The Multiversal Road-Trip: Book Five

14

Stephen had only briefly visited Kamar-Taj jail once, but it wasn't hard to navigate. The place was like everywhere else in Kamar-Taj – made of stone with insubstantial candle lighting and single-glazed windows. Neither Scott nor Loki had ever visited (Loki hadn't gotten past the library before now) and they were slowing him down somewhat (like c'mon, even he hadn't spent this much time dawdling when he'd first joined here).

Eventually after a ten minute walk which should've really taken two, the three of them finally arrived in the jail, and started walking down the central aisle between all the cells.

Each cell was magically designed to supress the magic of the individual trapped inside, so each was different. Mordo was right at the end of the row they were on, in one of the more heavily guarded and reinforced cells, because his power level apparently qualified him for one of those cells.

There weren't any metal bars – just strands of orange sparky magic forming a barrier between them and the prisoner.

Just a few strands of orange sparky magic between Stephen and his arch-nemesis.

...unless arch-nemesis was too strong? Anyway.

"Hello, Mordo," Scott said before Stephen could speak, ruining the dramatic moment he had been perfectly constructing since they'd decided to meet him again.

Stephen turned to Scott with a "Dude, really?" before returning his attention to Mordo, and they now had his attention. "Hello, Mordo," he said himself, rather seriously.

Loki must've been feeling left out, because he cheerfully waved, "Hello, Mordo!"

Damn these guys. Always messing up his drama.

"Hello," Mordo said, as though he had no clue who they were. Or he was just wary of them. Hopefully the latter.

Suddenly Stephen didn't know what to say. The awkward hello fest was over. "We need to ask you some questions."

"OK," Mordo said. He didn't seem to be in the mood for banter.

Loki wasn't having it. "Come on guys, is this really how you greet old friends after all this time?"

"Friends?" Stephen repeated. "He tried to kill me, in case you forgot."

"Yeah, sorry about that," Mordo said, and all three of them stared. Then blinked. Then double-taked. "All this reflection time has made me realise you were right, and I wasn't."

Stephen met his eyes and looked into them for any trace of a lie. He actually didn't find any. "Wait, really?"

"Really. I know now I did wrong. I'm sorry, Stephen," Mordo said, and the genuineness in his voice was shocking. "Just ask your questions and go."

The cloak pushed Stephen's jaw back up into place. He hadn't realised it had even dropped open. Requiring the assistance of a telepath to come to a conclusion, he simply turned to Loki and waited for him to speak.

"He's actually telling the truth," Loki said, and this just confused Stephen even more. Scott looked the same, and even Loki looked like he couldn't believe the words coming out his mouth, or, he supposed, the thoughts coming into his head. "He's genuinely sorry for what he did. That I hadn't expected."

"You heard him," Mordo said, sighing. "No one else believes me, but I don't see why they would. Or should. So. Ask your questions and get out."

Stephen nearly forgot his questions, but they came back. Or that'd be embarrassing. "How did you contact yourself in other dimensions?"

OK. Whatever Mordo had expected, it clearly wasn't that, because he fell out his seat. Ow. Stone floors really hurt to fall on. "W- what? That thing I did in the summer? Why do you want to know how to do that?"