6.3 Doctor Strange & the Masters of the Mystic Arts

Zelma Stanton arrives at Bleaker Street. She meets a man on the street outside 17A. He warns her against knocking, unless she really does have a serious problem. We learn that she’s a librarian, and does indeed have a very serious problem. When she finally works up the courage to knock, the man reveals himself to be Doctor Strange.

Inside the Sanctum, they meet Wong, who had come over for a visit while Stephen Strange was out. Steve tells him he was helping a family who’s son had become infected with a Soul-Eater, to which Wong asks “another one? So soon?”

Zelma removes her hat to reveal the Mind Maggot on her head. Steve takes her through the house to the library, warning her to stay close to him and not wander off, so he can research them. Wong disappears for a bit, but rejoins them in the library with tea and cake, and reassures the clearly frightened Zelda, while complaining about how disorganised the library is. While Steve searches the library, Wong mentions to Steve (too quietly for Zelda to hear) that mind maggots are actually incredibly rare and not native to this dimension.

Steve eventually manages to cure Zelda, when there whole house shakes and there’s the sound of something huge and scary roaring. Steve suggests it’s coming from the basement, while Wong suggests the kitchen. Zelda points out that it’s actually coming from outside.

Steve tells Zelda to stay where she is, since it’s the most well protected part of the building, while he and Wong run outside to the street and find a hoard of Goblins running through the streets.

They fight the goblins, and partway through are joined by Clea, who helps to turn the tide of the battle. She introduces herself as the Sorceror Supreme of the Splinter Realms, and says she knows why there have been so many extradimensional incursions lately and how to stop them, but Wong recognises her as being a Faltine, the same species as Dormammu, although she appears human. She admits that she is, but insists that she’s on the side of humanity, however Steve doesn’t believe her and refuses her help.

We cut to a council being held in Kamar-Taj. All the senior officers of the Masters of the Mystic Arts are present, the three Sanctum Masters, the Master of Novices, the Librarian and the Senechal. They discuss the growing numbers of extradimensional incursions, most believing that someone must be summoning them, but as Steve points out, no one would summon mind maggots. Wong suggests that this is the herand of something worse, that these are the animals being driven ahead of a forest fire, and proposes they reopen the question of appointing a successor to the Ancient One, but the other Masters are reluctant, even though Wong insists only a Sorceror Supreme would have the magical power needed to protect the Earth.

Steve teleports back to New York City and goes for a drink at the Bar With No Doors, where he speaks to other magic users, all of whom report the same increase in incursions the Masters have noticed. The elderly barman asks why they don’t appoint a new Sorcerer Supreme, to which Steve replies that it’s not that simple. The barman insists earth needs one, implying the position has a role more important than just heading up the Masters.

As he’s drinking, another attack occurs. He runs out to help, only to find that this time, it’s a Dragon. Some of the other magic users from the bar also come to help, and Steve automatically takes charge, deploying them in ways that take advantage of their natural talents.

After the dragon is defeated, Clea appears again and once more offers the help. This time, knowing the Masters will not take unilateral action, Steve accepts, and they go back to the bar to discuss their plan.

She explains that the incursions are the result of one of the Many-Angled Ones, Shuma-Gorath, leaving the Outer Darkness for the first time in millenia. She explains the nature of the Splinter Realms, and that the monsters they’ve been seeing are being driven out of the various splinter realms as Shuma-Gorath advances.

She says that there’s only one weapon known to work against Shuma-Gorath, the Wings of Needless Sorrow, but that they can only be wielded by the Sorceror Supreme. Steve asks why she can’t do it herself, but she just says that things work differently in the Splinter Realms. Steve says that even if they don’t have a Sorceror Supreme yet, he has to get them.

The Wings of Needless Sorrow are protected by the Spinner-Witches of the Winding Way, a dimensional corridor that connects the Splinter Realms to one another, and offers to guide Steve to them.

They journey through the Dark Dimension to the Winding Way, and we learn that Dormamu is Clea’s uncle, but he hates her and her mother because her mother chose to take human form in order to marry her father, who was a mortal sorcerer who made himself one of the Lords of he Splinter Realms so that he would become immortal and could live with her mother forever.

They arrive in the Tapestry Islands, and meet the Seamstress-Queen, who sets him a challenge. She summons Christine Palmer and tells him that in order to use the Wings, he must first remove Christine’s memories of him. Despite how important he knows the Wings are, he cannot bring himself to do it.

Clea allows him to stay the night with her in her home dimension, Boreas, and they discuss the test. Steve is somewhat sanguine, saying that it was probably a fool’s errand, since the Masters are never going to agree on a Sorceror Supreme. Clea tells him that she’d misled him slightly - any magic user can use the Wings, but without the power of the Sorceror Supreme they would be killed if they used them.

We also learn why Clea cannot wield the Wings of Needless Sorrow. A Sorceror Supreme can draw on the magic of the world they protect, and other magic users in it, to enhance their own abilities, which should allow them to wield the Wings. However, their access to that power is by consensus, and the Splinter Realms are constantly at war, meaning she only has the support of a few of them, limiting her power. When she says this makes her a fraud, Steve points out that if anything, the fact that she’s fighting to protect people who hate her makes her braver.

That night in his bedroom in the royal palace of Boreas, Steve astral-projects back to New York to speak to Christine. She remembers the Winding Way as a dream, rather than reality. He asks her whether she’d would break her hippocratic oath, if it would save millions of lives. She says that if it meant letting a patient die, she wouldn’t, but when he clarifies that it doesn’t relate to a patient, she says he needs to stop looking to outside sources for moral rules, and just what he thinks is right.

Resolved, he begins to tell her what he needs to do, but their connection is interrupted by an explosion in Boreas - Shuma-Gorath has broken through and is wreaking destruction, the first time the audience gets a good look at him and just how dangerous he is. Steve tries to stay and help but Clea tells him she’s got it, and he returns to the Winding Way with a new sense of urgency.

Viliven offers him the same choice again, and with tears in his eyes, he chooses to give up Christine. Viliven gives him the Wings, but as she does Shuma-Gorath breaks through from Boreas into the Winding Way, chasing Steve back to reality.

Clea arrives, picking Steve up and flying him through a doorway back into New York, but Shuma-Gorath follows them and begins wreaking havoc, attacking civilians and destroying buildings.

They try to fight, but even Clea isn’t able to hurt him for long. Portals begin opening as the other senior members of the Masters of the Mystic Arts arrive to join the battle, the Master of Novices even bringing the trainees, but Shuma-Gorath barely seems to even notice their attacks.

Seeing no other option, Steve pulls out the Wings of Needless Sorrow. Clea warns him again that it will kill him, but he says he’s got to do what’s right. It generates a beam of energy, hurting Shuma-Gorath for the first time, but burning Steve from within at the same time.

Realising what’s happening, Wong calls for another vote on who should be the new Sorcerer Supreme, shouting to be heard over the battle. One by one, as the senior Masters agree, their magic begins to feed into Steve, strengthening him.

Clea opens a portal, and Steve drives Shuma-Gorath through it, then he and Clea follow him through, driving him back through the Winding Way to the Outer Darkness.

He begins to fight his way back out, but Steve remembers that the Wings had been able to shatter Subwhere, and uses them to cut off the Outer Darkness from the Winding Way, sealing it off from the Splinter Realms, and Earth, for good.

In the aftermath, he returns the Wings of Needless Sorrow to Viliven for safekeeping, saying he doesn’t want anything that powerful on Earth, and then thanks Clea for her help. They say goodbye, but promise to keep in touch.

Later, Steve stands outside Metro General watching Christine Palmer. As she’s leaving, he calls her name, and she responds with confusion, asking if she knows him. He tells her he must have been mistaken and returns home. He walks in through the door, removes his cape, and heads for the library, collapsing back into an armchair… Only to realise Zelma Stanton is still there, reshelving his books. Steve asks her if she wants a job.

Post-credits, we’re in a cave, with some kind of altar set up at one end. Karl Mordo is there, performing a ritual. He opens a tear in reality and the Imperator of the Empirikul steps through. He goes to kill Mordo for using magic, but Mordo tells him that that was the last spell he will ever perform, but it was necessary so that his dimension can be cleansed of the corrupting power of magic.

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