The Book Keeper
by TimeAndLife21
Chapter 7
"Ouch!"
"Don't even think about it." Anaiah glared at Stephen before she snatched one of the tomes away from him and placed it back onto its rightful place on the shelves.
Stephen rubbed his shoulder (what a punch) and sighed. He wanted to expand his studies. He had managed to pass through novice to apprentice, and in less than three years and even that was a feat for many of his peers, who have been here longer. But, in order to do that, he would have to borrow books from behind the front desk. That would mean getting past Wong, and then Anaiah. Wong wasn't around at the moment, but Anaiah was placing books back, listening to an ipod. The green headphones were in her ears but still managed to get her attention when he tried taking a book out.
"I just needed…" He started to explain but was interrupted.
"No you don't. Take a break. Didn't I hear from the Ancient one that you have been overexerting yourself lately?" She gave him a pointed glare.
"She's exaggerating." Stephen rolled his eyes.
"Nope. Leave the Library, Strange. Go back to bed. Meditate, relax or something." She ordered.
"No." He said as he took a seat at the front desk.
"Suit yourself, But you are not getting your hands on another book for the time being." She spoke as she rubbed her arms.
She was determined to keep him from taking out a book, but he was just as stubborn. He is patient...he can wait her out. So he observed her, placing books away, reading a couple pages before she closed them and putting them on the shelves, all the while singing low enough for him to hear what she is listening to.
"Follow me down to the river, hey,
Take a drink, It's good
Heaven knows where the water flows
The view from here's no good.
Follow me down to the river bed
Into the open waves
Come and cleanse at the water's edge
Wash the stains away."
She has a rather pretty voice but the words evaded him. Sometimes when he did have a bit of free time, he would observe his friend...well using the term loosely. Anaiah was still a mystery even after he has been here for awhile. She would sing songs that he had never heard of before (there was no radio here in Kamar-Taj, and he would listen to Pandora or Spotify on the computer, so his music was mostly mainstream), but Anaiah's choice in music was more of the underground variety. You don't know about it unless you search for it.
He looked at the Ancient One's book collection. Each of the books has a red gem in the middle. He wondered what secret were hidden in those books. Yes, He has managed to manipulate reality and the Mystic Arts, but he wanted more. He wanted to learn more.
"Don't even think about it." Her voice echoed through his mind.
"Damn." He thought.
"Look, I can understand your need to learn more, but you have to take breaks in between. Just because you now reached apprentice levels, doesn't mean that you triple your workload. Even if you have been getting much, much better at performing spells than you were before." She spoke out.
Granted, he hadn't made anything explode in a while, his mistakes he learned from and he made sure to look over the spells with more detail and engrained it into his mind so that it wouldn't backfire upon him.
"There's a lot to learn, Anaiah. I want to continue this." He spoke up.
"See, I understand what you are going through, but you have to start taking breaks. You will pass out from overexertion and you might get yourself killed if you continue this path." She spoke harshly as she placed two books down in front of him heavily.
"I think I understand my body better than you can, thank you, Anaiah." Stephen shot back.
"I don't think you do. I've seen you use your Astral Form to continue your studies even at night, which is dangerous in of itself if you do it for prolonged periods of time... but you are pushing yourself too hard. What have you got to prove here?" She asked.
That raised his ire. He has been here for three years now, and he has yet to managed to heal his hands to go back to America to continue his career. Granted he has been reading other books to learn more of the Mystic Arts, but he was here for one thing only. Getting his hands healed. Painfully, he clenched his hands into fists.
"You don't know anything about me." He spoke up.
"Oh, yes I do. The arrogant and egotistic Doctor Strange came to Kamar-Taj to look for a miracle cure for his crippled hands, only to find endless possibilities to use the Mystic arts. But He has yet to find such a 'cure'." She mocked him.
"Does it look like I can use your help? It seems to me you have been training me because you took pity on me." Stephen growled at her.
This situation was seemingly familiar.
"Pity?" Anaiah said surprised before she narrowed her eyes at him.
"I have no pity for you, Doctor Strange. You have been pushing yourself too hard right now. And I'm trying to help you." She said calmly.
"Help me? It doesn't seem like it." He chuckled bitterly.
"Look, you should at least be thankful that you are still alive. That car crash could have be a lot worse. You could have been paralyzed, all your bones broken, lost a major organ, or hell, died." She said point-blank. "Yet, you spent your money on experimental procedures and used the last of it to come here for a last ditch effort...all for your hands and your career."
He stood up sharply, his eyes pinning her down. She stood her ground against him. Who does this woman think she is? His therapist? His conscience? She had no right to talk to him like this.
"Do you really think I wanted this?" He spat out, his anger starting to come out.
"I came here to find nothing short of a miracle to fix my hands, and I come across the Mystic Arts to be able to heal them. Yet, the only thing that is in my way, are people like you telling me to take a break." He sneered at her.
"Don't give me that, the consequences of working too hard will come back and take you down. You are a doctor and you should know better. Why not let your past go so that you can move forward?" She glared at him, her eyes flashed a dark green color.
"Like you?" He verbally attacked her. "A woman like you that has no past before she came here? Don't think I never noticed the talk that goes around here. An orphan with no memory of who she is or where she came from? Look who's trying to hold onto the past. Don't think I haven't noticed you looking for memory spells. Desperate for answers?"
The next thing he knew was being tossed out of the Library onto his back against the hard ground with Anaiah's relic pressed against his neck. It was the flat of the blade, but still dangerous nevertheless. The relic was pulsing softly and lowly. How did she managed to make it appear like that so fast?
"You know nothing about me, Stephen Strange...though I still search for answers of my past, it does me not good to dwell on it. I don't let my unknown past define me." She pressed the flat of the blade against his chin. "Now I'm forced to ban you from the Library until further notice."
"You can't do that!" He argued.
"I can and I will. You are on a forced vacation, Doctor Strange, and if I were you, I would think long and hard about the consequences of pushing yourself too far, and forgo the rumors about me." She snarled before she backed away from him and slammed the pommel of the scythe onto the ground, green whips of magic lashed at the doors of the library and symbols glowed.
"Goodbye, Doctor." She sneered before turning around and slamming the library doors shut.
He then realized why this scene was so familiar… it was the same similar things he had said to Christine… Though very different wording was used, the argument was there… He really screwed up this time.
TAL21: Well, sorry for not updating a chapter of the day. XD But hey, Work can take me out like a freight train. XD If I were you guys, I would listen to 'The River' By Thousand Foot Krutch. I personally think that song fits Stephen pretty damn well and for the Doctor Strange movie in a whole is 'A Different Kind of Dynamite' But Thousand Foot Krutch too. XD Listen to the songs. You will not be disappointed. Trust me. :) Anyways. This chapter i wanted to be a bit of a pivotal point for Stephen and Anaiah's relationship. Stephen Strange has always been a driven man. and I have been reading some fanfiction that depicts him as a man who is afraid of failure. I agree with this. And I'm also taking creative liberties by taking some things from the 2007 animated movie Doctor Strange (I recommend it to anyone who is a fan of him as I was watching it last night and my fangirling bumped up 100 percent. XD) and putting some of the things in there and placing it into this story. The Next chapter will feature Stephen apologizing to Anaiah, but after something goes wrong in Kamar-Taj. Trust me, you'll be surprised by what I'm writing right now. XD Anyways, back on point, Stephen is a man who is afraid of failure. If you look at the movie again (and even the animate one) he take on challenges and he resolves to succeed. In the beginning of the movie, when he saw that the patient still had that bullet in his brain, he resolves to get it out. Granted, it boosted his own ego, but keep in mind, he also was able to save a patients life. When he 'killed' the astral form of the Zealot through the defibrillator, he went back to his fallen enemy to see if he was still alive. Doctors do care for their patients (and depending one who they are) they are still human. Stephen is still human. He took up an oath as a Doctor to SAVE lives. Not kill them. So there's a bit of an internal conflict there for him. Which I loved in the movie (also, being a CNA in the health field, i relate to this one hundred percent). Onwards to the Shout Outs!
JinxWriter: Nope. Kaecillius isn't her father. XD Interesting prospect, but you are wrong. Keep guessing. XD
Superdani4Ever: Yeah, when i read Kaecilius past and how he came to Kamar-Taj, i felt bad for the guy. And Yes, Anaiah had a crush on a guy who is much older than her. XD Hey, I still have crushes on Harrison Ford, Robert Downey Jr., Johnny Depp, and quite a few more older actors. XD So I'm not alone in this. XD
WhiteKitsune42: So...Close. You are very close. She isn't Loki's daughter (sadly, I would have made it so, but it's much more complicated) XD But seriously, you are almost there. Keep guessing.
ShannonTheAwesomeOne: IKR!? Doctor Strange Fanfiction is seriously growing right now, and I hope that we can get to 100k status. XD I hope you keep following this story. :)
TAL21: Well that's it for the Shout Outs. I hope you guys liked the bit of conflict in this chapter. The next chapter will come out later tonight once I flesh out the details. I hope to see you guys later and PLEASE LEAVE DETAILED REVIEWS! I would love to hear from you guys and heck even point out things in this story that you really liked. I love interacting with you guys and I hope you guys understand that. See you guys later!
Question Time: Due to controversy, there has been talk of 'white-washing' and how there were hardly any other 'races' in the movie. Having seen the movie and saw the there have been different ecthincinces in the movie as well as The Ancient one being played as a Celtic Ancient one, I personally believe that Performance-wise, hands down the best acting ever. What is your opinion on that?
KEEP ON READING AND WRITING!