The streets of London buzzed with life, unaware of the invisible figure drifting among them. Me. Wrapped in a perfect illusion—Loki's finesse blended with the Ancient One's distortion techniques—no mortal eye could see me. Not even most magical ones.
The problem isn't building the Sanctums, I thought, stepping through the evening crowd like a whisper.It's protecting them.
One sorcerer, even one with the lifetimes I carried, could not stand guard over seven Sanctums. Not forever.
Do I need students? Apprentices? A whole order?
The thought should have felt heavy. Burdensome.
Instead… it made me smirk.
Training people. Shaping the future. Creating an entire magical institution.It would make me unstoppable—and this world safer.
Kamar-Taj… yes.Not a copy, but something new. An Order born from this world's needs.A place where the talented could learn to shield Earth from demons, entities, gods, and threats even the Justice League couldn't comprehend.
"I'll need a hundred years…" I murmured to myself beneath the invisibility spell. "Fortunately… I have them."
The crowd parted around me unconsciously, guided by subtle spatial nudges of my six eyes.Six eyes—reborn not for cursed energy, but for pure magic.They painted the world in layers:
—The glow of natural ley lines beneath the sidewalks.—The faint aura of magical residue on old cathedrals.—And more importantly…
the souls of the people around me.
Every person was wrapped in a dim shimmer—magic potential.Most glowed like dying candles.Some flickered, unstable and chaotic.A rare few, less than one in a thousand, carried a spark bright enough to be molded.
But talent alone wasn't enough.
Magic could be built, nurtured, cultivated… but potential remained fixed.
That was where the Time Stone pulsed warmly against my palm.
I kept it hidden beneath layers of concealment, but I always felt its presence——like a heartbeat synced to the timeline.
With a single thought, I let it open slightly.
Green possibilities spiraled across my vision. Futures branching, twisting, collapsing.
For each person I focused on, I saw it:
Their timeline. Their future with magic.How far they could go.What level of sorcerer they could become.Whether they would ever betray me.Whether they would be worth training.
A young woman jogging past—no magic potential.A businessman on his phone—very faint talent, barely enough to light a candle.A teenager humming to music—bright but unstable talent, possible future risk.A quiet, tired bookstore clerk—oh…Interesting.Her future shined like a star—if trained, she could one day stand against a demon alone.
But I let her continue on her path. I wasn't ready to recruit yet.Not until the first Sanctum was built.
Still… the truth settled comfortably in my chest.
I can do this. I can build my own Kamar-Taj.A place where magic is taught… and warriors are forged.
My cloak fluttered invisibly behind me as I turned toward an alley where a ley line converged.
London would be the site of the first Sanctum.The anchor.The seed of what would grow into a global magical empire.
And I would protect it.
But for that to happen, I first had to carve out a home—a place where the Ancient One of this world could begin her work.