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Scarlet Witch Lore

Voice from Beyond

Wanda Maximoff meditated, her body hovering a foot off the ground and her body wreathed in chaos energy. She was surrounded by a low wall, beyond which the cliffs and ridges of Wundagore Mountain sloped away into the clouds below.

She did this every day, opening her mind to the vast magical undercurrents of her broken world. Sensing where arcane power was building, where different forms of magic clashed and threatened wider conflicts. Reality was fragile, filled with gods and monsters that would willingly destroy it to increase their own power.

Wanda.

She twitched, the sound of her name pricking at the bubble of meditation. Wanda had spent years honing her ability to detect the smallest fluctuations in the field of magical power woven into the fabric of reality. This was part of her task as Sorceress Supreme of a reality that constantly tried to tear itself apart. Whenever magical adepts were active, she needed to know. Not to mention, it had been quite some time since someone used her name.

Wanda.

The words were laced with a shadowy tinge vaguely familiar to her, but from beyond her realm. That put her on the defensive. Only dangerous magic could traverse the spaces between universes. She was the Sorceress Supreme of this universe and she had tasted dark magic many a time before. Her unique mastery of chaos had transformed her into a primal force of order. When the immense tides of temporal power threatened to tear this universe apart, it was Wanda who felt the surge and turned it aside. Tamed it, held it in check.

Until it surged again.

And it always did, because this universe was an entangled battleground, and she the only one who could hold its fibers together.

Since the cataclysmic disruption of space-time itself, Wanda had spent more and more time locked in an arcane clash few people in her reality could even detect. The collapse of different histories had brought mighty enemies together and unleashed vast forces. Wanda knew she was, in the end, her reality's last line of defense, the only magical force capable of keeping the conflicting timestreams from ripping her world apart. If magical power were to surge unchecked, her reality would be annihilated.

Wanda.

The voice seemed familiar. Perhaps someone she had known, an echo of a soul long departed…

Wanda. It's Stephen. Stephen Strange.

"Stephen Strange?"

The sound of her voice carried in the thin mountain air, challenging the wind beyond her Sanctum.

Not the Stephen Strange you know.

"No, the Strange I knew is dead." He had been a great sorcerer, but he had fallen in the final battle of the first Demon War, when Hell itself spilled over into what was once Las Vegas. Wanda remembered that day with great sadness. She had led a mighty band of arcane adepts to victory, but their losses had been great.

The voice — she had sensed its nature and now knew it to be an astral projection — sighed. Yeah, I've heard that a lot recently.

"What do you mean?"

I've tried to reach out to the Sorcerers Supreme of many different realities, Wanda. In most of those realities, I'm dead. In a few of them, other versions of me didn't believe who I was. You're the first person who has carried the conversation this far, and that's good, because my world is in mortal danger and I need to be able to help it.

"The Stephen Strange I knew could astrally project and return like he was flipping a coin," Wanda said.

Usually I can too, but something about the Timestream Entanglement trapped me in…an entangled astral plane is the best way I can describe it. There are too many other versions of me. I can't figure out which one of them is the correct one to return to.

Ah. Now she understood. "And you think I can?"

I'm sure you can. Your chaos powers ought to be perfectly tuned to sort through the chaos of this particular astral entanglement. You're the Sorceress Supreme, aren't you?

This little challenge put Wanda's guard back up. "So are you, in your world."

Right. And I could probably figure it out through trial and error, over a period of years or decades or centuries back in the material plane. But by then, Dracula will have gotten what he wants from the Darkhold.

That name refocused Wanda's attention. She realized where she had tasted the darkness in those whispers before. She released her meditation, holding the link open to the astral projection of the man claiming to be Stephen Strange.

"The Darkhold?" That powerful artifact was gone from Wanda's reality. She had only heard of it. But it contained the kind of knowledge she might be able to use…

She knit strands of chaos together into a knot, seized the astral presence of Strange, and wove him into it too.

Wait —

"Untie it," she said, "and you will know your way home. And I will also know that you are who you say you are."

His voice vanished and she waited.

The sun had traversed Wundagore's peak and begun its plunge into the western mountains when a portal flared open and Stephen Strange appeared.

He was a grander figure than the Strange she had known, mostly because he wore the regalia of the Sorcerer Supreme. She made a mental note to craft garments more fitting of her station…when she had the time. Most of Kamar-Taj had been wiped off the face of the planet ages ago. She had salvaged what she could, but had not thought to include any ritual clothing.

"That was quite a little challenge," he said.

"It was the best way. Can't let just anyone into my Sanctum," Wanda answered.

"Glad your security is up to snuff," he said, a little chuckle under his breath. "Thank you."

"You can thank me by telling me what interest Dracula has in the Darkhold. It has not existed in this reality for decades, perhaps longer."

"You should be grateful for that."

"Answer my question, Strange."

"About what Dracula wants? Oh, he thinks the Darkhold contains knowledge of a spell that will let vampires walk in sunlight and turn all humanity into their prey."

"And does it?" she asked.

"The spells he seeks have that power, though they were designed for other purposes. It was born of darker ambitions than letting bloodsuckers out for a sunny stroll."

This was true. The Darkhold was crafted by a being she knew all too well. If she could possess it, delve into and master its mysteries, Wanda suspected she could at long last stop the decay of her universe. As Sorceress Supreme, she could wield its power to destroy the forces of magical entropy, end the endless wars between gods and immortals…

"Wundagore is not far from Dracula's realm," she mused. "But in this world, his castle has been empty for a long time."

"In my world, his castle isn't empty," Strange said. "But it also isn't in Transylvania anymore."

"Oh? Where is it?"

"Central Park."

Strange opened another portal, revealing to her the city of New York, under a full moon. Even through the portal, Wanda could sense the terrible sorcerous corruption pervading the city. Time perverted… "That moon isn't moving," she said.

"No," Strange said. "Dracula has already used the Darkhold to imprison New York in an endless night. His power is growing, and there aren't nearly enough powerful people to resist him."

"But now you can," she pointed out.

"Ideally, yes," Strange said. "And I will. The resistance is going to need more help, though. The Timestream Entanglement has unleashed forces none of us ever even knew existed. Different histories colliding…"

"Yes, I've seen that."

"And Chronovium complicates everything further."

"Chronovium?"

Strange looked around Wanda's mountaintop retreat. He spread his hands and swept them back together. Out of nothing, seemingly, a crystal appeared. "This is what it looks like where I come from," he said. "Though in your reality, it will take a different form."

She held a hand out and drew the crystal toward her. "Fascinating," she breathed. "This was created by the entanglement?"

"That's right."

"How have I not noticed it until now?"

"You've had a lot on your plate keeping this reality from utter annihilation," Strange pointed out. "That chaos bubble takes quite a bit of focus to maintain."

This was true, but Wanda was still shocked something like Chronovium could permeate her world without her noticing it. "I seem to have been meditating a little too much," she said.

Strange didn't argue.

"It is time I took a more active role in the battles critical to the survival of my reality. I've been leaning too heavily on useful loose cannons," she said.

Strange nodded.

"And will you help me, Strange?"

"You give us a hand with Dracula and the Darkhold, I'll be more than happy to bring a little Strange back to your reality." He cracked the barest hint of a smile.

"The Darkhold," she said. "The list of people who shouldn't have it is long, but Dracula would have to be close to the top."

"I agree," Strange said.

"Then let's go take it from him."

The two Sorcerers Supreme stepped up to the portal.

"But before we go," Wanda said, "I think one of those loose cannons might be particularly useful in this New York. After all, the Moon is his guiding light." She hoped he was still alive — and not yet completely insane.

"Fine, one more for this crazy time travel road trip." Strange pocketed the blood-red Chronovium before gesturing to Wanda. "Lead the way."