Kama-Loki/Sacred Darcy

or

The Five Dharmas of Midgard

(Part 2: Seeking Knowledge or The First Age of Man)

"What do you mean I would require more time?! I just told you I need that knowledge tonight!" Loki shouted furiously while standing in the doorway of the suite that Banner had been given by Stark to use while staying at the tower with Chandi. "Now, man, now! I need the information now!"

"Loki, Transcendental Meditation takes years and years of practice in order to get any benefits let alone master it," Banner corrected.

"True, but I am long-lived and have years behind me most humans would not. By default I have learned more lessons in patience and discipline than even the wisest of your race could boast," Loki snorted back.

"Oh really? You think your discipline and self-control could hold a candle to the Dalai Lama?" Banner said with a laugh. Loki gave him a look of confusion and the doctor sighed heavily. "Look, this is something even I don't have a lot of experience in. Why don't you talk to your parents about this or a marriage counselor or something?"

"A counselor? Is that not tantamount to a physician and is that not what your chosen field is when you are not laying waste to a settlement?" the trickster said with an angry sneer.

Banner's eyes began to glow a little green and he stepped further out of the doorway prompting the trickster to back up a pace. "You really want to compare who's done more damage?" Banner said in a low tone. "Do you?"

"Bruce, when are you coming back to the bedroom? I didn't buy that lotus chair to use alone and you've been working every night this week," Chandi suddenly interjected. Loki's ears perked up at the sound of her soft feminine voice coupled with her thick Hindi accept. It was beautiful. Her slender, polished, and cocoa coloured hand suddenly slunk over the doctor's shoulders and he seemed to ease down and relax at her touch. She then leaned forward and laid her chin against his shoulder affectionately. "You promised we would recite the third section together."

"The third section of what?" Loki asked, intrigued about any female being attracted to a creature like this particularly one so obviously sensual.

"The third section of 'none of your business now go away and get a book about listening to your wife', that's what," Banner snapped back. Loki frowned at him and noted that the man was doing everything in his power to not grab him by the ankles and slam him repeatedly into the ground once more. Banner quickly reached into one of his pockets and withdrew a business card and thrust it at the trickster. "Here, this guy's a family services specialist and if you two need a counselor or a shrink, which is probably going to help you more than her, then he'll know what to do, now just leave me alone right now."

"But I'll die if this continues!" Loki protested.

"Is he in distress?" Chandi asked with genuine concern. Banner groaned angrily as Loki quickly nodded to her. Chandi stepped back and smacked Banner's chest with the back of her hand reproachfully. "And you call yourself a doctor!" "I just gave him the advice he asked for, he's just staying around for attention and," Banner shot him a terribly angry look, that same green burning behind his calm veneer, ". . . to make trouble. That's what he does, it's his job."

"I beg your pardon, you half-formed misfit, my calling is mischief and the occasional bit of fun at someone else's expense, not trouble. Your forte' is trouble and plenty of it," Loki snapped back furiously. Many human writings had recently referred to him offensively as the 'God of Discord' or 'God of Evil' instead of his proper title and it was beyond infuriating. "Now I asked you to assist me to transcend into a better understanding of humanity that will win back my wife and I will have it whether or not you . . ."

"Transcendence is not Doctor Banner's field of expertise," Chandi announced casually. Both Banner and Loki turned to her in surprise. Banner felt a little humiliated at the words, having worked so hard at the principles Chandi taught long before meeting her, but she was right of course. Loki looked at the woman with renewed hope as she smiled brightly. "It is mine."

(*)

Banner had been very aggravated that Chandi had changed their plans for the evening, but she asserted to him that it was a spiritual emergency and was no different than a brain surgeon treating a person who had been in an automobile crash. He begrudgingly accompanied the two to her small Ashram on the other side of the Bronx, an area that had once been known for decay and degradation but had now been come to be known as a new-age community leading into a hippie commune. Chandi's Ashram was actually a set of small offices, therapy rooms, a large yoga studio, and an extensive library. While Loki explained the situation to her, which he noted that she listened to with surprising understanding and a calm that he had only seen in his mother, Chandi nodded and repeated a few things to make sure she understood everything that was transpiring. Banner continued to sigh, shake his head, and roll his eyes, not wanting to mutter that Darcy was the foremost expert in Stockholm Syndrome having married her kidnapper and even defended him from justice. Chandi led the way into the library and then turned, folding her hands neatly and looking at the trickster with a more serious expression.

"So then she has never seen you as you truly are?" she asked.

Loki stared at her in surprise. "She has seen me nude, if that is what you are asking," he replied. Chandi shook her head. "She has seen me in all forms of emotion and practicing magic, what else is there?"

"You said your family adopted you from a race of other creatures and that you appear as this because of your upbringing," Chandi quoted back. Loki felt stunned. He hadn't meant to tell this stranger such a thing. She exuded such serenity that it had just slipped out. He took a step backwards. "You are afraid to show her so you keep a cloak of deception about you as you have done for years. She clearly thinks that your seeing humans as inferior and base is why you hide this from her and it offends."

"I'm not sure it's that simple," Banner added with irritation.

"Show me your real features," Chandi said matter-of-factly. Loki stared at her defiantly and then glanced at Banner as if to ask if she was serious. "Go on."

"I hardly think it appropriate," Loki replied.

Chandi sighed and shook her head. She turned and strode to the other side of the library, the other two following close behind cautiously. "It seems to me that until you embrace truth, she cannot feel at ease. You will forever be fighting what is real and what is best," she replied flatly. She pointed to a large tapestry featuring a panoply of sundry characters. It's colourful pictures depicted a four-armed blue man with a golden crown holding different objects in each hand; a strand of beads, a lotus blossom, a chalice, and making a symbol with his fingers with the last. Other characters surrounded him, a multi-armed elephant with jewelry, a six-armed woman who seemed to be dancing in blood while holding swords and a garland of human skulls, tigers, flowers, and even a green-coloured man with a bow and arrow on a cloud aiming for two lovers locked in an embrace. Loki stared at it in amazement and tried to take in all the features at once. "This, all of this," Chandi said, "All that is true is Dharma. When we embrace dharma we can find peace. It is the path that we choose that leads us to it."

Loki remained affixed on the blue-skinned figure in the center. "Who is this?" he asked, softly stroking the tapestry with affection that made Chandi smile brightly.

"That is Krishna, Lord of Creation. He brings peace and harmony to his followers. Those that seek to further their own Karma, to act through rightness and good deeds, follow Krishna," she explained. She noted a measure of comfort and admiration in the trickster's green eyes at this being. He turned and glanced at the six-armed woman and frowned a little. Chandi pointed to her. "That is Kali, Goddess of Death and Rebirth, of Destruction. Without destruction, without death, there can be no life."

"How can that be? Death undoes life," Loki argued.

"Actually, death is a part of life, the last part," Banner interjected. Chandi nodded to him proudly. "You have to have opposites in order to have existence. I've read Norse Myths; you can't have fire without ice, you can't have light without dark."

"I see," Loki muttered, glancing back at the tapestry. His eyes fell back on the archer and the lovers and he wondered if that was their own God of Mischief, of Discord. Chandi smiled and moved closer to him.

"That is Kama, the God of Love and Desire," she explained.

"Then why does he point a violent weapon at those that need him?" Loki asked.

"That's not a weapon it's a tool," Banner interjected once more. Chandi beamed at him and nodded. "The lovers are struck with arrows tipped with the essence of desire and then they achieve true happiness by ascending to the plane of ecstasy."

"If they can ever learn to do 'The Serpent Greets The Swan' without pulling a hamstring," Chandi teased.

"Hey, when we first met I was more limber than anyone else in the class, you said so yourself," Banner corrected. Loki looked back and forth between the two of them and frowned. "Besides, that's not really something to mention in front of other people."

"Please, Bruce, I was raised in a Tantric Home, remember?" Chandi said with a sigh walking past them to a bookshelf and glancing at the titles. "Clothing wasn't even required. And now I help others to overcome such boundaries. Ah, here we are!" She pulled two books from the shelf and strode back over to Loki, handing them to him. He accepted them and looked at the titles with intrigue. "It seems to me that you are on the path of seeking liberation from illusion, yes? You want truth, you want acceptance, and you want to transcend . . . and so does your life mate." Loki nodded and began to flip through the three books, already marveling at the colourful pictures. "Your path is the same path my parents chose, the same path I chose, it is Tantra."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, I think the last thing The God of Mischief needs is a manual on Tantric anything to fix his marriage or give him ideas," Banner protested, trying to take hold of the books. Loki deftly pulled them back as Chandi smacked him reproachfully again. "What? Sex isn't what he needs it's resolution, possibly time in a mental health institution."

"Don't listen to that and no one needs time in those havens of lies," Chandi corrected giving Banner a sharp look. Loki nodded, still looking at the titles. "There is no need for complete conversion, but these principles might just be what you need to reconcile the you that is hidden from her, with the you that she wishes to see."

"India's Love Lyrics, An Introduction To Tantric Meditation and the Five Holy Pillars," Loki read aloud noting the titles. "The Kama Sutra."

"Oh brother," Banner mumbled, grasping his forehead. "This is definitely not a good idea."

"Do you really think this will help? It's all written by mortals," Loki remarked glancing at the pages of the sutras.

"Some mortals write the utterings of the gods," Chandi said. Loki perked up and turned to her. He smiled slowly and nodded. "If you believe that you love her then make it true."

"I will," he replied with a nod. He glanced back at the tapestry one last time, one last remembrance of who was who on the small illustrated Hindu Pantheon. "Thank you."

"Namaste'," Chandi said, folding her hands and nodding politely. Before Banner could say anything further or Chandi could lift her head, the trickster had disappeared. The woman smiled and turned back to her student and employer. "Now, I believe we had other plans this evening."

(*)

Darcy paced back and forth in her room. She had received a message that the summit had been cancelled as another barrage of fighting had erupted overseas. She regretted having told Loki to go home and wished madly that she could be back in her own bed, in their bed, not thinking about the madness that they had endured. She had assured Gaea that even though mommy and daddy were angry that they loved her and always would. Darcy had contemplated the notion of not returning to Sylvanheim when asking him to leave for home, but now that he had left she felt terribly incomplete and knew that no matter how angry she was with him, no matter what atrocities he committed, she would never be able to stay away from him or stop loving him.

She wiped away a few tears furiously and sat down on the edge of the bed. She couldn't understand exactly why he had to show himself so often, to defy her wishes to make a spectacle of the inferiority of other creatures. She groaned, the ache growing stronger, and laid back on the bed, clutching the pillow to her chest. She sobbed for a while silently and wished that the night would just close in around her and allow her to drift into a dreamless sleep. After several moments, her wish was granted and she was finally at peace, at least for the moment.

(*)

Loki sat on the balcony of Stark Tower well-hidden in one of the shadows for a few moments. He quickly poured over the introduction book that promised transcendence and meditation. With his intellect and powers it took less than an hour to nearly memorize the entire book and while not all of it seemed to please him, part of him began to see what Chandi had said about disguising his true form from Darcy. She had only seen it once, briefly, in anger and he had harmed her. He read through the next, a book of poetry, in less than half the time it took to read the first and devoured every word. Humans might have been fragile and inferior creatures in need of guidance, but they clearly had at least a few Midgardian citizens with the gift of silver-tongue on paper and obviously in person. The third book took a little longer than the first and caused the trickster to reconsider the entire notion of his intimacy with Darcy. He had always considered her needs before his own, the one time in life he had never felt selfish which could be attested by Sif as well. But he had yet to give her truth in the love he made to her.

He sat silently with all three books beside him and waved a hand, summoning another book from Chandi's library that he had noticed. The tome described a brief history of the country and detailed some of its most beautiful places to see and admire as well as a more clear view of their own Gods and Goddesses. Loki held open the pages between Krishna and Kali, touching the images gently. He appeared nearly similar to Krishna, but his reputation was clearly leaning towards the vengeful goddess. He sighed and turned the pages. How could he possibly expect Darcy to love him after showing her his true form for very long, particularly after all the terrible things he had done to her? She had forgiven him over and over again, but he had found mortals the least forgiving of any race when it came to physical imperfections except perhaps elves.

Chandi's words haunted him, "If you believe you love her, then make it true."

He did love her. He had said so on many occasions, he had done many good things for her. Why wasn't it truth now? Was it because he had abducted her to begin with? No, she had forgiven him that. Was it because he had taken her innocence? No, they had married in that fashion and again she had forgiven him even with the transgression he had made in going and announcing it to his brother, the Warriors Three, and Lady Sif. What in the Nine Realms was distancing her from him so greatly and incensing her so often? She didn't believe he loved her, she had said so. But why? Because she doesn't know you, not all of you, a voice within him answered matter-of-factly. Once again, the voice sounded curiously like Brenhin's and Loki nodded to himself.

He made an oath to himself; he would cease the incessant defiance of her wishes on earth. He would do his best to cease any offensive terms about humanity particularly in her presence. He glanced back at the wide glass window that had acted as a futile barrier for Stark when he had attacked and groaned inwardly. He would have to be more cordial, whatever it took, to her living family and his own if he was to ever have peace with his own wife and their child . . . hopefully children. He glanced back down at the book at a particularly lovely garden outside something meant to look like a palace. The picture had been made of one of the outdoor bedrooms and displayed a silk-lined bed almost covered in pillows surrounded by palm trees, huge exotic flowering bushes, and a stone reflective pond lined with lotus blossoms. He sighed and smiled. There was one thing to do before beginning this oath outright, he realized, and it would take Darcy's involvement.

(*)

Darcy awoke with a start. She gasped in her sleep and shook it away violently. She had dreamt of walking away from the palace on Sylvanheim and in her mind it had been with the notion of doing so forever. As she had walked out into the familiar and dangerous forest darkness had begun to envelope her. When she had turned around to try and race back to the fortress turned palace, she realized that she was lost and could see nothing, absolutely nothing. She could hear Loki and Gaea calling her name, wailing and weeping for her, but she could see nothing and then began to fall. The fall ended as her eyes popped open and she sucked in several sharp breaths, pushing the nightmare away. She leaned forward, cupping her face in her hands as she breathed deeply. It was only a dream.

She suddenly felt strange. She looked down at her hands and arms and realized that she wasn't wearing her cotton tank top and plain underwear any longer. She gasped as she saw that she was clad in a bright orange Sari trimmed in gold and purple designs. She could feel that her long hair had been pulled back and she reached around, feeling for it instinctively. It had pulled and gently styled into a long, dark braid and as she withdrew her hand, she detected the presence of a reddish powder. She ignored this and looked around her a little more. She also realized that she had been lying against an enormous pile of wonderful pillows, all various sizes, shapes, colours, patterns, and soft as clouds. The bed was made with red silk and she hurriedly climbed off realizing that she was barefoot and that she was no longer in Kansas . . . or Manhattan.

The ground beneath her was somewhat cool gray stone and she took in the rest of her surroundings cautiously. It was a beautiful garden and the full moon was hanging silently in the sky more close than ever before. This must've been another dream, she thought. A large reflective pool lay a great number of yards away from the bed, but was still clearly in sight. All the exotic plants and palms wafted their delightful perfumes in the night air. It was much warmer than Sylvanheim, no less than what she expected in an area with such exotic plant-life and these clothes and the ornate bed. This seemed very Eastern, very Indian, and very much the work of magic.

She heard a loud, but lovely chirp and suddenly a small bluebird landed on one of the palm fronds, balancing itself perfectly and perching with a small scroll held under one wing. Darcy looked at it in confusion. Not only were bluebirds diurnal, they hardly carried messages in their wings, and they certainly didn't light on the fronds of palm trees. It chirped happily and bowed its head, gesturing regally with its other wing. "No reeds for a cart, no frogs for my horses, but this is the errand I perceive, I bring a message you will read," the bird suddenly said. Darcy took a step backwards. The bird spoke . . . in English. That wasn't as unsettling to Darcy as it's Pakistani accent (obviously Loki's attempt to play on the playful story they had shared enjoying and had read together with Gaea), but what was most unsettling was the bird's ability to hold the note out to her. She cautiously reached out and accepted it. "Thank you, goodbye, goodnight."

Darcy shook her head and stared in amazement as she watched the blue bird, or Podna, disappear into the starry sky. She sighed and moved back over to the bed, opening the scroll and reading it. It was a poem of some kind, though definitely not something Loki had written. She stood as she continued to read, walking blindly through the garden adjacent to the outdoor bedchamber and the gazing pool. The scents of the lilies and lotus grew more fragrant and soothing as she moved. She glanced around the garden halfway through the poem and frowned. This was obviously a dream or at least an illusion created by Loki as he had done on a few other occasions. She was told to think of them as vacations within the mind and spirit on planes that the body could not visit itself. She suddenly noticed a small stone bench and sat down, pulling her legs up and around her and admiring how comfortable the Sari actually seemed.

"The fireflies shall light you, And naught shall afright you, Nothing shall trouble the Flight of the Hours," she read aloud. She glanced back at the title at the top of the parchment. In the Garden of Kama: Kama, the Indian Eros. The poem did have some subtle sensuality, she thought, but it was certainly nowhere near as detailed or sexual as many other Indian texts. The Kama Sutra alone was more detailed than some of the nursing textbooks she had reviewed before switching her majors. Still, that book had its own poetry and she had pondered sharing it with Loki on several occasions, but was afraid of what a powerful Asgardian-raised half-Jotun half-elf would do to a mere mortal even with longevity. She shuddered and shoved those thoughts aside as she continued to read aloud. "Come for I wait for you, Night is too late for you, Come while the twilight is closing the flowers."

Several of the palm trees rustled and Darcy turned. She couldn't see anyone, but she could hear them quite clearly. She began to tremble a little at the thought that maybe it hadn't been Loki that had brought her here. He had many enemies and she was no stranger to threats from each and every one of them. The Svartalfkind (the black elves, darker than the dark elves and allies of the dwarves) had many serious grudges to settle and had threatened to kidnap her and destroy all her memories of the past and make her a slave to their king, Malekith. The Jotun rebels that had escaped Drifa's order to be killed had threatened to take her and seal her alive in ice to suffer endlessly. She wasn't sure what threats Thanos had made against her because Loki was too afraid to share them, but she could only imagine what horrors he would visit on her after what he had done to her beloved.

What better way to lure her into a trap than something so beautiful? She cursed herself for sending Loki away; she had forgotten in her anger what danger that meant for herself and for Gaea. No, Gaea was safe as long as Tony was nearby. He watched her like a she-wolf and was as doting, if not more so, than her own father. Darcy shuddered at realizing that for the first time in years, she was truly alone. She began to tremble and weaken in her limbs. She felt her grip on the paper disappear and a breeze suddenly caught it, floating it off into the same section of palms that had rustled and caught her attention. She swallowed hard and stood, ready to face whatever it was.

A voice, a familiar and soothing voice, recited the rest of the lines on the parchment. "Every breeze still is And scented with lilies Cooled by the twilight, refreshed by the dew," Loki recited from somewhere in the palms.

Darcy breathed a sigh of relief and slowly moved towards the trees. She reached out and parted the branches. Her expression dropped as she didn't see him at all. She parted more branches, searching ever inch of the area, her heart sinking further and further as she couldn't find him. Her eyes suddenly fell on a clearing within the palm trees hidden from anyone merely walking by. It was a mosaic mandala and at its very center was the green Hindu God, Kama. Darcy recognized him from her international studies and the entire tile portrait was gorgeous.

He sat atop a cloud as usual with a red arrow pointed down, aiming at two lovers. Her heart leapt at the sight of the two lovers. One of them was quite obviously her in her current attire, glasses and all, but the other was unusual. It must've been Loki, it must have, but the skin was blue, the eyes were red, and there were other markings on him that Loki didn't have. He also wore a traditional pair of silken pants and a sash, these were gold and trimmed with green and red. She furrowed her brow and then a memory flashed before her. When Loki had wounded her with ice on Sylvanheim, when her hand had been terribly frozen, she had seen him blue and strangely marked. She stared more deeply at the mosaic and knelt, gently stroking the outline of the periwinkle that made his face and shoulders.

Darcy felt the small hairs on the back of her neck stand at attention as she heard his voice once more. "The garden lies breathless, Where Kama, the Deathless, In the hushed starlight, is waiting for you."