Chapter 02 The only dead thing that smells sweet

Doctor Stephen Strange, the Sorcerer Supreme, landed on the floor of the New York Sanctum with a thud and dignity. He has gathered himself most graciously, even though no one was watching, ignored all the soring spots that would tomorrow blossom into colourful ecchymoses and headed for his study. He knew very well he still had plenty of time to read some more ancient books or less ancient neurology journals before the Cloak would come after him sulking over the fact that Stephen did not allow proper punishment that would be being caught by the Cloak right above the surface of water and instead he showed off by immediately creating portal to the Sanctum beneath himself. Last time he did that, the Cloak actually made effort to specifically find a book with a word 'show-off' and pointed it with one of its corners.

Wong peeked inside.

"Did something fall?"

"Nope." answered flatly Strange.

"Funny, I'd swear I heard a thud." Wong narrowed his eyes even further.

"Must be old age." replied Strange serenely.

Wong decided not to dignify that unoriginal gibe with any answer and disappeared back in his library. Strange has fished out the book recounting the past encounters with the legendary race called Timelords who were supposed to be able to travel between universes without the use of any magical artefacts, only by the means of their weird living timemachines that has caught his attention earlier. The book sadly was no scientific work, merely the stories of different people who allegedly has met a Timelord that were put together by some interested in this topic sorcerer. Still it might prove to be a compelling lighter read that could be followed with some research if the topic indeed appeared to be as interesting as it seemed.

"There is an email from the Hong Kong Sanctum again, Strange!" came Wong's shout.

"Just ignore it, it'll go away!"

"You really can't just treat your fellow sorcerers like that! We might need their help in the future!"

"Right! Cause they were so goddamn useful last time!"

"Well, we still might need to borrow money from them one day!"

Strange rolled his eyes.

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The book revealed itself to be less fairy-talish than he dreaded it would be but still less based on actual facts than he hoped for. Most of the stories weren't even told by actual eye-witnesses of any Timelord activity, but by their progeny, sometimes quite far. Still, the author managed to get into his hands some manuscripts written hundreds of years ago, which he had subsequently tested with all means available to him very thoroughly and his conclusion was that indeed these humans had to travel in time and space, since there was no other logical explanation of their knowledge of species from far away planets or modern inventions. The book ended with expression of regret that the author had never managed to get from the Sorcerer Supreme the permission to use the Eye of Agamoto to go back in time in order to verify the stories and meet a Timelord personally (or a sorcerer who thought it fun to mess with people pretending to be one).

'Well now, that can be rectified now, can't it' smiled smugly Strange.

He put down the book and looked at the time. It was truly getting late, but he had suspected he still had at least an hour before the Cloak would return moping. He got to know it so well through all these months... was it a year already? He thought about it for a second and it had striken him. Tomorrow shall be exactly one year since he's met the Cloak during his fight with Kaecillus.Which also meant it was exactly one year since the Cloak has, in all probability, saved his life. Stephen always had perfect memory for the anniversairies, (he just sucked at making them enjoyable as couple of his exes had put it), so it rather surprised him he had not thought about the date before. But then again it wasn't his typical relationship was it?

„For starters, it managed to last a whole year without me getting dumped, which is in itself most uncanny." he murmured to himself sarcastically.

Whole year, huh? Stephen was never the biggest enthusiast of reminiscing, but it was hard not to wander back to the very beginning of their companionship on the occasion like that, especially since it has evolved quite a lot since their early days.

He put down the book, mentally returning to the first months after the bargain with Dormammu and becoming the Sorcerer Supreme.

There was a lot to learn back then. He thought he had devoured thousands of pages even before Dormammu, but it still was nothing compared to the knowledge that still lied out there, in countless books, the knowledge that might prove indispensible during another attack on their realm. So he read and read and read and then he practiced and experimented with the spells all days in Mirror Dimension. But the knowledge lied not only in books. He would never be considered genius in any field if he barely learned from what has already been written and discovered by someone else. Thus, he absorbed everything that surrounded him from his own experiences and experiments with different dimensions, through observing other Sorcerers and listening to their countless stories (boring however many revealed to be) to analizing available instruments and devices.

And it appeared that when it came to the lattest, there was nothing more fascinating than the Cloak of Levitation. It didn't take to be a Master in mystic arts to realize how incredibly advanced and intricate spells were needed to create an object like that – self-aware, understanding human language, capable of levitation magic, incredibly resilient both to mechanic tears and unforgiving working of time, creative in helping its Master. It was truly amazing and immediately became center of Strange's attention. Through grasping the nature and 'coding' of the spells that made the Cloak Stephen would be able to learn how to weave most advanced magic, how to create objects powerful and self-sufficient that could aid him in a fight with his future enemies. And obviously help him understand better the nature of magic and reality.

At least that was the plan. Plans however, as life has already proved him enough times, tended to collide with reality with the power and sturdiness of your average soap bubble. The Cloak revealed to be impenetrable. None of the spells worked on it. He couldn't check its magical structure with analytic spells, he couldn't examine currently active magical formulas, he even couldn't use the Eye of Agamoto on it to rewind it back to the moment of its creation (thank God Wong didn't know about that attempt). Its nature was completely hermetic and obscure to Strange and his abilities.

Finally, after days of failed experiments on the Cloak, the relic finally took pity on Strange, or maybe simply had finally had enough of the attempts on taking it apart and brought Strange some very old book on Infinity Stones just to tap the title couple of times decisively. Apparently it was created with the power of the Stones and more than one, since the Eye of Agamoto did not manage to affect it. No wonder no ordinary magic would work on it.

Strange was by then familiar with the stories of the Infinity Stones – the unimaginably powerful objects from the dawn of this universe that could bend reality at the will of their holder. It irritated him immensely however that the available knowledge about them was so deficient. The sanctums, obviously, had very detailed books regarding the Time Stone since it was in possesion of Earth sorcerers and also few books about the Space Stone, known also as the Tesseract, but there was nothing but most general information and stories bordering on legends about the other gems. Beside vague description of their overall power, appearance and some ancient, not sounding very reliable tales about some circle of Masters that were supposed to own them once (but suspiciously conveniently instead of trying to rule the world with such power or at least protect their reality as they should, one day they all just seemed to disappear) there was no data about the exact spectrum of their power, possible spells, precise description of the ways they affected reality or even their whereabouts. One thing however did not disappoint Strange – in every book it was extremely emphatically stressed that the Stones were extremely dangerous and handling even one of them without specifically designed for such purpose device would most likely destroy any happy-go-lucky fool and even with said devices handling more than one at a time might prove fatal. Strange strongly suspected it may have been written out of worry of concentrating too much power in one hand rather than actual worry for potential stone-hunter's good health. He sensed it in abundant use of words like 'most likely', 'probably' or 'might'. 'So the writers of the books either did not know for sure what were the exact conditions of using a stone without proper device or using more than one stone or they did know but preferred to discourage people from experimenting with them' he concluded.

He did bothered Wong and some other sorcerers about the subject, but dropped it promptly after getting suspicious, wary looks from many of them and a warning from Wong not to undermine his position further.

„Further?! What do you mean 'further'?" demanded Strange, angry and contemptuous. Did they already forget who saved their sorry asses?

Wong gave him his trademark emotionless stare.

"No one denies your talents, no one doubts your morality and no one has forgotten your feat."

„...but?"

„You're still young."

Strange bristled.

„It's mere fact." stated flatly Wong. „You're young and young Sorcerers often rush for knowledge and power without pondering enough the consequences. Rarely ever there has been a Sorcerer Supreme of your age and there is worry among many you may misuse your power even if bona fide. It has happened before in our history. Your inquiries about the Stones make them concerned that you might be choosing rather dark path. Seeking ultimate power."

„Ridiculous."

„Anyway, we have one Infinity Stone and no one sane should want to have more than one."

„They're just jealous of my abilities and how quickly I've mastered what took them years." snapped Strange, not convinced at all.

„They're not jealous, however they do take you for an ass you are." ended the discussion Wong putting back on his earphones.

It was worth having it even if only for hearing Wong say word 'ass'.

So, instead, Strange proceeded to sneak into other sanctums to search for any magically hidden books or scrolls. But there was nothing. Either no one ever managed to get any actual information about other legendary gems or they've made sure to destroy everything concerning them.

Strange just loathed to give up. He didn't want to give up on his hands, he didn't want to give up on Christine, he didn't want to give up to Dormammu. But it seemed there was nothing he could do about the Stones for the time being. Maybe he'd find some clue researching something completely different. It has happened before. So he dived into other fields of magical knowledge leaving both Stones and Cloak's nature be.

Until the fated night has come.