Somewhat surprising me, Clea Strange clasped her hands and bowed low to me, as student to teacher. “We are sorry that we did not recognize the Tradition you passed on to us as the masterpiece it is. The depth and versatility of your Arcane Theurgy is as deep and rich as that of Vishanti Sorcery, and its adaptability was of inestimable value to us. Thank you and your sisters for your teachings, Dynamo!”

“Good things should happen to good people,” I waved it away, earning a beaming smile from her regardless. “Dealer will cede you the Regency as soon as you return. I doubt the Vishanti will have any problems with you being the Sorceress Supreme of the Dark Dimension, but now you have five thousand years to get to the raw power level of Dormammu before you stand in the War on your own.”

“I shall have to train up a truly excellent champion!” she laughed easily. “Rest assured, we have confidence in our growth. Our standing with the Faltine is excellent, even if we are of matter, and not the First Fire.” A tongue of the Faltine Flame popped up on her fingertip without effort. The Faltine were fire Elementals, and naturally snobs about it, but they could hardly fault someone who could probably use their Flames better than they could!

“Excellent. I’ll make sure your Name starts growing as a Principal here on Terra. The Tribes and Russia will be damn pleased to have a reliable Principal to invoke for Fire.” I sent that right out, and in a matter of seconds her eyebrows rose sharply as the first Invocations to her Name rang out from interested parties. That one tongue of Faltine Flame on her fingers flared bright and sharp as power flowed through her in response.

“Balthakk might not be pleased,” she judged, a different flame rising on her other hand, popping with dark lightnings and the like, the signature Flames of the Burning Boss of the Octessence.

“He’s an arrogant arse who always wants to destroy more than He’s called on to. It’s like He’s making up for Cyttorak being a binder instead of a mauler with His spells.”

“Oh, you have not heard of the things Reed started doing.” Clea tucked her legs up under her, floating in midair.

“No. All my sisters are out cold, Ororo’s drooling into her husband’s shoulder, the FF are going to bed right now, and I’m stuck here until they wake up. Why are you so chipper? They’re all exhausted.” And that was with being Sustained.

“Well, there are two of us. Even Reed and Sue are merely Conjoined. It helps our mental fortitude considerably.” She closed her eyes, smiling to herself, and breathed deeply. “This was a very good idea of yours. We would thank you again, but it seems redundant.”

I waved it away again. “You are intending to remain together?” I asked calmly.

“We would lose much of what we learned were we to separate. It seems unwise to throw away all that we have gained together, given our responsibilities.”

I inclined my head. “It sounds like you were in regular contact with the FF. I trust that was due to the Elemental nature of their challenges.”

“The Octessence are considered barbaric latecomers by the Faltine, and certainly not of the same stature, as well as not being truly pure in any Element. Still, their challengers, if not overlapping, were related, and so our battlefields often conjoined, met, and separated. We encountered them many times over the years. Once we got past the arrogance of the Faltine, we even set up lines of communication between our Patrons, which we used to good effect in weakening masters and vassals for one another, which affected the flow of power and cohesion on the battlefield.

“The Four were extremely impressive, not only for their remarkable rise in magical skill, but their inventiveness with magic.” Her expression was half-appalled, half-delighted. “We believe you once told us once that Reed can expand his brain in the direction needed to solve a problem?”

“Yes. It is why he punches above his weight in the intellectual department. While he has to work to retain such things permanently, he basically has a modular intellect,” I confirmed. “He finally broke down and went only non-sciencey on things, did he?”

Clea Strange nodded somberly. “Seeing that level of inventiveness applied to magic was... impressive, to say the least. Towards the end of the War, many of the Lords who had to face the Four just threw the fight, because they had no idea what they’d be facing on the battlefield. Others simply bargained away the fight for a new spell or lessons on magic, and that included some of the opposing champions!” She was heavily amused, as was I.

“Your own champions calling on the powers of your rivals, because your own are insufficient. Well, that is an extremely good way to lose face. I imagine that non-violent resolution cost those opposite the FF more than the FF beating on their champions,” I judged. “After all, is not the Seven Spheres as much about reputation and belief as pure power?”

“It is. We somewhat regret not being eligible to stand in again in five thousand years, and thus being able to witness the conflict at the level of the Vishanti. There was little overlap between the Elemental conflicts and Entities at their power, who compete on more, mmm, conceptual lines.”

“If you like, I can ask Morgan and Nimue to share their entire experiences with you, if you are willing to do the same.”

Her eyes widened slightly at the idea. “That... would be extraordinarily beneficial,” she agreed instantly.

“If you really, really feel up to it, we could arrange a Uni-mind experience between all of you to share your Seven Sphere experiences. That is a LOT of shared time, however, so you’ll probably have to use some magic to accelerate the reliving of it, if nothing else.”

“That...” she trailed off, stunned at something so monumental being offered. “We would not refuse such an incredible boon. The chance to experience Reed Richard’s thought processes while innovating the amount of magic that he did would be simply priceless!”

“You didn’t have much contact with the Munroes, or my sisters?” I asked, a little surprised.

She shook her head. “Our battlefields did not cross. We received Sendings from them regularly to let us know they were still alive and doing well, but other than that it was mostly rumors and news passed on from our Patrons.” She did smile slightly at the last. “We did hear that their Patrons were all extremely impressed with their choices of champions, and both lines were incredibly domineering on the battlefields. The Vishanti are well-pleased, and do not regret not drafting Stephen at all.”

“Good!” I nodded. “This was all done so you two would have a chance to be happy together! Don’t mess this up!”

“We shall not!” she promised, blue and grey eyes sparking, clenching her hands. “We are sure Mephisto has plans to separate us, and we are anticipating His chastisement...”

“Aye, He’ll be messing with another Planar Lord now, not just a piddly Sorcerer Supreme,” I agreed, and she nodded firmly.

“Out of curiosity, how did matters go these last few months?” Clea Strange asked, smiling knowingly. “We did leave at a very busy time...”

“Uh, let’s see. Sama ate Lilith.” They blinked. “I Bound, Sealed, and Burned away Salomé. Yeah, the Fallen Sorceress Supreme who was hassling you. Zarathos is barred from the mortal plane and Branded. If he bugs us again, Sama is just going to Feed him to the Land, but He might decide you’re a target of opportunity, given His nature to conquer, so watch for him. Also, Mephisto isn’t happy we didn’t Bind the twat, so figure that’s one of the things the Red Rat wants you to do for Him.”

“Sama... ate Lilith?” Clea Strange repeated into the pause, kind of gaping, and trying not to smile at ‘Red Rat’.

“Yeah, vivified her right in her belly,” I nodded once, as if it was nothing new. “She’s been relaxing recently by visiting all the remaining lilin and removing them from existence, too. Like, small worlds and stuff of them.”

Clea’s cheek twitched. “We are forcibly reminded of why Forsaken do not take part in the War of Seven Spheres,” she commented ruefully.

“Yeah, they’d likely kill all parties involved out of sheer annoyance at the waste of time and effort,” I nodded agreement. “There’s currently a psi-magic Entity made out of souls ritually sacrificing themselves powering itself up in the Thaumind Field. Kwannon is chasing it around and annoying it while ex-Nazis and the Crux keep killing themselves to make it stronger. We figure it’s trying to reach a stage where it can manifest and thinks it can beat Primus.”

Clea lifted her finger and was about to say something, then slowly shook her head and put her hand back down. Poor silly thaumind entity...

“We found out what the vampires were doing with all those Hell-portals back when,” I sighed. “Demons from Limbo ended up coming through a bunch of them. Turns out that the witch Margali had made some bargains regarding her daughter, which got all mixed up with that attempt she made on Draufganger over in Europe that you were involved in that one time. We had a nice full-blown Inferno of a demon invasion that brought down the High Guard and everything, and then Margali’s daughter went into Limbo, took possession of the Soul Sword of Limbo, and became its new Lord and Sorceress Supreme.” I pointed across the road to Mr. Hill’s house. “Been giving her some real lessons, instead of that crap her mother was teaching her. Kind of a rush job, she’s got a lot of demons to keep in line.”

“An ideal time for them to strike, with the Seven Spheres War going on,” Clea nodded coolly. She’d learn more about that fun and exciting time by reading about it. “We shall be neighbors, such as it is? I will help her, if I can.”

“Yeah, Amanda’s pretty sweet, especially after considering who her mother was. Oh, and Mys-tech. Ever cross them?” I asked her.

She narrowed her mismatched eyes, reflecting on the name. “I remember noting it for the play on words, but no,” she replied, her grey eye gleaming. “I see that it wasn’t rich fools being coy with their naming conventions...”

“Nine sorcerers sacrificing a thousand souls to Mephisto a year for the past thousand years.”

She frowned deeply at that. “Elder Sorcerers each, then? Well-concealed by magic, to evade notice for so long...”

“Well, they’ve been fed to the Widow in the Web, Mephisto might or might not deal for them, and we bought their company and holdings and are cleaning them up.” She arched an eyebrow and shook her head at my blasé retelling of that fact. “Other than that, lots of Ghost Riders around, significantly fewer Dragon Mages making problems, Wanda’s taking lessons in Magneto Magic Thaumaturgy over in Russia and getting hella dangerous at it, and there’s the usual parade of demons, Spirits, Fey, extra-dimensionals, and Warlocks creating messes around the world.” I waved at a thick book off to the side. “You’re welcome to read the journal, of course.”

“Given your standards, I should expect to be entertained...” she half-smiled, grey eye still gleaming. “What of outside the magical world?”

“Our efforts against the Badoon, Brood, Skrulls, and Kree continue, but came down a pace while I was contemplating the Orb all the time, as I had very little field time. The lads stepped up a lot, however, and the Acanti have successfully herded most of the Brood into their conflict zones. How long they last there is up to them, but they are having problems keeping their numbers up, surprise, surprise.

“Ah, Xavier sent a recent notice to us that there has been a surge in Skrull intrigue in the Shi’ar Court. It was very deeply hidden, and only Imahd’s Shield subtly alerting him enabled them to press and investigate further. The Skrull agents are attempting to start a war between the Shi’ar and the Kree.”

“Thereby relieving the Skrulls of a great deal of pressure during their succession conflicts,” she nodded once, her blue eye glowing now. “It starts with shadow conflicts on the border, warnings of a build-up of forces on each side, sudden raids, then explodes into open conflict...”

“Oddly enough, the fact is that the Kree are playing along with the narrative. Instead of focusing on the Skrulls and hitting them while they are in chaos, they are turning on a tested imperial power who does NOT have the same kind of problems?” Our eyes met, and we both shook our heads.

“Something else is going on,” she agreed, Clea being no stranger to grand affairs of state. Planar lords, space emperors; the games were the same. “Thus, you wish to give up the Cloak, eh?” she smiled.

I sighed. “Between watching stuff going on in the next galaxy and the Orb always whining for attention... yes. I haven’t had any downtime to speak of for six months, and I should be back in the field, because I can be.” I waved my hand dismissively at the Orb’s stand. “Morgan can totally handle everything here.”

“We are aware of the Sublime Chord magic you use, and its potency to yourself and your allies,” Clea said carefully. “But that power you displayed during the recruitment was on another level, and all that without revealing your Underweb Sorcery.”

“Ah, that’s the Cosmic Chord. You know who Black Bolt is, and his Voice of Thunder?”

“Yes, he is the... former Inhuman monarch? The voice that is an atomic bomb?” she remembered after a moment. The Inhumans of Attilan were not well-known at all.