Sorry for the shortness, this is a filler chapter.
I've also changed the summary.But- Amora's brought into this!
Loki had only finished speaking before footsteps and once more a woman walked up the steps.
This time her hair was blonde, as was normal for almost the entire population of Asgard. Her hair hung free around the middle of her back, not nearly the beautiful sheen or glimmer of Sigyn's natural locks. She wore the signature cloak of all of the woman here, although her cloak was pulled open, showing to the word her rather…form fitting, dark green outfit. It wasn't the emerald of Loki's eyes, more of a Malachite colour with bold black stitches, matching her wickedly long black nails and the small black cat eye dashes which pointed up almost demonically as she smiled, a venomous sick smile fitted with her scarlet lips.
"My my, Loki. Whatever are you doing here?" She asked with a mock sigh, slowing her walk to a standstill, where one hip jutted out pointedly as she rested her dangerously long nails upon it. She blinked slowly, the cat eye marks dashing off from the corner of her eyes shifting ever so slightly with the movement.
"Surly you can sense the magic, Amora. What else would I be here for? A lesson on Ward Breaking?" Loki asked, bantering with the young and almost viper of a woman, who laughed at his words. Her laugh was high and fake, obviously the two were on familiar terms although if the intentions were friendly or spiteful was unknown.
"Be sly, Trickster. Lady Lúta approaches most…infuriated." The woman, Amora smirked, a small rather sick looking action, as if to anger him.
"You best run then, Amora. That mangy wolf and the old cow would expulse you with naught but a look if you were seen conversing with I." Loki spoke, voice drawling before pointedly arching an eyebrow, leaving Amora to give a slight sniff and turn, walking away with her hips swaying purposefully.
The Avengers blinked, not exactly sure as to what happened with the entire exchange. Loki smiled once more, looking them over before speaking. "I apologize; Amora is filled with greed, and constantly seeks to find a new weapon that counters my own." He explained.
"Weapon?" Steve asked, suddenly looking around cautious as Loki flipped one hand almost carelessly, "Would you prefer the term, toy?"
Clint squawked, attempting to say something but silenced himself as Steve gave him a warning look, obviously the idea of just how precarious their situation was.
"Who was that?" Natasha asked, having remained quiet enough to seem like a phantom among the group. Her voice startled everyone out of their thoughts as Loki's eyes drifted to her, noticing her armor that looked distinctly like Sif's with a frown.
"That was Sorceress Amora; she joined the Halls of Skjaldborg many decades ago. She is…frustrated, with my disbanding of the Hall." Loki spoke easily, leaning against the pillar and casually looking over the railing and looking at the main opening below.
"Disbanding?" Bruce asked, the word sounding weird on his tongue as he stumbled to speak it slightly. If Loki noticed, he didn't say anything, instead examining his fingernails as if bored.
"I found the Head Sorceress had little to teach me, the art of Ward Casting is child's toy." Loki scowled slightly, glaring at the metal ceiling above, illuminated by blue fire from the various torches.
"Isn't magic all the same?" Tony asked, as Loki choked seemingly, looking at him as if Tony had spat on his shoes, or said something particularly creative and vulgar.
"Seidr is one of the most advanced arts in all the nine realms. If you think that all it is, is a few words and a shield then you are more a imbecile then even these barbarians. Watch your tongue, mortal." Loki hissed, looking all in himself insulted.
Tony blinked, recoiling while Steve, Clint and Natasha looked baffled. Bruce nodded slightly, as if he could understand why.
"Sorry, we don't really know much about Siedr-"
"Seidr." Loki corrected with a small frown, "it is divided upon seven categories. Most Seidr users only use one, various species use each type of Seidr. Warding, Transmutation, Nature, Destruction, Conjuring, Shape shifting and my favorite Illusion." Loki spoke, looking up and at Bruce, who managed to look somewhat interested.
"The Vanir use Nature magic, right?" Tony asked, and Loki's eyes darkened slightly with confusion as his voice lifted higher in disbelief.
"Vanir? I dare not ask how you know of such things, the Vanir are a savage species. One has better luck facing Jotun then an angry Vanir." Loki spoke, shaking his head in disbelief just as more footsteps appeared up the staircase.
The group turned, seeing the lady as she appeared on the steps. Hood pulled high and hair tied out of sight.
"Follow me, spare rooms have been provided. If you dare make nuisance, the option to reject your admission is not to be dismissed." Sorceress Lúta spoke with no emotion, walking past briskly and leaving the group to scramble after.
"Aren't we supposed to be an oddity or something?" Steve asked hurriedly, Lúta didn't even turn her neck to look at Steve as she responded swiftly. "The Halls are filled with imbeciles of students. We care not for meaningless tasks, even at the request of the Allfather. If you perish, it is not our fault, however we will not waste our talents and sorceress upon you." Sorceress Lúta spoke sharply, turning away from the stairs and onto an old slightly leaning hallway, fitted with a pile of dusty mead barrels. She paused, pointing to three doors with a slight scowl. She didn't pause to see if they had made sure to recognize the doors before turning and vanishing once more.
"Pleasant isn't she?" another drawling voice. The group turned, jumping in surprise as Loki was sitting on one of the old barrels lent along the stone walls. One knee drawn up to bend and rest on the rim of the barrel, another hanging freely as his arms crossed over his chest in his slouched posture. His entire aura radiated calmness, as if Loki had preferred the position of sitting on the barrel, his black cloak new and glossy as it lay under him.
"How did you-" Steve started, cutting off and blinking hopelessly, staring at Tony who seemed just as surprised.
"Illusions come simple to me. Even as it is an Elven magic, it is a pleasure to know the Seidr wielding of Asgard know not of my abilities." Loki explained casually, blinking slowly as he rested on the barrel.
"Really? That's- wow." Tony blinked, thinking for a few seconds, "Do you mind if I run a few tests?"
Loki blinked, looking at Tony with a slightly masked expression of bafflement and something else, "Tests? Are you an alchemist? A builder?"
Tony paused before slowly nodding, "In some ways, I mostly build stuff but I also invent-"
"You are a tradesman. I fail to understand these…tests." Loki spoke, voice lifting slightly at the end, as if he was unsure of the context of the word.
"To understand Seidr better- trials to see how energy is converted, or what you're supposed to do to generate it." Bruce tried to explain, leaving Tony out. All Tony would manage would be to quite possibly confuse Loki even more.
Clint and Natasha exchanged looks while Steve felt the slightest bit sympathetic with Loki's confusion.
"I- you wish for me to…teach you?" Loki asked, voice slightly hesitant as he obviously wasn't sure how to interpret Bruce's words.
"Yes! Bruce, think of the scientific discoveries!" Tony shouted, grabbing Bruce's shoulders and shaking him slightly, causing Bruce to jump at the rough handling.
"Stark." Natasha spoke, warning in her voice as Tony gave a slight pout. Clint was still looking at Loki warningly, unsure and slightly shocked by the care freeness of the younger Trickster.
Steve just looked baffled while Tony was looking rather excitedly at Loki, practically vibrating in excitement.
"I will leave you to settle amongst your quarters, no matter how…petty, they seem to be." Loki spoke, noticing the shabby state of the hallway and the poorly illuminated stone corridor cakes with dirt.
Loki rose, slipping down off of the barrel, his feet touching the ground as his cloak brushed his armored calves awkwardly, as if the cut of the cloak was something he was not used to.
"Wait- you can't just go away! You're supposed to teach me-"
"Us." Bruce reminded with a sigh, Tony ignoring him completely, "Us, magic!" Tony finished and Loki blinked slightly in surprise, as if not accustomed to Tony's exuberant personality.
"You were speaking truth and not of jest?" Loki asked voice slightly crisp and cooler as if expecting the group to lash out and laugh.
Tony blinked in surprise to the sentence. 'Loki has self confidence issues?' He thought to himself as he grinned back. "Of course! Those harpy's aren't going to teach us, downstairs." Tony shrugged, rolling his shoulders.
Loki blinked, recoiling ever so slightly that it was barely noticeable to the untrained eye. Natasha and Clint, saw it.
"I- midday upon next morn, behind the Hall. Would that be satisfactory?" Loki asked with a slight drawl, almost as if mocking him. Tony grinned, and Loki lifted his chin up on a minuscule scale, as if to regain his regal appearance.
Loki walked past, not completely stiff with calculating footsteps but with a looser relaxed steps, giving a slight nod to Natasha, Clint, and Steve.
"A pleasure being acquaintances. Lady." Loki nodded, looking at Natasha before gently and rather robotically brushing his lips over the back of her hand.
Natasha said nothing as he gently released her hand, withdrawing it and brushing by without saying a word, as well as Clint who momentarily glared at Loki before moving past, shoulders clicking armors.
Loki walked down the steps, seeming to vanish between taking a step, a slight shimmer over his body. The shimmer was similar to that of the illusion which had given them directions to the feasting hall back in proper time.
Loki vanished.
Tony stared, some part of his mind wondering how it was possible for a living creature to vanish before his eyes, while understanding that it was likely an illusion.
Tony waited, looking at the steps as if imagining Loki, or even that woman Amora to rise up once more. Of course, nobody actually ascended the steps, and Tony sighed.
"Tony, Clint said that he'd stay with Steve in his room. We have a bedroom too- smaller then the palace, but it has two beds." Bruce spoke, giving a small awkward smile as Tony turned, brushing past into the small room.
He blinked, standing in the slightly gloomy and stone room, the glass paneled window looking gloomy and small in the dimly lit chamber.
"Dear god- let me guess, the bed is made of straw, and the pillow is a burlap bag?" Tony asked dryly, sitting on one of the beds and wincing slightly as the rope support creaked against his weight.
"We have a chamber pot too." Bruce spoke, his leather boot tapping the white porcelain device.
Tony stared at it in slight shock before he dropped back, wincing as he lay sprawled on the straw and rope bed.
"You know what really sucks?" Tony asked and Bruce frowned, sitting on his own bed. Bruce didn't have that much of an issue, having slept in much worse conditions before. "What?"
"This." Tony spoke, letting out a low groan which seemed to drag on as if an imitation of a whine.
Bruce shook his head, finding the entire situation slightly amusing, "Go to sleep Stark."
Tony frowned, giving him a playful scowl and grabbing the pillow, flopping on it and attempting to get comfortable.
Dang, the pillow was burlap.
Just to clarify because i know there will be a few questions.
1. Amora is acting all rude and such because i thought that it would add in an aspect of a magic!rival. They aren't as close as displayed in a few subjects, Amora is jealous of Loki's 'quick understanding' of magic, while initially they were friends when they just started.
2. Sigyn will come in.
3. I want to have Clint and Natasha having an understanding with Loki, and i'm not sure what over.
Please- Do you think the understanding should be about Algrim (The dark elf?)?
For any of you who haven't seen Tales of Asgard, Algrim was a Dark Elf who was in Odin's court, although initially was practically a godfather to Thor and Loki. In the end Algrm betrayed the two, and Thor spared his life. Loki swooped in at the last moment and killed Algrin just as Thor turned his back to walk away and give mercy. The ending was practically Loki becoming all shaken up over him killing another living creature, not to mention how close he was.
So? Ideas?
Thanks!
~Oceanbreeze7
