Dark Star
Elliot kept throwing glances over her shoulder at the stack of books resting on the table nearby to be sure that they were still there. The more she thought about Venya, the more she began to think that she was supposed to find the books. It just seemed to convenient, and Venya's sudden appearance reinforced that idea.
She returned to the bookcase and continued to pluck books individually from the shelves, opening each one to see if they contained information about Dark Elvish magic. Ndengina goth Tel'Quessir.
Ndengina goth Tel'Quessir wasn't a spell to remove invisibility. It had to be something else.
Elliot picked up a book bound in black leather and flipped through it aimlessly. Nothing caught her eye and she sighed, putting it away. What a horrible selection. How did they even manage to sneak those books about Thanos in here when this entire section is about geography? Elliot had never really been a fan of libraries; there were too many selections and nothing ever really caught her eye. If anything, she went to the library to sit at the computers and look up computer programming information.
Something shifted behind her and she turned, expecting to see Venya sitting on the edge of another table, her eyes lit with curiosity. Instead, sitting on the edge of the table, was Loki. His hard gaze kept her pinned to the spot and it took several moments for her to come up with something, anything to break the thick tension in the air.
"I need you."
"I know."
Loki held her eyes for a few moments before twisting his neck to look at the books on the table. "You found them, I presume." He picked one of the books up and examined the spine. "Interesting."
"It wasn't easy. I think I was tricked. Maybe. An elf told me where the books are, but I think she might be working for Thanos," said Elliot, watching as he flipped through several pages. "She has a brand, or a tattoo on her wrist. It looks like the symbol on the spine."
Loki raised his head, his eyebrows rising. "What is a tattoo?"
For a moment, she flashed him a crooked smile. "Never mind." It had been a while since she had to explain her Earth jargon to her Asgardian friends. Loki, she assumed, had no trouble understanding her colloquialisms.
"That description sounds like Pithrand."
"Who is that?"
He smiled, crookedly. "The prostitute. Or so I've heard, from the elves of the palace," he added to deflect any questions. Furthermore, he picked up the nearest book from the pile and opened the book to a random page.
Elliot watched Loki read silently for a few minutes, and then she remembered why she was looking for him. She walked over to him and reached for the piece of crumbled paper she'd written the spell on for him to look at. Blatantly, she placed the piece of paper over the book and Loki jerked back, surprised. "What does that mean?"
He read the paper for a few seconds, mouthing the words to himself. Loki's eyes narrowed. "It means 'kill the foe of the elves.' To command someone, to something under her control." Slowly, he made to stand up, and looked around. "Something that could be here, now. Take the books and leave Svartalfheim." Loki rolled down the sleeves of his tunic. "I will deal with the threat-"
"I don't think so!" snapped Elliot, suddenly.
"I'm not asking, I'm telling," Loki said through his teeth, whirling on her, stopping entirely too close for comfort. "You will take the books and go, or I will make you."
"Make me," countered Elliot, craning her neck to look at him. "Make me, without magic. I'm not going to play the part of damsel in distress because I'm 'Asgard's most valuable treasure.' This is my battle as much as it is yours." She was more than capable of fighting and defending herself, or else she wouldn't have gotten this far. She would have been killed in the Second Battle of Asgard. She took a step back, putting some distance between them. "Stop trying to make me the damsel in distress."
Loki's furrowed brows suddenly relaxed, and he considered her for a moment, his lips pressed into a line. "No, it seems not." It was a very vague thing to say, and Elliot tilted her head with confusion when he turned to gather the books in his arms. "Then perhaps you will take to this proposition instead." He held the books out for her to take and she reached for them with reluctance, unsure of what point he was making.
"Return to Asgard and enlist the help of our scribes to translate the material. It must be done in secret. This is a chance for you to conduct your research, to make substantial progress. While I handle the magic, you handle the logistics. It is a tactic, not a move to make you subordinate." Holding her gaze, he placed one hand on top of the pile of books. "I will not make you, because I am asking you."
The additional weight of Loki's hand on the books made the pile feel heavier in Elliot's hands, even though the books themselves weren't full of hundreds of pages.
A little smile touched her lips as she looked at him, commenting to herself how mercurial he could be. One minute he snarled at her when she refused to be sent away, and now he stood before her with a calm expression on his face, asking her to put her good skills to use. How in the world did she manage to get this far along with him?
Before Elliot could muster up a response, there was one long, droning note that came from above, as if it came from a trumpet. Together, they raised their eyes to the ceiling, listening as the sound carried on. It was not a traditional trumpet sound; this a long, deep note that continued for ages. Elliot looked at Loki, curious, but his eyes were still on the ceiling, his brow furrowed.
"That is not their sentry."
"Then what is it?"
Loki swallowed visibly, his eyes widening. "You wouldn't believe me if I told you," he said softly, a little fearfully.
New York
Kat Gena was leaning against the headrest of her chair, her eyes watching gray blades of the fans on the ceiling. It was the first time in a while that her inbox hadn't been flooded with emails from other S.H.I.E.L.D. employees, and she was going to take the time to enjoy it. Nothing but emails from all divisions across headquarters; special offers had been forwarding her emails from the City of New York asking when they would get reparations from the city-wide attack that happened almost six months ago. Fury had insisted that cleaning up the city and assisting in re-stabilizing the economy was enough, but the city demanded financial reparations.
It wasn't anything she wanted to deal with, but since her promotion to a Level 9 administrator, it had become part of her daily life. She missed working with computers, but since that day in New York, S.H.I.E.L.D. organized a restructuring of the entire organization. Technicians present during the Chitauri catastrophe were either promoted or dismissed and had their minds wiped; field agents were removed from their assignments or assigned elsewhere (or perhaps sent into hiding). Kat had been one of the lucky few to remain at S.H.I.E.L.D. She couldn't say the same for some of her friends.
Lord knows I need a nap, she thought, yawning loudly. As she stretched, her computer suddenly let off a series of three quick, high-pitched beeps. Kat groaned, and slid to her computer, tapping the computer screen several times.
The screen displayed a graph continuously monitoring energy spikes, and Kat's eyes widened when she noticed that within the past five minutes, the spikes had shot to ridiculously high levels. She rubbed the back of her neck, frowning, and then pressed a button on her phone on top of her desk.
"Sir? There are some really odd energy spikes in the atmosphere here," she said, unsure. "It's incredibly random, and it keeps spiking. The spikes are-" Kat squeaked, sitting upright with attention. "It's like New York."
It had been just about six months since the Chitauri decimated New York, and almost three months since several citizens of New York had reported seeing several Iron Man suits flying over a nearby harbor, only to explode in a show of miraculous fireworks. Since then, S.H.I.E.L.D. had been relatively quiet; most of the reports that came in showed nothing completely deviating from the usual.
So now that S.H.I.E.L.D.'s servers had detected a sudden spike in activity that was last seen when Loki wrecked havoc on New York City, Kat figured that they had every reason to be on on red alert.
"Organization-wide meeting, sir? Yes, of course," she stammered, clicking quickly through the graphs. "Yes, of course! You betcha sir, no problem." Her hands shook as she stood up, tossing her headset on the desk and covered her mouth. Kat stared at the readings again, her mind racing with thousands of possibilities.
She came back. Or he. Or them! thought Kat, covering her racing heart. I thought this was all over. Jesus, I thought it was over.
"Gena," came a male voice, sounding frantic. "We need to bring in the Cap'n. And Stark. And Agent Romanov at once!"
Svartalfheim
Pithrand's role wasn't to pose as a prostitute on Svartalfheim. It was much, much greater than that.
Elliot listened to Loki's words in her mind while she stood on the balcony with him, their heads tilted towards the darkened, gray skies of Svartalfheim. Loki hadn't spoken a word since the library but she knew something was wrong from the way his eyes stayed wide and alarmed with worry. She looked at him, studied the straight bridge of his nose. "What can you see?" she whispered over the swirling black dust beneath them.
"He's falling," said Loki, in a low voice. "Plunging through the Nine Realms, through space."
"Why?"
"He needs not to use such magic to move from place to place," he answered, his eyes moving as if could see Thanos falling in the sky above them. "He does it for show. He wants to be seen."
Elliot squeezed the stack of books tighter to her chest, swallowing. "It's like a show of victory."
"Pithrand's role wasn't to pose as a prostitute. It was to engage in dark magic, on his orders. To open bridges necessary for Thanos to fall through the Nine Realms, because Svartalfheim is home to dark magic here. That is well-known amongst all creatures." Loki blinked, once. "It was part of his plan, and that call was a signal that the conditions were right."
"What conditions?"
"I know not," Loki said, his eyes downcast. "I can imagine what conditions were needed. War. Tragedy."
Asgard, she thought immediately, gasping under her breath. "Loki, we need to go back. The both of us. Pithrand is beyond reach now, it's already been done. We need to go find Thor and tell him what we know."
"The Golden Prince saw the dark star falling as surely as we did," murmured Loki.
Elliot gripped his forearm and turned him with as much force as she could to meet her gaze. "For once, you need to settle your differences. Thanos is a threat to all of our existences. It's time, Loki." She kept her grip on the leather cuff around his wrist and let the sounds of swirling dust beneath them fill the silence. Loki kept his eyes on her, searching and looking for some reassurance in her.
He didn't need to say anything. She saw that he was scared – terrified – of what was to come, now that Thanos had managed to outwit them all and carry through with his plan, whatever it might be. A plan that would ultimately end in Loki's death and that future seemed more probable than ever. Every move they made, Thanos was one step ahead of them.
But Elliot's desire to see this one promise through eliminated any of the pessimistic thoughts that filled her mind. For so long she had made promises to herself, to her sister, to Megan; promises that ended with an unspoken "sorry" or "next time." The guilt that followed steadily built up over the years until she stopped making promises, instead deflecting with excuses.
Now she had none.
Maybe he saw that in her, or perhaps he realized that they needed to get to Asgard as quickly as possible, but he stepped forward and placed his free hand on top of her wrist. Elliot braced herself for the impending pressure on her ribs.
Above them, Pithrand had climbed to the top of the nearest tower of the palace to watch her master fall through the skies. Down below, she had a clear view of them, facing each other. Lazily, Pithrand dangled one leg over the edge of the tower, leaning forward to watch with a smile on her face. When they disappeared from sight, she stretched languidly and relaxed against the smooth spire of the tower, staring into the darkness of the clouds.
a/n:
ANOTHER!
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