Study Buddies

4 weeks have passed since Rin's arrival at Kamar-Taj. The place wasn't a rescue center like she initially thought, it turned out to be a place where people learn about mystic arts. Having nowhere else to go, Rin had no other choice but to obey the rules and start training.

At first, Rin did it just so she had somewhere to stay. But as more days passed, she became more and more interested in magic. She was fascinated by it and found herself eager to learn. Before she knew it, she was making an actual effort to learn mystic arts.

Unfortunately, she has made zero progress since she started. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn't do it. Stacks of books were piled up inside her room, each of those books she spent so much time reading. Even with the help of those, she still couldn't produce magic.

The Ancient One sat her down and gave her a pep talk about how it takes years to master the mystic arts. The sorcerer supreme has been helping her student get her potential out, by even going to extreme measures. However, it didn't do anything. The Ancient One knew what was going on and unfortunately for Rin, It was about timing.

Rin attended every training session and has never missed a day yet. Every time, they are given a task and Rin manages to fail all of them, even the simplest ones. When that happens, she gets filled up with frustration. She then gets fed up and gives up halfway through. Mordo has to talk her into trying again and he always succeeds. The cycle will then repeat when another day comes.

Thankfully, today was a rest day. Everyone was free to do whatever they wanted except for Rin. The Ancient One has decided to give her special assignments which Rin didn't mind taking as it was for the benefit of her training. It only took until the afternoon before Rin finished all her tasks. She was making her way to the Ancient One to inform her about it.

While walking, she heard a commotion ahead which grew louder and louder the closer she got to the main room. It seemed that the Ancient One was arguing with a man whose voice Rin couldn't identify.

Once Rin reached the entrance, she took a peek to see what was going on and saw a scruffy man standing in front of the Ancient One.

"Oh you think you see through me do you? Well you don't." The scruffy man angrily stated.

"But I see through you!" The man pointed directly at the Ancient One's chest. He was getting aggressive and was going past the Ancient One's boundaries so Rin decided to step in and tell the guy off. But not before the Ancient One sent him into the astral dimension.

"Holy-" Rin suddenly blurted in surprise. The man's astral form could be visibly seen outside his own body. His face showed confusion as he looked at his hand, possibly to process what's happening to him.

After a second or two, the man returned to his own body. Immediately he started to question what just happened.

"What did you just do to me?" The man asked, his voice nervously shaking.

"I pushed your astral form out of your physical form." The Ancient One briefly explained.

He then went on to ask about the tea, whether there was some type of drug mixed inside it. As the two were talking, Rin slowly approached Mordo who was on the other side of the room.

Mordo greeted her upon seeing her approach him. "Miss Rin."

"Hi." Rin greeted back. "Who's the guy?"

"He was looking for Kamar-Taj, so I brought him here." Mordo explained.

"Huh, so you're allowed to bring homeless people in here?"

Before Mordo could respond, the scruffy man started screaming, catching the attention of the two. The Ancient One had her thumb in between his eyebrows which was making the man panic.

Mordo approached the two and observed the man. He then looked at the Ancient One in concern. "His heart rate is getting dangerously high."

The Ancient One casually grabbed a chair from nearby and placed it behind the man. For a brief moment, the man seemed to have returned to his senses. He looked at the Ancient One, painting, with fear in his eyes.

The Ancient One took a brief look at the man's face before letting out a grin. "He looks fine to me."

The man then went back to panicking and screaming. Rin on the other hand was quite freaked out with what she was witnessing. It seemed like the man was going to pass out anytime soon.

"This guy looks familiar." Rin thought as she stared at the man's face. At the same moment, the Ancient One mentioned something about "Mister Strange" that caught the ears of Rin.

For a while, she thought deeply about where she might've heard that name before. The name was very familiar to her and was just out of the tip of her tongue. Soon, she realized that the Mister Strange in front of her and the Doctor Strange back at the hospital were the same person.

Rin took a second look at the man. He looked very different compared to his clean look back at the hospital. It was hard to believe that they were the same person at all. He went from an egotistical doctor to a still egotistical hobo in a span of a few weeks.

After less than a minute, he seemed to have returned to his senses as he fell to the ground along with the chair. He then slowly got up on his knees as his hands shook. He looked up at the Ancient One with mixed emotions.

"Teach me." He pleaded, breathing heavily.

The Ancient One looked at him directly in his eyes with a poker face then shook her head. "No."

The moment she said that, the doctor was immediately kicked out of the place and thrown outside. He could be heard saying no and begging them to open the door.

Rin stood in place, not knowing how to process everything that just happened. Meanwhile, the Ancient One approached her and started talking to her as if nothing happened.

"Have you come to see me? Did you finish all your tasks already?" The Ancient One asked. Rin responded only by nodding. The Ancient simply smiled at her. "Alright then, you have the rest of the day off. Enjoy your leisure."

With that, she left the room with Mordo following behind her. Rin stood still for a couple of seconds before taking a deep breath and walking to her room.

This is the strangest 5 minutes of my life. She thought while desperately craving ice cream.

>>Time pass<<

Rin was on her way towards the exit door as she was instructed by the Ancient One to finally let Stephen in. 5 hours had passed since the earlier events occurred but he was still persistent in getting in. Never did he stop banging the door and yelling.

Rin was impressed with his patience and how he didn't give up. Most people would've been away by now, including Rin. There was strength in him, which Rin found quite annoying, especially when he's being all loud.

Rin reached for the door handle and opened it with one twist. Stephen, who was leaning on the door, fell on his back. But even after this, he still thanked Rin for letting him in.

She was also instructed by Mordo to lead him to his own room so she did just that. Stephen was quiet the whole trip and Rin was glad because she didn't want to deal with a very humble man such as him. It didn't take too long before they arrived in his room.

"You'll be staying here." Rin stated, looking at Stephen.

Strange continued to stay silent even after that. Rin, thinking that he was tired, decided to excuse herself to leave so that he could rest. "I think you should rest now. Have an okay evening."

"Wait!" Stephen stopped her before she could walk away. In confusion, Rin turned back to him. He pointed at her with his shaky hands. "Christine's patient."

"Oh, it seems that you still remember me." Rin said.

"Yeah.. you called me a star." Stephen recalled.

"No, I said you have a massive ego." Rin corrected.

Strange nodded. "Yes, you said it was 10 times the size of the sun."

"It doubled just earlier." Rin said. Stephen only nodded as a response.

"How's your injury?" Stephen asked, purely in concern. "I see your face has healed quite a lot already."

Rin touched the scar on her face lightly. She sighed as she traced her fingers on the stitch marks. But she quickly shook it off and pulled something out of her pocket. It was a small, folded piece of paper which she handed to Stephen.

The older man slowly took it from her hand and opened it, revealing a word "shamballa" printed on it.

"Uh, what's this? My mantra?" Stephen asked.

Rin formed a cheeky smile on her face. "Yes. It is a special word that only you must use. Otherwise, you'll lose power. It is something that one must protect dearly like how you protect your organs."

Stephen looked closely at the word, eying it as if he was connecting with it on a deep level. He kept repeating the word in his mind. Then, he looked up and locked eyes with Rin, who was smirking at him.

"Or it could just be the WiFi password. Who knows." Rin then turned her heel around and walked out with satisfaction while Stephen looked at her with confusion.

[Week 3]

The two started days and weeks of training with several other people. Even though Rin arrived weeks earlier than Stephen, they both trained alongside each other. The whole time, Rin hated it as Strange didn't miss any chance he gets to rub it on her face that he's making more progress than her, knowledge-wise.

As a result, the Ancient One made them study buddies. At first, Rin couldn't understand a thing, but with Stephen's help, she managed to learn a lot. Studying was never something she loved doing but her interest in magic pushed her, alongside Stephen. Soon, the two of them got along. However, their occasional shade throw towards each other never changed.

They both went to the library to return the books they used for the week. There they met a man, who seemed to be the librarian, standing behind a desk.

"Mister Strange." He greeted Stephen before turning to Rin. "Miss Rin."

"Uhh.. Stephen, please." Stephen revised.

"Rin's fine too. Or you can call me Miss, it's up to you." Rin said as she placed the books she was holding down on the table.

After Stephen did the same, he looked back at the librarian. "And you are?"

"Wong."

"Wong." Rin echoed.

"Just Wong? Like Adele?" Stephen joked with a slight chuckle but Wong wasn't impressed,\. He showed absolutely no reaction to the joke he made. Stephen awkwardly continued on with his gag. "Or.. Aristotle?"

"Drake?" Rin played along.

"Bono?" Strange continued.

"Eminem?"

Wong had enough of the two of them so he pulled the books laid down by them and started checking them one by one.

"The Book of the Invisible Sun, Astronomia Nova, Codex Imperium, Key of Solomon." Wong read out. "You two finished all of this?"

"Yup." Stephen said.

"From cover to cover, all of them, read. Not a single letter was left out." Rin said.

Wong then started to walk towards the left side of the library. "Follow me."

Stephen and Rin looked at each other for a brief moment before they both followed Wong towards the deeper area of the library.

*** Authored by: remuwuchan ***