the other traced a circle in the air. The blank alley wall was covered by an image of a temple, "After you."

I cautiously stepped through the glowing circle, the pain in my shoulder pushing me past any hesitations. There was no way this woman would harm me, not after she found out I was an Avenger. Injured or not.

"Who are you? Where am I?" I looked around the contemporary room I was in. It was relatively large and empty, with paper walls and sliding doors.

"I believe the better question is who are you," the woman pulled of her hood and set down her basket, revealing her bare head and gentle smile, "That is what you came here to find out, is it not?"

"This is Kamar-Taj?"

"Not all of it, but yes."

"So that means you-" I couldn't finish my sentence, cutting myself off with a wince as I moved my arm slightly.

"Yes of course. Mordo," a dark skinned man stepped inside of the room, "Gather some first aid supplies please, our guest is injured."

"Of course, Ancient One."

"Oh Atreya," I whispered, sitting down in one of the chairs that had appeared in the room, "I made it to Kamar-Taj? All because I was careless and got myself stabbed?"

"You have a strong connection to the arts, you would have found it soon enough," Ancient One sat down as well, pouring two cups of tea, "You have a particularly high pain tolerance, being stabbed in the shoulder is quite serious."

"You tend to get one when you've been fighting deadly battles for six years straight."

"Here you are Ancient One," Mordo rushed into the room, a hefty box in his hands.

"Thank you Mordo," Ancient One began to pull out everything she would need to patch me up.

"Kaecilius got into a bit of a fight with one of the other instructors again," Mordo informed his higher up.

Ancient one motioned for me to adjust my shirt. Grimacing while doing so, I shifted, my jacket turning into a tank top. She poured rubbing alcohol onto a cloth, holding it against my shoulder. After the wound was disinfected, she began to expertly wrap bandages around it.

"I assumed he would. I shall deal with that dilema after this one, give us just a moment and you can show (Y/n) to her room," Mordo stood silently to the side, watching with muted interest, "I know you are eager to learn, to explore who you are and what you have yet to learn, but tonight, you should rest. Someone shall retrieve your bags and drop them off at your room."

"Thank you Ancient One," I bowed my head in respect, "I wish we could have met under better circumstances, ones where I wasn't bleeding out."

Ancient One chuckled, "The universe has an interesting way of pushing people together."

After that, Mordo walked me out of the larger room and down a few hallways. Kamar-Taj was larger than I thought it would be, and I knew it would only continue to amaze me.

"This is where you'll be staying, a bathroom is connected," Mordo stopped in front of another sliding door, "I shall retrieve your bags. Oh, you might want this as well."

He handed me a small card with the word 'Shambala' written across it, "The wifi password. We aren't animals after all."

"Thank you," I smiled brightly.

"Of course," Mordo seemed to hesitate as he went to leave, "I know you have prior experience with magic, most likely, you are better than I am. Understand that the Ancient One has no intention of sugar coating anything, or making things easy for you."

"Good, I despise being fed from a silver spoon."

Satisfied with my answer, Mordo left, presumably to get my bags from my hotel. I hadn't told them where I was staying, but something told me they'd easily be able to find out.

After cleaning up and washing off the dried blood on me, I stepped back into my room and grinned at the two bags waiting for me. I changed into a pair of pajamas and laid down in the bed. It felt too small, too cold without Steve. One night away and I already missed him more than anything.

The time difference was throwing me off. A part of me was so exhausted from my long day of travelling and exploring that I wanted to fall asleep right then and there, and another part of me wanted to stay up, knowing it wasn't my normal time to go to bed. I finally decided to call Steve, it would have been around 12 in the afternoon there, meaning I wasn't disturbing him.

"Hey, how's Nepal?"

"It hasn't been great so far," I sighed tiredly, "Someone tried to mug me and I got stabbed in the shoulder, but I found Kamar-Taj! The Ancient One sort of saved my kif."

"Hang on, you got stabbed? I know I was sort of pushing this trip but maybe you should come home."

"I appreciate your concern Steve, but I'm fine. It's more of a flesh wound than anything," my shoulder pulsed, as if punishing me for my lie, "Besides, I just got to Kamar-Taj, and the Ancient One is willing to teach me. This place might be safer than the facility in all honesty, the majority of the world, of the universe, has no idea where it is."

"I guess that makes sense," Steve still seemed hesitant to drop it, "Just...I don't know what I'd do if something were to happen while you were so far away."

"Fly across the world to save me?" I questioned with a chuckle, yawning immediately after, "It's twelve at night over here, and I'm exhausted. Goodnight Steve."

"Night (Y/n)."

I ended the phone call, lying back against the pillows. The flight may have been smooth, but the day definitely wasn't. I was right for saying that nothing could ever go smoothly.

~*~

The next morning I awoke slowly, constantly closing and opening my eyes in a debate on whether or not I wanted to go back to sleep. Eventually, I opened my eyes and kept them open, slowly getting out of bed.

"So I really did get stabbed in the shoulder," I gently pressed my palm against the thick bandages, wincing in pain when it throbbed.

I went through my normal morning routine with a slow excitement, having to take extra care of my shoulder. Organic clothes took up the majority of my suitcase, but there were a few things made at home that weren't organic. We had little to no reason to shapeshift at home, and organic clothes weren't super popular.

"I haven't worn something like this in years," I pulled on the flowy pants and tunic. I wore them often when training back home.

Stepping out of my room I travelled down the hallways Mordo brought me through the night before. I was thankful I could remember where the large training room was, otherwise I'd most likely get lost.

"Planning on beginning your training without breakfast?' Ancient One approached me with a tray in her hands, "That is very ill-advised."

"I didn't know where the kitchen was," I smiled sheepishly, lowering myself to my knees so I could eat, "A tour might come in handy."

"Yes of course, I'll show you around after you finish eating."

The Ancient One sipped her own tea while I ate my breakfast. I held back the temptation to ask her if she ate food. She was human by birth, but being Sorcerer Supreme granted abilities unknown to most.

Once I was done, she told me to leave my plate and tray where it was. It would be taken care of shortly. The Ancient informed me that the room we were in would be one of the few I trained in. After that, she pointed out the areas where people slept, the industrail sized kitchen, normal gym, entertainment system area, library, and outdoor training areas.

It was a lot to remember, but it felt like it was the saem size as the facility, which helped me compartmentalize the different ways to get places in my mind. Once the tour was over, the Ancient One led me back inside down one of the hallways she breezed by earlier. Taking it to the very last roomm, she stepped inside, expecting me to follow.

"This is where we can travel to and communicate with the other sanctums in the world. The one in New York holds our largest collection of artifacts. I think it's high time you recieve yours," Ancient One stepped up to a stone in the center of the room, spinning it slightly.

One of the doors to our right opened, boasting a large staircase.Motioning for me to follow her, the Ancient One stepped through. Outside of the builging I heard faint murmers of people tlaking and car horns. We were in New York.

"I contacted the protector of this sanctum last night, he is out on business, but he is allowing us to look through the artifacts and take the one that calls out to you."

"Wonderful," I beamed. I had heard of sorcerers finding their artifacts before, but I never thought I would be finding one of my own.

Walking up the staircase and taking a right, we arrived in a vast room. Artifacts lined the walls. Glass cases held several larger ones, and there were a few out on tables. A long glass case towards the back held jewelry.

"What exactly am I supposed to do?" I questioned, looking back at the Ancient One for some guidance.

"Close your eyes, and clear your mind," Ancient One's soothing voice was almost hypnotic, "When all other invading thought are gone, you'll begin to hear a whisper. It might not say words, but it'll be present. Follow it."

I had closed my eyes while she was speaking, focusing on her voice as it flowed around me. The more I allowed myself to drift off and let go, the more present a tug at my mind was.

It was a small mumble, hissing and stirring around my mind, calling out for me. Slowly, so I wouldn't knock anything over, I followed the whisper, twisting and turning when it got louder or quieter. When it was as loud as I thought it was going to get, I opened my eyes.

"The jewelry case," I looked down at the piles of necklaces and bracelets and rings, "Great, more searching."

"It is very simple from hereon out," Ancient One lifted the glass off of the display.

I stared down at the accessories, brows furrowed in concentration. One of them was meant to be mine, it was connected to me. What one was...

"This," I wrapped my fingers around a circlet with a large gem in the middle.

"The Talisman of Power, an interesting pairing by all means," Ancient observed me in interest, "You're disappointed."

"No, not disappointed, not at all!" I rushed to cover up my former expression, "It'll just be a bit hard to explain the whole tiara thing and I was never a big fan of crowns since I grew up being forced to wear one so-"

The talisman suddenly became much lighter. Glancing down, I gasped at the sight before me. It had shifted from a tiara to a ring. Gold, with the same red gem in the center. Much smaller, and much more practical.

"Trust your artifact," Ancient One advised with a sly smile, "It is meant for you, and it will do what pleases you. Now that you have found your artifact, you should spend the rest of the day researching and practicing with it."

"The rest of the day?" I cried out in dismay. I was hoping to start some form of training, you know, with the Ancient One, with actual magic. That or, I was hoping she would guide me through my questions about, well, everything.

"Yes, patience (Y/n). Were you not taught that at home?" Ancient's One's eyes held an air of humor.

"I was, but I never enjoyed the practical lessons. Suppose now I'll be putting them to good use," I grumbled.

~*~

Later that night I was lugging a large pile of books back to my room. Most of them held some type of information about my artifact. The others were ones I found interesting. Even though I couldn't practice what I wanted to yet, it didn't mean I couldn't read about it.

"The Power Talisman," I mumbled to myself, watching as the ring on my right hand caught the light of my lamp, "Has been passed down from owner to owner who, while wearing it, has been dubbed the Talisman. Interesting hero name. The first origins of the circlet are unknown, first appearing with Nahita from the Tribe of the Moon."

Finding no other interesting information, I moved on to the next book. This one focused on the powers of the Talisman, rather than its history.

"The holder of the Talisman is gifted the abilities to summon and control spirits. Holy wurn, I wonder if I can contact of of the greats. Or, or I can call upon Pietro for Wanda..."

Shaking off the interesting thought, I continued my reading, a bit more intrigued with the learning aspect now.

"Near infinite spell casting and ability to tap in magic fields. Levitation, awesome, no more shields to fly. Empathic bonding, small distance portals, and magic neutralization," I listed, getting the gist of things pretty quickly, "Alright, time to try."

I held my hand out in front of me, not entirely sure what I should do. Thinking of a simple summoning spell, I waved my hand, almost falling out of the bed when my crossbody slammed into me violently.

"Atreya that hurt," I rubbed my healing shoulder.

I took a mental note that when the book said infinite spell casting, it most likely meant that it enhanced the spells as well. I stood up and moved off of my bed next, trying to figure out how I would levitate.

"Up," I jumped up slightly, landing on the ground soon after, "Levitate...Fly...Up up and away...Gwil!"

With the Orveonian word for fly, my feet left the ground. I laughed in delight, soon quieting when I didn't stop going up. I waved my arms frantically, trying to 'air swim' myself back down to the ground.

"Down, down. Oh, din!" With the order, my feet touched the ground again, a bit harshly, but I was down.

It seemed like the Talisman only responded to Orveonian orders, or requests. It was most likely because it was following my first language. I was tempted to summon a spirit, or create a portal, but that was a bridge I would cross another day. All I really wanted to do was go to bed.

As I was pulling my blankets over my body, I tugged at the ring on my finger, surprised when it didn't come off. I gave it another tug. Nothing. Deciding to ask the Ancient One why it wasn't coming off tomorrow, I lied down completely, shutting my eyes.

Faintly, I realized I hadn't called Steve. Instead of reaching out for my phone, I snuggled into my blankets further. It would be alright not calling him, this was a trip of self discovery after all.