And the butterflies that burst from your fingertips

Three: A visit to Wong

"Another one?" Stephen's eye's followed the small green butterfly that had just burst from his fingers as it fluttered around the room; with a sigh, he stood up to open the door and let it out. He didn't know where they were going, but he knew it couldn't hurt to let them go where they pleased.

He knew that Tony wouldn't want him to start searching for answers again, not after he'd nearly burnt himself out over the last couple of days, but he couldn't just sit here. He knew the answer was out there; perhaps even in the same books that talked about vacuum spells.

He began to go through the motions of opening a portal to the Sanctum, and frowned when the portal took longer than usual to appear. On top of that, it was flickering slightly, as if it could disappear any second. With a slightly concerned shrug, Stephen stepped through the portal; it wasn't even a second after he was through that the portal snapped shut.

He stared back at the place it had been, wide-eyed, aware of how close it had been to slicing him in half. Another butterfly, this time a bright, unnatural red, burst from his fingertips, flapping around the room before it seemed to find an exit.

Stephen stared after it in concern. Maybe those butterflies weren't as harmless as they appeared. Were they hindering his magic?

He needed to talk to Wong about this. Ask him what was going on. He couldn't just leave it be and hope nothing went wrong, nor could he risk waiting until after the Mordo problem was solved to try and find the answer in the Sanctum's books.

He could have portalled into the library, but he walked, for more reasons than one. The first was that it really, really wasn't that far to the Sanctum's library from where he'd portalled himself in. The second was the rule against conjuring gateways and portals in the library- Stephen needed Wong's help, not for him to be angry at Stephen. The final reason was that he wasn't sure if his magic would hold out long enough for another portal; he could end up getting sliced in half if it closed on him.

He entered the library to hear the faint sounds of music- Beyoncé, as far as Stephen could tell- which meant Wong was there, earbuds in as usual. He really regretted letting Tony take Wong to that Beyoncé concert...

"Wong!" Stephen yelled, and a second later he heard the rustle of papers as a book was closed.

"Stephen?"

Stephen walked past one of the bookshelves to find Wong sitting at his desk, one earbud in, one out. He gave him a friendly smile, finding that he was happy to see his sorcerer friend despite his concerns about his magic, and the butterflies.

"I need something sorted out," Stephen began, and Wong let out a small laugh.

"I've been trying to tell you that for years."

"Now is not the time for jokes," Stephen hissed, but he was fighting back a smile at Wong's words.

Wong's smile disappeared. "Mordo?"

"He's not the only problem."

"I don't know of any spells powerful enough to defeat him," Wong said, not seeming to notice what Stephen had said. "And believe me, I've been searching."

"So have I. I believe the answer could be in the same books he's studied; the ones regarding vacuum spells."

"Vacuum spells?" Wong sounded surprised. "That's advanced magic. It's in the same texts the Ancient One banned, her personal texts."

"So how did Mordo get to it?"

"You're sure he did?"

"Tony showed me video surveillance of him. It was definitely a vacuum spell; he sucked the magic clean out of the other sorcerer." Stephen's expression was troubled. "It's advanced magic, that's for sure."

"Very advanced," Wong agreed, sounding even more bothered by this than Stephen was. "The Ancient One herself rarely even attempted it."

"But she used it?" Stephen asked, though after finding out she drew her power from the dark dimension, all those years back, he wasn't sure why he was surprised.

"Only a rare few times, to stop sorcerers who went rogue, like Mordo. But most of them used spells that simply disabled the power of other sorcerers. Then she'd use a simple redistribution spell to send the stolen power back to any sorcerers who had been affected by whomever went rogue."

Stephen nodded. "That makes sense."

"You didn't come here to talk about Mordo, though, did you?" Wong said suddenly, and Stephen remembered the butterflies, and his failing magic.

"You're right," Stephen agreed, with another nod. "I came here because I don't know if I'll be able to fight him. I've got... a problem."

Wong raised an eyebrow. "What kind of problem?"

Stephen held out his hands. "Butterflies. They keep bursting from my palms and my fingertips. I don't know why they do, but they do. I'm not casting a single spell."

"And this bothers you?" Wong asked, looking a little confused, but there was a twinkle in his eye, as if he were holding back laughter.

"No. No, the butterflies wouldn't bother me at all if it weren't for the fact that it's affecting my magic. I opened a portal to get here and it nearly snapped shut on me. I could have been sliced clean in two."

This time, Wong did burst out laughing. At Stephen's glare, he shook his head frantically. "Sorry, Sorry, I shouldn't be laughing..."

"Of course you shouldn't! I could have died!"

"It's just... you really don't know what's happening?"

Stephen shook his head, and Wong started laughing again. "And here I was thinking you had every book in here memorised! It shouldn't take you long to find the book with it in."

"You're not going to help me?"

"You'll find it soon enough. Now shoo. You're interrupting Beyoncé."

Stephen stifled a laugh at this, despite his annoyance at his fellow sorcerer. "Fine. I'll do it myself."