Taipan // Doctor Strange

Chapter 14

"No, there's- theres nothing."

"Try the office."

"I just looked there,"

"Through the files?"

"Yes through the files. He didn't do much."

Stephen straightened himself from hunching over the pile of papers I had pulled out from several different places. The search for proof of someone having a problem with Pangborn was fruitless, hours after meeting with Thor.

My eyes burned from staring so long at legal tax documents or renting warrants given to the dead man, and my back ached from leaning over to read them. "It wasn't a normal person," Stephen pointedly said, tucking a pile of insignificant papers back into the desk he had gotten them from.

"How do you know that?" I asked.

Stephen turned to me- there was a lack of emotion in his expression. I found it odd how neutral he seemed, how calm he was portraying himself to be.

Then again, I had seen this. Maybe I have more of a reason to be in a panic; which is exactly what it felt my body was about to do- every breath felt short and unsatisfying.

"His fingers were curled."

"And?" He may be a Doctor, but I was nothing of the sort, and did not understand the importance of it.

"That's what happens when the lower Lumbar spine has been broken or damaged. The trauma of the spinal cord disrupts the neurons that control the muscles of the hands and arms." I found his knowledge a bit too interesting- or rather, the fact that he knew it was perhaps the attraction I had.

"Huh," I contemplated at the fun fact, cleaning up the mess I'd made for myself on the kitchen table. "Well if we're not finding anything, we should go back.

"That means," Stephen continued, "That the magic he was using to walk was taken from him."

Fear gutted me. Mordo had that power? "Is that even possible?" My voice lacked curiosity. In a way, I didn't want an answer to it.

"Most definitely." he confirmed, "I haven't read the spells for it, but it is possible."

Awesome.

I moved towards him and grabbed the papers from his hands; He'd been staring at the same words over and over again in an attempt to find something he missed. "Come on," I said, "let's go read some more stuff."

The soft tapping of our shoes as we walked over the hardwood floor was really the only thing keeping my nerves settled and controllable. It had been months since even a sign of Mordo was seen, and now the dream with the finding of Jonathan's body added on top of the fact that Loki the Asgardian demi-god was currently present in the same city was a bit much for one day. I would have to ask about it later.

I began to open a portal in the kitchen before Stephen stepped forward. "No, let me do it. I may have some things in the Sanctorum's library."

My eyes widened, "You have your own library?"

"Yes but it's nothing special." he waved his hand before stepping in front of me, opening a portal to the place he protected above the all else. Even with his Sorcerer Supremacy, he spent the most time here.

I stepped through the circle and found myself in a part of the Sanctorum I had never been in. Books upon books lined the walls, piled on the tables, and even some scattered on the floor like someone had kicked them about in a flurry of anger. "It's a mess," he admitted sheepishly, grabbing a book and sliding into a cushioned chair.