Chapter 228: Panthers

23^rd March 2012, New York City

(Jasmine Sayre POV)

Lost in my thoughts, I didn’t even realize that I had stayed silent for five minutes straight. Selene had given me a knowing look, understanding that I was just lost in thoughts, Wanda though, looked at me worryingly, “Are you alright?”

I nodded, “Yeah, I’m fine. I’m ready. It’s time.”

“Where are we going?” Rose asked.

I gave her a cheeky smirk, one that was a bit forced, “Why, we’re going to the most advanced country in the world?”

Rose looked confused and I didn’t blame her. After all, I was going to perform a ritual, not visit a country. Still, she played along and tried to guess the country, “Latveria?”

Huh, not a bad guess, “No, we’re going to Wakanda.”

Selene rolled her eyes. I couldn’t really fault her. She really didn’t like to go there, but she understood the importance of this place for the ritual. The others, on the other hand, were confused by my answer. Rose was the one who voiced the question that was in their heads, “I’ve never heard of it. What is this place?”

“Well, Wakanda is a small country in central Africa. As far as the rest of the world knows, it isn’t much different than any of the surrounding land, but the truth is that this little country, that exists in one of the poorest regions on the planet, is actually the most technologically advanced nation on the planet.”

“How?” Wanda questioned.

I snorted, “By chance, of course. All of this began a few million years ago when a meteorite landed at the heart of Africa. It wouldn’t be a big deal at the time, but the meteorite in question was made up of an element unseen before on the planet. Nowadays, we call this element Vibranium.”

Bucky sat up straight, “Isn’t that what Steve’s shield is made of?”

I nodded, “Yes, Captain America’s shield was created using an alloy of Vibranium and Adamantium. Back to the subject, tribes started to form around the so called magical metal, which had the uncanny ability to absorb any kind of energy, including magic, to an absurd degree. Tribesmen found themselves able to create energy blasts from their swords. Imagine, while the world barely knew how to write, the Wakandans could use Vibranium to send out energy blasts at each other. Still, the war ended when a man found a herb that grew next to a great amount of Vibranium. The metal had absorbed a lot of ambient magical energy since it was sitting directly above the intersection of three ley lines. In return, the metal started to release some of the energy directly to the plant, mutating it, enhancing it using magic. The plant, saturated with magic, became an entirely magical plant by itself. The man, who was starving, found the plant. By consuming the plant, the magic transferred to his body, enhancing him, making him stronger, faster, and more agile. He was pretty much a super soldier by today's standards. He entered the war and united the tribes. He became the first King of Wakanda, the first Black Panther. He passed on his mantle to his son who did the same to his own son, and it went on like this, to this day.”

Rose was still confused, “Well, even if they had a super soldier and a magic absorbent metal. I don’t understand how they became the most advanced nation in the world.”

I gave her a proud smile, “That’s because the metal opened a lot of avenues in front of them. By experimenting on it, they begun to figure out how the physical world worked. With Vibranium, they could create tools and small machines that would have been impossible at the time. The Wakandans used the metal to develop technology far ahead of anything at the time. They also kept the rest of the world under observation, studied the works of mathematics, physics and the rest of the sciences, and worked further on them on their own, to advance themselves even further. They’re not smarter than anyone else on the planet, they just have more tools at their disposal. In the end, the country decided to hide itself from the world, in an effort to avoid dealing with the chaos that spread everywhere. They were content with the way their country was and chose a policy of non-interference. They even created a cloaking field that allowed them to hide in plain sight, an illusion of poverty and suffering that the rest of the world sees.”

My explanation was done in a bitter tone, with a hint of anger. I really didn’t like that place, not because of a lack of beauty, because it was one of the most beautiful places on the planet, but because of their willful and severe isolation from the rest of the world. Rose had noted this and asked, “From your tone, I can tell that you don’t like them. Why is that?”

“It’s not that I don’t like them, it’s that I despise their hypocrisy. They take and keep on taking from the world and yet they give nothing back. They use the works of Isaac Newton, Nicholas Tesla, Albert Einstein, and Erwin Schrodinger, in their designs. They started to adopt our versions of mathematics, and physics, they took them and incorporated them into their Vibranium based technology. Can you imagine what these geniuses could do if they had access to Vibranium themselves, if they had the knowledge that the Wakandans had? They would have made miracles, and yet that single country had chosen that they knew better, that they were better than the outsiders, who they barely regarded as savages.”

I continued my rant, “But that’s not all of it. They did not even attempt to help their neighboring countries. Even when people were being kidnapped to be enslaved, they did nothing. They simply shut their borders and ignored the problem. You don’t understand how rich and powerful this nation really is. They make their clothes using Vibranium! Clothes! And it’s not just the royals that do so, the commoners in this country wear clothes made of vibranium as if it was cotton. The value of the Queen’s wardrobe alone could uplift the entirety of Africa if it was sold to the outside world. Truth be told, I avoid this place when I can, not because I fear them or anything as ridiculous as that, it’s just that every time I go there, I want to burn it to the ground. But now, the gap between their technology and the technology of the outside world, is slowly getting smaller. And one day, when they’re fully caught up, Wakanda will be nothing more than a regular country, one that wasted its chance to make any kind of an impact on the world’s history. They will be remembered as nothing more than a greedy country that never even tried to help anyone outside their little society.”

Wanda looked confused, “then, why are we going there for your ritual? Didn’t you say that they hated visitors?”

Selene snorted, “that would be the case, if we were going to ask for their permission. Anyway, we’re not going to the middle of Wakanda, but to one of the locations that they don’t even know of.”

Selene really hated that place too. The arrogance that every single citizen there had towards outsiders, even ones as powerful as Selene and myself, was very grating. Not to mention how stupid it was to antagonize people who could raze your entire country to the ground on a whim. Still, it was one of the most advanced locations on the planet, and Selene and I thought to check it out. The place was extremely advanced for its time, but the xenophobia was so irritating that we ended up leaving after just a week. After that we only dealt with the royal family. But even then, their smug tones of superiority had almost gotten Selene to burn the place to the ground more than once.

With that in mind, I chose to elaborate on Selene’s explanation, “There’s a place, in the middle of a hill of Vibranium in Wakanda that people avoided like the plague. They called it the empty chasm, a cavern fully surrounded by pure vibranium, that absorbed any kind of energy that got released inside. This is, as far as I know, the only place in the world that’s completely untainted by ambient magic. The point of me doing the ritual there, is that it simplifies the ritual enormously. Not only does no energy whatsoever contaminate the ritual, but it also provides a place for my magic to be absorbed after my magic is fully drained. I could have done so artificially, but it would have made an already extremely complicated ritual increase its complexity exponentially, that’s not to mention the higher risk of failure.”

Rose exclaimed, “So, you’re using the fact that it’s a magically clean room, and that the vibranium around you will also absorb your magic after it’s drained, to your advantage, meaning that you didn’t have to take that into account when you designed the ritual. Merlin, that is absolutely genius. I never thought that something as simple as the location of a ritual could simplify or complicate it.”

I shrugged, “A ritual is, at its core, a spell. In this case, the ritual is based on alchemy, I’m sacrificing the celestial seed to alter my magic core into a core of cosmic energy. An equivalent exchange, but for me to alter my core, it must be empty of energy, and hopefully of Death’s imprint. It’s only logical; if you want to repaint a bowl, it cannot have any food inside it. It’s the same thing with the core.”

Rose then asked me, “What about the magic that is actually used to perform the ritual, how are you going to supply it without any ambient magic around?”

The question was quite logical, even if one was an expert in ritual magics. It didn’t stem from a lack of knowledge but from a consensus that spells are never used to alter a wizard’s own magic. It was logical in a way, a magic that casts a spell that affects itself creates a paradox that would undoubtedly kill the caster in an effort to resolve itself. Since I was stuck in changing my own magic, by that logic, the ritual couldn’t be powered by my own magic, which is why it’s a purely alchemical ritual meaning that my own magic isn’t used. Alchemy is based on the concept of equivalent exchange, but in a permanent way. It isn’t powered by a wizard’s magic, but with the ambient magic. The wizard merely sends a spark to activate the ritual, nothing more. In an environment without ambient magic, I merely needed to substitute the power source to ensure that the alchemical exchange happens without issues.

I gave her a proud look, “A very good question, Rose. It’s quite simple, like I said, vibranium is a metal that absorbs energy, including magic. I have in my possession an ingot of vibranium that I have filled to the brim with magical energy. I put it over a few ley lines and made sure that no other types of energy except for magic gets absorbed by the ingot itself. I will be using it as a power source for the ritual. With that said, the ritual itself will be isolated magically from the rest of the area, right after my magic is drained. This way, I will have no chance of contamination, a viable power source for the ritual, and a viable alchemical sacrifice.”

With that said, I steeled myself and nodded, “Alright, I’ve put this off for long enough. It’s time for me to get going.”

The moment I said this, Wanda and Rose had leapt to give me a hug. Jean just gave me a respectful nod. The redhead still hadn’t gotten over the fact that I was her teacher and she never acted familiarly with me, especially since she’s ‘secretly’ dating Wanda, my daughter.

I stifled the idea of messing with her. It wasn’t the time for this. Bucky offered me his hand and I took it, “Thank you.”

I nodded at him. I looked towards my love, Selene, who was a lot paler than usual and looked quite green. She had unshed tears in her eyes. She jumped at me and kissed me. She gave me an intense look but didn’t say anything. She didn’t need to. I could feel it through our telepathic bond. Feelings of unconditional love, fear, and worry.

I gave her a hesitant smile and turned away. I created a portal towards Central Africa, “See you on the other side.”

I stepped through and went forward. I could only hope that tomorrow, I would still be myself when I came back to them.