Doctor Strange - This One Summer

A Promise of Homecoming

Isolated

After a few days, Hazel settled into a pattern. The Ancient One wasn't the only one who spoke more comfortably with her now. Actually, most of the resident masters at Kamar-Taj seemed to address her by her first name. However, regarding Hazel's relationship to her peers, all the masters became acutely aware of Hazel closing herself off. She trained alone or with Mordo. In class, if she was ever asked to pair up with someone, she'd summon a specter or the cat would show up as her partner. She continued to cook for and dine with the masters, and after a time, only at mealtimes, they would speak casually and interact with her as if she was a stranger or visiting friend and not a student.

Had the other acolytes truly rejected her after hearing she attacked the Ancient One? Actually, it was understandable, almost justifiable, after all Hazel had done. Hazel had always been a character other students had struggled to associate with as a result of her questionable habits. Not only that, but there was also a mystery around Hazel. Why was she here, what could she see that no one else did, and why did she look so fatigued all the time? The other students were too perturbed to look for answers.

Perhaps this is why her peers shunned her, but regardless, without total and unconditional support from the masters-something still unattainable right now, even with the recent boost in their affinity towards her-Hazel fell farther and farther into despair. She rarely slept through the night anymore, and when she did so, she was plagued with nightmares and sleep paralysis-induced hallucinations, and with every passing night, Hazel felt a call from another world grow stronger and stronger.

It made sense, really. After all, before coming to Kamar-Taj, Hazel credited her Main Guest's strength to the effects of social isolation.

Bruises

Hazel was alone in the moonlit courtyard until she wasn't. She lied on the wall and stared at the sky until she saw a flash of yellow in the corner of her eye.

"Shouldn't you be in bed?" Hazel smirked. The Ancient One sat on the wall by Hazel's head and patted her lap invitingly. Hazel's grin widened and she wriggled to put her head in the other's lap. She stared straight ahead and sighed contently as she felt the woman's soft hands brushing back and forth over Hazel's back. The half-moon was sinking over the edge of the city.

"Isn't she beautiful?" Hazel murmured. "I've always been more of a moon person, even if my birth card is the sun. What about you?"

The Ancient One didn't answer. She didn't so much as sigh. Hazel felt a dawning of unease creeping in her bones.

"You're a high priestess, right?" Hazel asked. No answer. "I'm only kidding. You just seem very... ethereal, I guess?"

Silence. Hazel tensed.

"I think I should go back to bed," she tried to squirm upright, but two clammy, bony hands gripped her shoulders. Hazel's breath caught. The voice that spoke was thin and reedy. A pathetic impression.

"But you aren't awake yet."

Stephen Strange headed towards the Ancient One's rooms after breakfast. Whatever she'd have need of him for this early in the day, he couldn't say, but if this was about conjuring portals in the library again, he'd...

He knocked softly on the wooden frame of the paper door and slid it open before he was bidden inside.

"You sent for... me...?"

Stephen froze in the doorway as he took in the scene before him. The Ancient One knelt on the ground beside Hazel. The girl was curled up on her side with her back facing the doorway. Her robe was open and gathered down to her hips, leaving her upper body exposed. Bruises of reddish-violet danced on her back as her shoulders shook with sobs. Hazel raised her head and peered over her shoulder and around her tangle of black hair at him. Her face was bloody. Stephen felt his face go cold, pale from horror and nausea, but he couldn't look away from this nightmarish scene. The Ancient One gave him a half-fatigued, half-annoyed look.