Magic Mania: Book One

4

Wong didn't even look up from his book when a glowing golden circle appeared and Strange walked through into the library 6 feet away from him. "Good morning Stephen."

Strange closed his portal and glanced around the ancient-looking books everywhere, thousands more than the New York Sanctum. He was 97% certain there'd be something relevant here, how to find it was the tricky part. Unfortunately, he didn't know a spell that could immediately find the right book amidst several thousands of others, so he turned to Wong.

"Is there anything about the multiverse in here?" Stephen asked, pulling up a chair and sparing a glance to the large pile of hardcovers adorning the desk. He didn't understand the language of half of them, and they all looked older than the Ancient One; the spines were half falling off and the pages were faded and yellow.

"Actually, Strange, I think I've found what you've been looking for," Wong said, indicating the volume he'd been previously immersed in. Stephen leaned closer as Wong pushed the book within his sight. Like the rest, it was in poor condition – the cover was almost separate from the pages, which were thick and yellow, like really old parchment – but it was titled: A guide to the Multiverse, how to prevent Catastrophe. So much better than Dimensional Travel: How To Avoid Gruesome Death in 5 easy steps.

Maybe this would actually have some instructions, or a spell to tell if something truly had happened in another dimension.

"It tells you all about how to avoid creating a multiverse, and in the unfortunate event it happens, how to tell if there is any catastrophe," Wong explained as Strange flicked through the pages.

"What about travelling through the multiverse?" Strange asked, not taking his eyes off the parchment he was certain would crumble to dust at a single breath of wind. "Anything about that?"

"Chapter 12, page 143 I think," he answered. "Looks quite complicated though."

Stephen immediately scanned through and found page 143. It was titled: Dimensional Travel. Straight to the point. He absorbed the information as quickly as possible, hardly believing his luck. "This is great, Wong. I learn to do this spell, we take an army of wizards and save the multiverse ASAP."

He looked up, expecting... well, he didn't know what exactly, but Wong didn't betray his emotion, instead looked pointedly back at the book, as though to gesture Stephen to do the same. When he did, Strange remembered.

"The warnings come after the spells," he murmured, looking back down again. There it was in black and white (well, yellow).

Only one wizard can perform this spell at once, unless the multiverse will spiral into disarray and all dimensions can erupt into eternal chaos.

Well.

"You'll need to go alone, or with a maximum of three others who aren't wizards like us," Wong explained. He patted the stack of books. "Been doing my research."

Stephen leant back in his chair, unable to believe his original plan had been busted so quickly. But wizards who aren't like us... he was starting to form a bad idea. Or maybe two...

"What are you thinking? Do you have an idea who you're going to choose?"

Strange sighed, already pondering how he was going to put this new, unideal plan into fruition. "Unfortunately... yes."