The Book Keeper
by TimeAndLife21
Chapter 2
She was at one of the proving grounds with quite a lot of other students.
Stephen closed the book that was in his hands and walked to the edge of the grounds and saw that various students were listening to her lecture. It was strange, no pun intended, because he had never seen her out here other than the few times he had seen her in the library. He decided to come closer to hear what she was saying.
"- arts is to not only defend yourself but others as well. You will find that when it comes to certain branches of magic, some branches are well suited for others, some are not." She spoke resolutely.
"Master Anaiah, what branches are you proficient in?" A student asked.
"I am well versed in offensive magics, defensive magics and Healing magics. Granted, I've been able to recently master the Arts of Shapeshifting, though I do not recommend it for novices. Not unless you want to end up with ears and a tail of a cat, believe me, that is an unpleasant experience." She smirked.
Even Stephen cracked a smile at that.
"Now, I will end this by telling you that even if a certain branch of the Mystical Arts doesn't suit you. That doesn't mean that your hard work has went to waste. It just means that you have a weak skill that just may help you live to fight another day." She spoke clearly.
"I cannot wield certain Mystical Arts. I admit that, and yes, I have a hard time working on such difficult spells and the like just so that I could be proficient in the Mystic Art. But I learned that if one branch of the arts doesn't suit me, I would go for another branch that is similar and would test it out." She explained.
"As such, I'm to tell you that you choose to be here for a reason. To learn and to expand yourselves to all possibilities." She smiled gently.
He recognized those words. The Ancient One spoke similar words to him.
She had dismissed the group and they left, chattering excitedly and bounded off elsewhere. He sided up to her and cleared his throat.
"Yes, Doctor Strange?" She asked as she turned to look up at him.
He looked down at her and saw the still intense look in her eyes. He wondered what had happened to her to have such a look.
"I didn't know you could do lectures." He spoke.
"Only when the Ancient One is busy. She is currently in a meeting with a few other Masters at the moment. When she is unavailable, I or other Masters that are not involved in such meetings will take over." She explained before turning away and walking.
He followed her briskly, for a tiny thing, she was fast.
"So how did you get the position of Book Keeper?" He asked.
"Since I was a child, I would pour everything into my learning. The Librarian…" She paused only slightly. "He saw my desire to learn and become much more than I was. So he would let me stay in the Studies and the Library as much as I wanted, all while caring for the books, tomes, and scrolls that reside in there. When I was 18, I was given the Position of Book Keeper to work under him. I have been doing my job since then."
"Until recently…" Strange pointed out.
She stopped abruptly and looked up at him with venom in her eyes and he had a feeling that he insulted her. But then the venom disappeared and she sighed.
"I was in the Dragon's Triangle in Japan dealing with a rather...supernatural being there. A Queen who had managed to have a ritual of passing her soul to possess the body of another was cursed in a half life. Granted, the situation resolved rather quickly, but not quick enough for me to return here to stop Kaecillius." She frowned.
"But, The past is past. Whatever may come our way we will be ready." She said determined.
"You seem to take this pretty seriously. Why be involved in something like this? It's not as if the fate of the world is in your hands." He spoke.
"That's what you believe." She smiled at him.
Stephen decided to change the conversation. He wasn't going anywhere really if he was going to continue the subject with her. He did have a few questions concerning what happened not too long ago when he was sparring with Mordo.
"How does a relic choose you?" He asked.
At this, she seemed to have a pained expression on her face.
"Uh...do you want the truth or the blatant lie." She asked with a look that seemed she sucked on a lemon.
"The truth?" He asked hesitantly. "I was sparring with Mordo not too long ago and he told me that the relic chooses you."
"I see." She deadpanned. "While it is true that the relic chooses you…" She paused and shook her head. "I will warn you...some relics are more...sentient than others."
"Sentient?" He looked at her in confusion.
"Well, some Relics are not 'awake' so to speak. They only truly awake when comes time for them to choose their partner." She spoke as she stopped to turn around.
"I've had my relics since i was 16 and believe me...it's not all fun and games." She chuckled.
"Relics? You can have more than one?" He asked.
"Some Masters have 4 relics, others have only the one. I have two surprisingly. But they are a pain." She shook her head.
"What are they?" He asked curiously.
She laughed, a low tone that sounded pleasant to his ears.
"Oh no. Sorry. Mordo may have told you of his relic, if anything, My relics are more...shall we say obnoxious and are very difficult to get along with." She chuckled. "I'm not showing you my relics."
"And why not?" He asked stubbornly.
"Because I truly do not want to bring them out unless I'm either sparring with the other Masters or defending the Sanctum Sanatoriums with my life on the line." She frowned at him.
"Surely your relics are not that bad." He questioned.
"Trust me Doctor Strange...you do NOT want to cross weapons with me." She smirked darkly at him.
That made him stop in his tracks. That smirk promised him that if he was to spar with her...he should make sure that he can hold up against her. For some reason...he wanted to see her in action.
"Well I guess we'll see about that." He smiled back at her.
She gave another laugh.
"Ah, Doctor Strange, you are an interesting man. I do hope that you will improve and surpass in everything that you do." She smiled, a genuine smile, before turning away and leaving him alone.
"What are Anaiah's relics?" Stephen asked Mordo.
This question surprised Mordo as he turned around and looked at Stephen with a slightly scared look in his eyes.
"Out of all the questions you can ask me, you ask that?" Mordo asked before laughing at him.
"If a relic has to choose me, I'm curious of what it could be…" He wondered.
Stephen could take a gander of what his relic could be. A quarterstaff? A sword? A mace or an ax even?
"Anaiah is...sensitive about her relics." Mordo chuckled.
"Oh?" Stephen inquired.
"Well, I'm not going to say anything, but I will tell you that when her relics choose her, let's just say that she wasn't really pleased." Mordo spoke before he took an apple from his pouch and started eating it.
"What are they?" Stephen asked.
"If she didn't tell you, I'm not telling you. I'm not risking myself to tell you. If she found out that I told you, she would have my soul. Literally." Mordo said before tossing the apple core away and turning to a book.
This just made Stephen a little frustrated. The Book Keeper is a mystery alright, but he would let this slide for now. He just needed to focus on these Sanskrit incantations now.
TAL21: Okay, so I took a bit of leeway with the relics here. As far as I know and what the movie has offered, the relics choose the wielders. So this translated in my mind what if the wielder doesn't like to use the relics unless absolutely necessary? Well I'm not telling you what her relics are yet. I will tell you this... the two relics she has are not only of certain religious interpretations of it (not to mention some personifications of them as well), but certainly not to overpower her. She doesn't like using her relics unless she has to. I'll leave it to you to figure out what her relics are. Because I will tell you that they are quite interesting and funny. While Strange has the Cloak of Levitation (and also by extension the Eye of Agamotto) he does have an arsenal of weapons in his use in the comics and hopefully we'll see more of them in future movies. Again, This story is pretty much drabbles/oneshots following the movie to the best of my memory until I can get my hands on the DVD/Blu-ray (which is coming out in February as I did my research...BALLS!). So if anything seems a bit or more off to you, that is why. As I have said before, I will reboot this story once i get my hands on the dvd. So no worries there. ON TO THE SHOUT OUTS!
JinxWriter: Ah yes, the movie is definitely life that is for sure! Seriously, we know so much about our main avengers superheroes but what about the lesser known ones? Doctor Strange is one of my top favorite superheroes next to Iron man. XD I have a pretty decent idea where to go with this story but we will see. XD
awesome pichu: Yeah, I did a bunch of referencing to where the placement of Doctor Strange's timeline is. I am a firm believer that it is sometime a little bit before Iron Man 2 and it spans to after or a little before Civil War Ends. So I have a lot of room to play in with this. XD
Superdani4Ever: I'm glad you had the chance to watch the movie. Trippy as balls, but hey that was the beauty of visuals in it. And Yeah, I feel bad for Mordo in the end. I know for a fact that some versions of Mordo is that he was a fanatic follower of Dormanmu, but this MCU version of him is a lot better to be honest. I like the way they presented him too. XD And don't worry, you'll see some interactions between the Ancient one and Anaiah through Stephen's pov. I'm thinking of putting an origin chapter for Anaiah, but that won't be for a while. XD Thank you for reviewing!
TAL21: Okay, now that we are done with the shout outs, i hope you readers liked this one. Because seriously, If you haven't noticed, I am obsessed with Doctor Strange. I have been a fan of him for a long time but nothing really did much justice for him save for the Animated 2007 movie that I have. So, I'll se you guys in the next chapter and please leave Detailed Reviews please! I love hearing from you guys and long reviews give me ideas to come up with new chapters. :) See you later!
Question Time!: There were a lot of easter eggs in the movie but one really stood out to me. In the beginning, Strange was driving distracted. Granted the car crash was a bit overkill, but in real life, Distracted driving will cost lives if you are not careful. PLEASE DON'T TEXT AND DRIVE! What are the easter eggs in the movie that you managed to spy?
KEEP ON READING AND WRITING!