Hi all! I know it's been ridiculously too long, but I had a death in my close family and have been fighting depression for almost a year. I'm finally feeling better and able to deal with some of the harder days by writing. It took me a while to create anything that wasn't an angsty mess, but I'm finally feeling better and here's the result!
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Stephen seems as much in awe of the massive difference inside Kamar-Taj as I was. He stands in the center of the main room, staring at the elegant woodwork and brilliant colors hidden behind the tumbledown façade. But the thing he's clearly most impressed with is the Ancient One herself.
"Uh, thank you, Ancient One... for... seeing me..." He's clearly at a loss for words. From the power of his astral field, I think he must be able to sense hers. The fire elements are probably reacting with each other. I know that when two people who share an element base interact, the result is either a seamless blending and cohesion of magic…or an explosive disaster.
"Thank you, Master Mordo. Thank you, Apprentice Avery." Her soft voice is relaxing, and the rest of the adrenaline from the fight falls away from me. I can feel her reaching out to me. She knows I found the lifeline I was seeking, and I know she has questions. But she wants me, for now, to leave her with the newcomer.
I step off to the training floor and begin a series of slow shield-conjuring spells. They're my favorites. I think the feeling of being able to protect myself is the reason I like them so much. I feel safe in a way that is so rare since the bombing that it's more precious than gold to me. When I'm creating a shield, I know that no one can touch me through it, and it's relaxing. So relaxing, in fact, that I fall into the astral plane often now while doing it.
I jump when I realize I've fallen in and see the lifelines again. The red one is pulsating, and almost without meaning to, I reach out and tap in. The result is a tinny, faraway sound, like I'm listening to a bad radio transmission in the field.
"You're talking about cellular regeneration. That's... bleeding-edge medical tech."
His voice isn't the same as it was when I heard it in the alley. I must be hearing what he hears in his head when he speaks. I'm literally in his mind. The feeling is disturbing in the extreme, and I back out fast. But I'm too curious for my own good.
"I spent my last dollar getting here on a one-way ticket, and you're talking to me about healing through belief?" I drop my hands. He sees magic just like Mordo did. A physical power to be used for one's own ends. Something to be exploited. Not something to be touched, valued, interacted with, a living thing.
"You're a man who's looking at the world through a keyhole, and you spent your whole life trying to widen that keyhole. To see more, know more. And now, on hearing that it can be widened in ways you can't imagine, you reject the possibility?" The Ancient One sounds as insulted as I feel.
"No, I reject it because I do not believe in fairy tales about chakras, or energy, or the power of belief. There is no such thing as spirit! We are made of matter, and nothing more. We're just another tiny, momentary speck within an indifferent universe." I know I felt that way after the accident. Like I was lost and meant nothing. But this place helped me find the purpose that was already inside me that I just couldn't see.
"Oh, you think you see through me, do you? Well, you don't. But I see through you!"
And then there's an explosion of astral energy and I'm thrown across the room. I see the training room and the main room at the same time. I see Mordo watching me and the Ancient One with her hand outstretched. I was still linked to Stephen Strange when the Ancient One pushed him into the astral realm, and I'm stuck inside his head. We're falling together, backward through space and time and worlds I have never seen before, carried on the power of two fire elemental magics combining. The Ancient One's voice is in my head and his. This is insane. I'm falling next to him, and he glances sideways. I know he sees me, and there's a momentary shock in his eyes, but I doubt he'll remember that when we're falling through a forest of hands. I've had training and entered the astral dimensions, and I'm freaking out. He must be close to having a psychotic break. And then we both fall back into our bodies. I'm lying on the floor of the training room, gasping, panting, and strangely energized. That was the astral plane on a level I've never experienced. How did that happen when he doesn't even believe? And what would happen if he did?
I walk back into the main room, prepared to offer to train this Doctor Strange. I want to get back into that power, and he's the only person who's taken me there. The Ancient One wouldn't do that, she felt I wasn't ready. But he won't care. And I am ready. That experience just proved it.
"Ancient One…" I stop on the doorstep. She is watching me with mild disapproval, and he is nowhere to be seen.
"Apprentice Avery. What have you done?" She steps forward and I feel her aura tap into mine. She saw me in his mind. She knows all of it.
"I'm…I'm sorry." I stop and stare at my boots. I should know better than to ever think I can plan to go behind her back. "I didn't mean to. I was just conjuring shields. And I tapped into the astral plane and got stuck in the doctor's head."
"I saw. I have never seen that happen before without extensive training. It is…incredible power." Her eyes lose their disapproval and gain something like curiosity.
"I would humbly ask that I complete my apprenticeship by training Stephen Strange." She has been talking about me taking on an apprentice of my own and becoming a Master for some weeks now. It has been my dream since I felt the astral plane.
"I am afraid he is not…ready to be trained. I have sent him away."
I blink, and then hear a faint pounding at the door. "Please! Open the door! I believe what you showed me!"
"Not ready? Did you see the astral plane when he went in? That's stuff I never reached. He's got amazing power. And he wasn't even trying." I can't believe this. He has so much power. We can't afford to send someone with his capability away, not on the brink of war. You don't send your tanks to the back of the line when you have to clear a city.
"He does not believe. And if he did, his power is too strong for an apprentice to be responsible for. Now perhaps you should go and complete those shields."
I cannot argue with her. So I return to the training room. I don't know how long I stay there, but I've missed the meal when I come out. And I can hear Mordo and the Ancient One talking in the main room.
"5 hours later, he's still on your doorstep. There's a strength to him." Mordo is arguing in his defense, and as much frustration as I feel with that man right now, I'm grateful.
"Stubbornness, arrogance, ambition...I've seen it all before."
"He reminds you of Kaecilius?"
"I cannot lead another gifted student to power, only to lose him to the darkness."
"You didn't lose me. Or Avery. We wanted the power to defeat our enemies. You gave us the power to defeat our demons.
"We never lose our demons, Mordo. We only learn to live above them."
I step out of the shadows. "Please hear me. He is powerful. I have seen what he can do, and I believe he has potential." Both of them look at me in confusion, but make no move to stop me. "There may be dark days ahead. Perhaps Kamar-Taj could use a man like Strange."
The Ancient One nods, and I walk to the door. I can still hear Stephen behind it. "Don't shut me out." He's still pleading after all this time. He wants this. We need to train him. We need him. "I've nowhere else to go."
I open the door and he falls inside. "Stephen Strange. Welcome to Kamar-Taj, Apprentice."