Madame Xanadu smiled faintly. She did not answer directly; there was a trace of bitterness in her smile.
"My matters are not worth mentioning. Rather, it is you—within the future I have seen, your figure appears again and again."
Thea clicked her tongue softly. She was no longer the ignorant little girl who lacked magical knowledge. Considering Madame Xanadu's profession, it was not difficult to infer her current condition.
She had been divining the future frequently. For the past thousand years, she had always been like this. This was her path. If she wished to advance to a higher level, she had to possess this resolve.
In the past millennium, however, the changes were minor. The backlash from the world—or rather, from time itself—was limited. Relying on her demigod-level power, she could essentially withstand it.
But in recent years, beginning with Superman stepping fully onto the world stage, the era of great upheaval for humanity had arrived. To peer into the future at such a juncture carried consequences that were extremely far-reaching.
It was the same principle as gazing into the abyss: when you look at the future, the future also looks back at you. Those powerful beings destined to descend upon Earth—such as Hal Jordan possessed by the Spectre, Darkseid, or the Anti-Monitor—if you observe them from this point in time, they will sense it. The benevolent ones would do nothing, but for the malevolent, splitting off a thread of consciousness to observe in return was entirely possible.
Xanadu's situation was dire. She had to exert her full strength to block those gazes extending from the future. At the same time, in order to prevent even more catastrophic disasters, she had to continue divining and continue observing. This vicious cycle had caused her power to plummet dramatically.
This only strengthened Thea's determination not to let her biological father walk the path of a charlatan mystic. Thinking of Malcolm, she suddenly realized something was wrong. A woman had appeared out of nowhere, yet Old Malcolm showed no reaction at all—this was far too abnormal.
She turned her head, and an inexplicable sense of foreboding surged in her heart. The feeling appeared abruptly, without reason, and vanished just as quickly.
She saw Malcolm staring at Xanadu with a strange expression. At the moment Thea turned away, Xanadu also closed her eyes slightly, as if contemplating something.
"What's wrong with you?" Thea poked Malcolm.
The father-daughter relationship between them was good, but their manner of address was peculiar. Thea rarely called him "father," usually addressing him casually, while Malcolm simply called her by name. Outsiders would never guess they were related.
"This woman is…?" Malcolm's expression was odd. Thea actually saw a hot-blooded impulse flicker in his eyes.
Though confused, she still explained, "This is Madame Xanadu. She is the youngest sister of the Lady of the Lake."
"So similar… really similar…" Malcolm murmured, gazing at Xanadu from afar. Lacking Superman's super-hearing, Thea did not catch it clearly.
"Similar to who?"
"To Tommy's mother…"
That single sentence nearly made Thea choke on her own saliva. She froze in place. Truly words that astonish do not cease until one is shocked.
Only then did Thea realize that Xanadu's appearance here was anything but simple. She saw it too—that ambiguous, half-real, half-illusory resonance in Xanadu's eyes.
A melodramatic truth was about to be laid bare. In the future Xanadu had divined, she and Malcolm ended up together? Was that why she had appeared here, at this specific point in time?
What could Thea say? Tell them they could not be together? Judging from Malcolm's infatuated gaze and Xanadu's willingness to follow the trajectory of time, even if she argued until the heavens collapsed, they would not listen.
Moreover, the future had already been thrown off course by her own butterfly effect. In the original timeline, Malcolm should have been in Star City battling Green Arrow, Faust would still be posing as a handsome mystic in his observatory, and Xanadu would have continued her solitary journey.
Now, fate—using her hands—had linked them together, one step at a time. Mutual affection, one divining and one practicing astrology; one who had lived for ages, and another just as cunning as a fox. With the tangled connections involving Merlin, Arthur, and the Lady of the Lake, the two indeed shared deep karmic ties.
Thea felt an urge to cover her face. Taking all factors into account, they truly did seem like a match made in heaven.
"Thea, my child, I believe I have found my future goal. Back then, I failed to protect Tommy's mother. Today, I have the ability. I want to protect her," Malcolm said, stroking Thea's hair, as though speaking both to her and to himself.
Thea was torn. What could she say? Madame Xanadu's future was fraught with danger. Becoming entangled with her ran directly counter to Thea's wish to keep her family far from peril.
Images already formed in her mind: villains giving chase, while Malcolm transformed into a gust of wind, carrying Xanadu as they fled.
"Do not use astrology lightly. The damage it inflicts upon your body far exceeds imagination," Thea warned solemnly, knowing she could not stop them.
"Rest assured, Thea. I will guide him in this field. In matters of astrology, no one alive today surpasses me," Xanadu said confidently, having appeared beside them at some unknown moment.
At least she had finally stopped calling Thea a "descendant of Merlin" and addressed her by name. That should have been satisfying—but where did that tone of a close elder come from?
Thea felt a profound, world-level malice. Just days ago she had impersonated a senior relative of Constantine; now karma had come full circle. Yet seeing Malcolm's honored expression, she could not argue.
She carefully explained the uses of her magical gemstones and handed them all to Malcolm. With his greatly enhanced power, he should be able to handle any trouble that arose.
Madame Xanadu whispered a few words to Jason Blood. The knight who harbored a demon within was easily persuaded by her. The three bid farewell to Thea, and in a flash of red teleportation light, they vanished, leaving her alone.
"Everyone's gone. Who have I been working so hard for?" Thea muttered, slightly dejected. After five years of turmoil, Malcolm had finally crossed from villain to the side of justice.
Indeed, Thea believed that when Madame Xanadu later founded Justice League Dark, Malcolm would surely become one of its honored members. Among mages, he was already one who could fight—a rare type who both fought and cast spells.
With his abilities complementing Xanadu's astrology, earning a founding seat in the organization would be no problem. Perhaps if Xanadu later stepped back, Malcolm might even shoulder leadership through his own intellect.
Shaking her head, Thea left Metropolis and teleported to New York. Of the Croydon Compass she had collected earlier, only the dial and the pointer remained—one final component was missing: the lens.
Papa Midnite, the local powerbroker, had already completed the preliminary work for her and located the target in his dungeon.
A descendant of Croydon—the crucial lens was hidden within his pupil. Now that Malcolm had turned away from evil, Thea did not wish to use excessively brutal methods. Instead of gouging out the eye, she used a displacement spell combined with reverse-incantation magic to extract the lens.
The golden dial, transparent lens, and silver pointer merged seamlessly, as though they had never been separated.