This chapter is in a new POV... and yes, that remark about what 'strange sorcerer supreme times we live in' is totally a satire of our world!
No copyright infringement is intended.
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When the new Sorcerer Supreme asked her about it later, she could not clearly say how she had found that artifact - it had been years ago, and it had been all but forgotten - but she was aware of the moment someone found out. That was when they started to hunt her.
She remembered the weeks they had hunted and she had eluded in a daze of movement as she had been fleeing for her life. She knew enough to understand that she couldn't just give them the artifact - not that they would have let her live if she did. She knew that much, too.
She had been aware of the rumours, even in her isolated existence with little practise of magic - whispers that the sorcerer supreme had fallen - but she had not believed it. Surely, that woman was eternal. As she fled she had found out not only that this was true, but that there had been a replacement, and she had been doing her best to find out where to find this new Socrerer Supreme, knowing that she could not risk approaching Kamar-Taj without knowing if there was a master there who could help her. It was far too obvious a move for that.
Finally, she had found out that the new Sorcerer Supreme was a man called Strange, and by all accounts, he seemed to actually be strange, as well.
Not only had the man employed a few astounding techniques even during his yet short career, he apparently insisted to be referred to as 'Doctor' Strange, not merely 'Master'. And, a piece of vital information, she had found out that this new leader made his home in New York, in the Sanctum there. Armed with this new knowledge she had been making her way towards the reported home of this man. She had almost made it.
She still did not understand quite how it happened, but it did seem like she had - when barely getting away from her attackers, wounded - been brought to the one hospital in the huge city where there was a doctor on staff who not only knew about sorcerers and sorcery, but had been both wise and resourseful enough to call Strange. Elice could have told her that she had done so because she recognised her injuries from what had happened to the Ancient One, but the young fleeing sorcerer did not know this until much later.
She only knew that she had never in her life been so relieved as when Strange appeared in that hospital doorway, accepting the innocent-looking trinket into his care, and her into his protection.
She thought of that moment when she watched the female doctor follow the new, male (a male Sorcerer Supreme, what times we live in!) Sorcerer Supreme into his study, forgetting for a moment about her fellow student and the task they had been practising.
She had never respected anyone as much as she had respected the Sorcerer Supreme who had led them during so many years: and the more moments like these she spent under his roof and his tutelage, the more she respected her choice for her replacement, as well. They should have known that The Ancient One would have never left them in the care of anyone less than remarkable, even if he was differently so than she herself had been.
That was not a bad thing, either; change is scary and never easy, but how else would anything ever move? And without movement, what life is there? Without movement, even living things fossilise. With a smile, she responded to Elice's questioning glance with reassurance and turned back to her practising. She was the first to admit how rusty she was: if one does not use ones gifts, after all - they fossilise.