𝐒𝐏𝐄𝐋𝐋𝐁𝐎𝐔𝐍𝐃 ━ 𝐬. 𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐞

━━ . FOUR

Stephen found himself still standing in the middle of the downpour, watching in disbelief as the Cloak of Levitation left with the running woman she had chosen to shelter. After Mordo had taken it upon himself to eviscerate as many students at the Kamar-Taj as possible, there weren't that many left that could keep inventory of any existing magical artifacts that occupied this world.

The ones that were left, particularly the one that had become his right hand man and the young lady who had taken it upon herself to become the New York Sanctum's personal librarian, would not be pleased with his loss of one of those items. Especially after finding out how he lost it, he was sure that Zelma would scold him and he had a pretty good idea of what Wong would say.

He raced down the sidewalk after the woman wearing the cloak. "Wait!"

She glanced over her shoulder, her eyes stretched wider, and she ran even faster. Stephen let an irritated sigh escape his lips and he slowed his pace to a stroll again. It was no use. He had frightened the woman and the closer he got to her, the more she'd flee. He had no delusions that the cloak had a mind of her own, after all, he couldn't control her and stopped trying long ago. It was just as well; she seemed to sense when there was danger and was always there to fight him when he needed her.

He found himself perturbed in the rainfall, but that hadn't been what bothered him. No, he had faced worse inconveniences than this; he was the Sorcerer Supreme of this world, after all. Come hell or high-water, he always found a solution to his problems—or Earth's. However, for the life of him he could not grasp why the Cloak was behaving the way that it was today.

Had the garb just been acting whimsical? Or had she saw something in this woman that he did not? Perhaps this woman would be his apprentice and if that were the case, did that mean the Cloak of Levitation had chosen her and another magical artifact would choose him? Maybe the cloak chose any one who had an ounce of magic in them.

No, that couldn't be it.

Had that been the case, she would have acted the same way towards Zelma. Strange was again, well, without answers to questions that troubled him. He let out a sharp breath and took a quick look around to make sure no one saw what he was about to do. With a silent incantation and the sling ring on his left hand, he opened the Mirror Dimension and stepped inside.

He checked his surroundings to make sure no one was near, and with a  silent incantation and the sling ring on his left hand, he opened the  Mirror Dimension and stepped inside.

※

'There.' He thought, now he could still see the woman, but she couldn't see him. At his annoyance, the weather inside the Mirror Dimension was just as bad as in the real one. He consigned himself to being soaked through as he followed at a distance.

He watched her as she finally stopped running and bent over to catch her breath. She stood back up hastily and quickly turned around to observe her surroundings, no doubt trying to figure out where he had disappeared to. Stephen stopped, too, and waited for her next move. If she had any capacity for magic, maybe she'd sense him—and for a second her gaze lingered on where he was, analyzing the empty space before her.

Carefully, she looked around and turned back in his direction with a look of annoyance and her lips pressed thinly. So, she did know he was there—this piqued his interest. The woman made another attempt at the cloak, but sighed at it's reluctancy to let go.

"I suppose I have to take you home with me, huh?" She shook her head. "Hopefully you'll come off once you're somewhere warm and—"

She paused and laugh. "Great, now I'm starting to sound like him."