This Merlina woman lead Khan through the streets until reaching the apparently closed run down coffee bar "I've been meaning to ask, why a coffee bar?". Merlina turned to him with a serious expression "I once stood in your place. And I, too, was disrespectful. So, might I offer you some advice? Forget everything you think you know". Khan stares at her "….Alright" he nodded. Merlina pushes the door open and Khan steps inside. Merlina leads him through what on the inside looked like an ancient well kept temple "The sanctuary of our teacher. the Ancient One" "The Ancient One?" Khan said confused but Merlina ignored him. They entered a room and two people took his jacket off him "Okay, that's a thing". A panther poured him some tea when Khan saw an elderly hedgehog sitting at a table who got up. Khan took a breath "Uh, thank you, Ancient One for seeing me" "Your very welcome" the panther in front of him said. Khan looked back to her as she smiled pleasantly "Please, call me Ebony. Merlina seems to like my titles more than I do". She nodded to Merlina "Thank you, Mistress Merlina". Merlina bowed her head and stepped back as the hedgehog left the room.
Ebony turned back to Khan "Mr Khan" "Uh… Doctor, actually". Khan was about to drink the tea when "Well, no, not anymore, surely. Isn't that why you're here?". Khan stopped as Ebony continued "You've undergone many procedures. Seven, if I'm not mistaken" "Yes….". He took a drink "It's good tea by the way". Ebony poured herself one "Yes". Khan felt like he should cut to the chase "Did you heal an old male fox named Cliff? A paralyzed man?" "In a way" "You helped him to walk again. He had a complete C7-C8 spinal cord injury. How could you possibly correct that?". Ebony walked back over to him "Well, I didn't correct it. He couldn't walk. I convinced him that he could" "You're suggesting it was psychosomatic?" "When you reattach a severed nerve is it you who heals it back together or the body?". Khan didn't get what she was getting at "It's the cells" "The cells are only programmed to put themselves back together in very specific ways. What if I told you your own body could be convinced to put itself back together in all sorts of ways?". Khan's eyes opened wide "You're talking about cellular regeneration. That's bleeding edge medical tech. Is that why you're working here? Without a governing medical board? Just how experimental is your treatment?". Ebony paused and then smirked "Quite" "So, you've figured out a way to reprogram nerve cells to self-heal?" "No, Mr Khan. I know how to reorient the spirit to better heal the body". Khan's face quickly dropped "The spirit?" "That's right" "Al-Alright. Where do we start". Ebony opened a book showing a spiritual map of the human body "You don't like it?", he scoffed "No. It's really good. It's just, I've seen it before in gift shops". Khan sighed and walked away "I spent my last ring getting here, one-way ticket and you're talking to me about healing through belief" "You're a man looking at the world through a keyhole. You've spent your whole life trying to widen that keyhole to see more, to know more. Now, on hearing that it can be widened in ways you can't imagine you reject the possibility".
Khan scoffed "No, I reject it because I do not believe in fairy tales, chakras or energy or the power of belief. There is no such thing as spirit! We are made of matter and nothing more. You're just another tiny, momentary speck within an indifferent universe". Ebony continued to smile "You think too little of yourself" "Oh, you think you see through me, do you? Well, you don't". He stood right in front of her "But I see through you" he was about to push her chest. She calmly moves his hand away and presses her hand against his chest. A glowing transparent version of Khan flew out of his body. Khan stared at his hands and then at his own body. He was hovering in the air trying to desperately comprehend what was happening. He was suddenly pulled back inside his body. He backed away scared from Ebony "What did you just do to me?". Ebony remained calm "I pushed your astral form out of your physical form" "What's in that tea?" "Honey". Khan looked around bewildered "What just happened?" "For a moment, you entered the astral dimension. A place where the soul exists apart from the body" "Why are you doing this to me?". Ebony stepped in front of him "To show you just how much you don't know. Open your eye". She touches his forehead with her thumb and Khan is suddenly launched upwards through the roof of the building and starts to panic "OH, SHIT! What's… This isn't happening!". He was in space but then saw a butterfly casually flying in front of him. H
He reaches out and touches it when he was suddenly flung through a vortex. He screams and hears "His heart rate is getting dangerously high" it sounded like Merlina. Khan is suddenly sitting in a chair back at the temple as if nothing had happened. Ebony was standing next to him "He looks alright to me". Before Khan could say anything he is blasted back into space "You think you know how the world works? You think that this material universe is all there is?". Khan's body shatters into a million pieces and is pulled into a wormhole "What is real? What mysteries lie beyond the reach of your senses? At the root of existence mind and matter meet". The fingertips of Khan's hands start to grow more hands which grow more from their fingertips. The hand begins to envelope him "This universe is only one of an infinite number. Worlds without end. Some benevolent and life giving. Others filled with malice and hunger. Dark places where powers older than time lie ravenous and waiting". Glowing yellow eyes stare directly at Khan "Who are you in this vast multiverse, Mr Khan?". He crashes back into the temple with Ebony standing over him "Have you seen that before in a gift shop?". Khan slowly rises to his knees trying to calm himself. He holds out his quivering hands "Teach me" he begged. Ebony stares down at him "No".
Khan is thrown back outside with his coat and bag "No. NO!". He runs back to the door and bashes his hands against them "NO! Open the door! Please!".