Little

Chapter 14

The library was quiet and dim as Stephen walked in. He immediately went to the shelf which contained the Ancient One's private collection. He picked up the Book of Cagliostro and started flipping through the pages. He picked up a half-eaten apple that was on the table and bit into it. He stopped at a page that caught his eye.

It was a page showing a picture of something he was sure he'd seen somewhere before. A oval-shaped object that appeared to be a necklace.

He looked up and saw the thing on a pedestal.

"Wong?" he called out. But Wong was nowhere to be seen. 

Standing up, he walked over to get it, then put it around his neck (because that's what necklaces are for, dummy).

Since his understanding of Sanskrit had improved, he was able to read what was on the page.

"'First, open the Eye of Agamotto'," he read aloud. 

He did as the book said, putting his middle and ring fingers together, then moved it in a circle.

The eye opened, if just a bit. "All right," he said.

He put both of his hands together, and turned them. A green circle appeared, which circled around his wrist. Turning his hand, the apple...

The apple's bite marks disappeared if he turned it counter-clockwise, and if he turned it clockwise, the apple turned into a core. He was literally manipulating time.

 He heard a small gasp from behind him, and whipped around to see who it was.

Peter.

"How...what.." he said, pointing to the apple.

"Shouldn't you be sleeping?" Stephen asked with a disapproving tone.

"You woke me up!" Peter complained. "So I followed you."

Stephen sighed. "Don't tell anybody, okay?"

Peter quickly nodded and silenced himself. Stephen again turned his hand counter-clockwise, and when turning it clockwise again, he went farther. The apple decayed and rotted. Then he rotated his hand the other direction. The apple became whole again.

"What if..." Stephen started. "Peter, could you give me the book?"

Peter shoved the Book of Cagliostro towards him. He opened it to the place where the pages had been torn out. He turned his hand counter-clockwise.

Ghostly traces of two sheets began to appear, and fused themselves into the book. Not a scratch was left. The pages were whole again.

"Dormammu," Stephen read aloud. "The Dark Dimension. Eternal life?"

Suddenly, in front of him, the air shimmered and cracked. Too shocked to speak, both Peter and Stephen could only look with fear and awe.

"Stop!" someone shouted. Immediately, whatever was happening stopped. 

Turning around to find the source of the shouting, Stephen found Mordo, who was followed by Wong.

"Tampering with the continuum of probability is forbidden!" Mordo said.

"I... I wa..." Stephen stuttered. "I was just doing exactly what it said in the book!"

"And what did the book say about the dangers of performing that ritual?" Wong asked.

"Uh..." Stephen started. "...don't know. I hadn't...gotten to that part yet."

"Temporal manipulations can create branches in time," Mordo said. "Unstable dimensional openings. Spacious paradoxes!" His voice grew louder with each word.