~IV~

"Oh hey, you shaved - looks nice," Kat commented the next time she and Stephen saw each other.

"Thanks." Stephen rubbed his hand over his clearer jaw, now baring a sharp goatee.

"Ready for another day?"

"Always." He followed her out into the training courtyard. "Mordo and I were talking about relics."

"Ah-" There was a glimmer in her eyes. "And?"

"What are your relics?"

That glimmer now turned into a full-on glow. "I have the Rings of Origin-" She held out her hands and the rings on her fingers shimmered with her mention of them. "Stylish and useful. And I also have the Sash of Old-" The colourful, patterned piece of fabric draped over her shoulder and wrapped around her waist and tied. "-Also stylish."

"I've also been dueling with Mordo."

"Ah, let's see what you've learned then-"

They face each other and both struck a fighting stance. She made the first move, jumping forward and kicking.

The duel lasted for several minutes, flashes of magic glowing between them.

It all came to an abrupt halt when she struck him, in a burst of sudden and strange red light, and as a result he went flying back across the compound, landing hard on the stone ground.

"Master Ekaterina!" The Ancient One stood nearby, having seen the whole thing.

As for Kat, she seemed to snap out of some sort of trance. "Stephen! Are you all right?!" She rushed to help him to his feet, clearly feeling immense guilt.

"Yeah. Are you okay?"

"I-I'm sorry, I got a little carried away there. Excuse me-" And with that she fled, head hanging.

Confused, and concerned, Stephen turned to face the Ancient One, who was wearing a deeply concerned look of her own.

"STOP!"

Kat, Wong and Mordo all rushed into the library where Stephen had just been casting a spell with the Eye of Agamotto.

"Tampering with continuum probabilities is forbidden!" Mordo cried.

"I was just doing exactly what it said in the book-"

"What did the book say about the dangers of performing that ritual?" Wong demanded.

"I don't know, I hadn't gotten that far yet..."

"Temporal manipulations can create branches in time. Unstable dimensional openings, spatial paradoxes, time loops! You want to get stuck reliving the same moment over and over again forever? Or never even having existed at all?"

"Mordo, that's enough," Kat cut in. "Now Stephen must pay for violating our practices."

Stephen looked between Wong and Mordo - he didn't like the look in her eyes. This was the most serious he'd ever seen her.

"Not really, I'm joking. You must know, however, how dangerous your actions were."

"They really should put the warnings before the spell..."

"Your curiosity could have gotten you killed!" Mordo continued his rant. "Could have killed all of us! You weren't manipulating the space-time continuum, you were breaking it."

"We do not tamper with natural law," Wong added. "We defend it."

"How did you do that?" Kat asked Stephen.

"I've got a photographic memory, that's how I got my M.D. and Ph.D. at the same time."

"Show off."

"What you just did, takes more than a good memory - you were born for the mystic arts," Wong told him.

"And yet, my hands still shake."

"For now."

"Not forever?"

"We're not prophets-"

"Well then when are you going to start telling me what we are?" Stephen demanded.

The three Masters exchanged a glance. "He's ready."

"While heroes like the Avengers protect the world from physical dangers, we sorcerers safeguard it against more mystical threats," Wong explained once all four of them were gathered in the main hall of the compound, the centre of it, casting an image into the air to go along with his explanation. "The Ancient One is the latest in a long line of Sorcerers Supreme, going back thousands of years to the father of the mystic arts, the mighty Agamotto."

Stephen turned to Kat. "Your ancestor." She nodded.

"Yes, and the same sorcerer who created the eye you so recklessly borrowed," Wong continued. "Agamotto built three Sanctums in places of power, where great cities now stand: that door leads to the Hong Kong Sanctum." He pointed to the three doors surrounding them. "That door to the New York Sanctum-"

"New York?"

"Yes, your hometown. And that one to the London Sanctum. Together, the Sanctums generate a protective shield around our world."

"The Sanctums protect the world, and we sorcerers protect the Sanctums," Kat explained.

Stephen's brow furrowed. "From what?"

"Other dimensional beings that threaten our universe."

"Like Dormammu?" Stephen asked.

"Where did you learn that name?" Mordo demanded.

"I just read it in The Book of Cagliostro, why?"

Wong now altered his image. "Dormammu dwells in the Dark Dimension, beyond Time. He is the cosmic conqueror, the destroyer of worlds. A being of infinite power and endless hunger, on a quest to invade every universe and bring all worlds into his Dark Dimension. And he hungers for Earth most of all."

"Why?"

"Earth has us Sorcerers to protect it," Kat explained.

"The pages that Kaecilius stole..."

"A ritual to contact Dormammu and draw power from the Dark Dimension."

After a pause allowing him to absorb the sudden rush of information, Stephen surprised them all by laughing. "Uh, okay, okay. Um, yeah, I'm out. I came here to heal my hands, not to fight in some mystical war."

"We all came here to heal something," Kat reminded him. "And through it, we found something more."

Stephen was about to respond, but a bell suddenly tolled, cutting him off.

"London," cried Wong.

They all turned to the London doors just as they opened, a blast rising towards them from within.

Well, speaking of-

"Kaecilius!"

Thank you so much for reading and I hope you enjoyed! :)