An Entity Within | Stephen Strange

9 - While She Sleeps...

"You wish to ask me a question?"

"Why can't I come and live with you?"

"Do you not like your Uncle?" Honestly, the Ancient One wouldn't blame Tessa if she didn't.

"He's okay...it just doesn't feel...right. He feels bad."

"Has he hurt you?"

"No. He just...doesn't seem right. So why can't I live with you?"

"Little one, you know the role of the Sorcerer Supreme."

"It might be dangerous, but you said today that I was one of the most powerful sorceresses you know. I can fight and - "

"Shush," The Ancient One said softly, "Tessa, you may be one of the most powerful sorceresses I know, but you are still young. You need time to grow into the power you possess. Think of yourself as a tree: right now, you are still a mere seedling, still growing, still learning, but one day you will become fully-grown - strong and powerful, able to stand up to the mightiest of winds and persevere through the harshest weather."

"I need more time to grow?"

"Exactly. And a good amount of sleep will certainly help you with that so, lie down, close your eyes, let yourself drift off into your mind."

The child did as she was told and lifted her blankets, curling up under them as she let her head hit the pillow. As her eyes fluttered shut, the Ancient One gently pressed her thumb to the girl's forehead. The dark dimension symbol disappeared as quickly as it had appeared as she uttered one word directed towards the Entity in her mind:

"Wake."

"Yes, Ancient One?"

"Your relationship, your bond with Tessa, she appears to be far more advanced than some of the adult novices here. Can you tell me how that is?"

"The way I understand it, not only are our minds fused together but so are our mystical bodies. She feeds off power from me and I can feed off power of hers should I wish but I am more powerful and need not to."

"It was fascinating watching her work today. At ten years old she is almost able to match me in speed, strength, agility and stamina. She possesses knowledge beyond her years and can read 'dead' languages. Performing more advanced sorcery also requires little effort on her part...and all at ten."

"Is this an issue?"

"Not at all. Tell me, will she grow stronger as she gets older?"

"I can enhance what she knows ten-fold. The child has access to aeons of knowledge I have collected over the course of my lifetime as well as...darker powers. As long as I sleep, her power will grow naturally, and I will add to it in a minor sense."

"What do you mean by darker powers?"

"Remember the temple in Nepal?"

"Yes."

"You create Eldritch sorcery. The shadows and black smoke you saw her create are solely our own power. For me, it changed to shadow when we bonded, a kind of dark sorcery, whereas once before my powers and my body manifested in light as bright as your sun, not too dissimilar to the Eldritch power you harness."

"You are saying that you are a hybrid that was never meant to exist? A...forbidden bond? That is the reason for the change in power?"

"Or we have bonded to become an ultimate universal being with unique power. I honestly cannot be sure. This situation is...as novel to me as it is to you. Aeons of knowledge and not even I have known another Entity to bond with another being."

"You said your power changed when you bonded...Tessa's power...will it remain as Eldritch sorcery?" The Ancient One now began to worry about the nervousness it might cause the others should they know that Tessa is and would be a formidable force to be reckoned with.

"As far as I can tell, yes. As long as I remain dormant in her mind."

"I see. Thank you."

"Of course, Ancient One."

The sorceress sent the being to sleep and for a moment looked at Tessa sleeping peacefully and became anxious. What did the future hold for this child? She left the room in a hurry, heading back to the doorway that led to Kamar-Taj. Once there, she grabbed the Eye of Agamotto and brought it to her own private bedchambers within the compound.

She sat down, cross-legged, before performing the ritual to open the eye. A green glow emanated from the amulet and she shut her eyes, attempting to view all the possibilities that Tessa's future would take but every time she reached the girl's age of twenty-seven, the visions would stop. All was fine and well before that, as long as she kept up with repressing the Entity in Tessa's mind for her own safety. Once the visions stopped, she sighed:

"Oh, little one, we do not have forever."