With a whoosh of air and a screech that sounded like someone had pulled a bow across a violin just the wrong way, the balrog was sent back into the dimension that it had come from.
Silence now fell in the New York sanctum and both Emily and Stephen lowered their hands. The sorcerer supreme looked around him, seeing upturned tables and books strewn on the floor and what he suspected was a broken chair. He wasn't going to look at that too closely, he didn't want to know right this moment. He knew that there was a path of similar disarray through the building, and it would need to be cleaned up and the damage assessed, but not right now. It was well past midnight and even the sounds of New York outside had slowed to the occasional crunch of tyres on the road.
"Let's go to bed," Stephen said wearily, making his way to where Emily was slumped against a bookshelf. "We can deal with this later."
"You can deal with this," Emily muttered. "I have a shift tomorrow morning." She rubbed her eyes tiredly.
"Tell Tony something came up," Stephen looped an arm around her.
"He's not my direct boss. Plus, if I keep using the avengers as an excuse they'll just cut back all my shifts. I do actually like this job."
"Early mornings aside," Stephen chuckled quietly.
"Yea, that."
They walked slowly to their bedroom, Stephen keeping Emily upright and Stephen being kept upright by the Cloak of Levitation.
Both sorcerers barely bothered to undress before collapsing into bed.
The next morning Emily was awoken by her alarm, far earlier than her tired brain thought was appropriate. She flailed her arm out of bed to switch it off, glancing across to see if the noise had woken Stephen. He shifted in his sleep, but let out a gentle sigh and burrowed deeper into the blankets, clearly not awake. Emily nodded in satisfaction, and stumbled to the bathroom. There was no point in both of them being awake if they didn't have to be, not after the physical and metal effort last night had entailed.
It was only once she had been standing under the water spray of the shower for a few minutes, slowly waking herself up, that Emily lifted her arm to reach for the soap and froze.
All along her arm was a coppery bronze pattern. Vine leaves snaked from her shoulder down her arm and even down two fingers. She lifted her left arm and found a similar pattern on that, the vines snaking down her hand and looping around her ring finger and thumb instead. Gently running her hand over the pattern, she noticed it shimmer slightly, but it wasn't sore or raised or anything that felt unusual. It felt like skin, but where it had been bare last night there was now vines wrapping themselves around her arms.
Emily sighed, switched off the water and grabbing her towel, called out for Stephen. She was still intending to go to work, but he definitely needed to look at this before she left.
"What in the name of the Vishanti happened?" Stephen asked when he saw Emily's arms.
"I was hoping you'd know," she replied, putting eyeliner on. She was half dressed, with her arms on display.
"Are you sure it wasn't there last night?"
Emily sighed. "Honestly, I'm not sure. It definitely wasn't there before we started fighting the balrog. Everything after that is a tired blur in my mind. I mean, I fell asleep in my tunic last night, and so did you. Neither of us were in much of a position to notice anything unusual before we fell asleep."
They both went to the kitchen, undisturbed by the monster last night, and Stephen tried a couple of spells while Emily ate breakfast. Well, while she had a large cup of coffee and a couple of biscuits.
The spells gained no reaction other than to make the markings sparkle slightly after one.
Stephen ran a hand through his hair. "I'm sorry love, I don't know what's caused this."
Emily laughed humourlessly. "That's about typical for my luck, isn't it?"
Stephen smiled wryly at her. "Are you still going to go to work?"
She looked at the time. She was running late, but that was relative when she could use a portal to get herself from one side of the world to the other in an instant.
"It's only a half day shift. If you take photos, could you work on figuring this out while I work? We can try any spells or potions or whatever when I get back." She said to him.
He nodded. "Alright then. My phone's still by the bed."
After Stephen had taken detailed photos of the patterns on her arms, Emily put a cardigan on and opened up a portal outside her lab.
"How are you going to explain that if anyone asks?" Stephen said curiously.
Emily looked at her exposed hand, turning it in the light.
"The colour is similar enough to henna," she noted. "I can always use that. No one will look close enough to notice that it's sparkling."
Stephen nodded, walking over to give her a quick kiss before she left.
"Let me know if anything changes, or grows or anything." He instructed her. "It's magical and the last thing we need is for it to interfere with your own use of magic and cause problems. People are still wary of what we can do."
Emily nodded and then stepped through the portal. In a moment it sparked out of existence, leaving Stephen standing in their bedroom, phone in hand and still dressed in the crumpled and dirty robes he had been wearing yesterday.
He sighed and the Cloak of Levitation twisted in his direction.
"We have work to do," he said aloud. Then he looked down at himself, and scratched his cheek.
"But first a shower, a shave and clean clothes."
Stephen was sitting at his desk in the now tidied library, a handful of books opened around him and paper filled with writing in front of him. There was a long abandoned cup of tea at the far edge of the desk, sitting on top of a closed volume.
When Emily returned from work, the patterns hadn't changed or disappeared, so she opted to change into a singlet top. The weather was warm and this meant that all the vines were on show to inspect.
She wandered to the library to check on Stephen, but stopped when she saw there were three other people in the room as well as the Sorcerer Supreme.
"Hello everyone," she called out. "Have any of you eaten lunch?"
Four heads looked up from books and looked at her.
"How was work?" Stephen asked, standing and stretching before walking across to Emily.
"Fine." She responded. "I had a few questions but they were satisfied with the henna explanation."
Stephen nodded.
"Hey Emily," Peter greeted her. "I haven't eaten yet."
"Hello Peter. What about you two?"
She turned to the other two in the room. Wanda and Loki looked back at her.
"I had breakfast a couple of hours ago," Wanda shrugged. "But if you're making something then I'll eat."
"Lunch would be appreciated," Loki told her.
"Right. I'll see what I can come up with. I haven't done the groceries yet."
"I won't eat if it's too much hassle," Wanda said.
"Same." Peter responded.
Emily shook her head. "You'd be surprised about what I keep in the cupboard for emergencies," she smirked. "I'm guessing you're all helping Stephen work out what this is?"
She pointed up her arms.
Three heads nodded at her. Then Emily turned to Peter.
"Why aren't you at school?"
"He had a free period," Wanda replied. "He was bugging Stark about if he could come to the tower when Stephen arrived, so Peter came with us instead."
Emily hummed, then turned to leave the room. "Peter, can you give me a hand with lunch?"
The two of them departed from the room, leaving the three magic users to continue searching through books.
Once lunch was cooked, they all sat around the table in the kitchen. Wanda and Loki had left their books behind in the library, but Stephen had his notes on the table pointing to different things with his fork between mouthfuls. Peter had brought one of the books with him, shovelling noodles into his mouth with one hand, while turning the pages with the other, multitasking in a way that only high schoolers were capable of doing.
"Has any one heard of or seen something like this before?" Emily asked the table.
Wanda shrugged, but Loki and Stephen shook their heads.
"I do magic, I don't actually know anything about it," Wanda said apologetically.
"That's alright," Stephen said to her. "That's why I asked you here. Not only could I do with the help, but it's a good learning experience for you. And while looking for the cause of this, I'm sure you've found other information of interest in the scrolls you've looked at."
She nodded with a smile.
"There's a few spells that I know of that are similar to what has occurred," Loki commented. "But most of those are intentional. Strange tells me that you weren't aware of it until this morning."
Emily shook her head. "I don't know if it showed up this morning, or during the night, or while we were fighting the balrog."
"Definitely not intentional then," he mused.
"Not this time. But it would be useful for one of Tony's costume parties."
Peter snorted and Wanda laughed.
"One question," Wanda spoke up. "Wouldn't you have noticed all that when you changed for bed last night?"
Emily looked down at her plate and sighed. "No. It was after midnight and we were both exhausted from shoving the balrog back where it belonged. I managed to take off my shoes and belts and then I kinda just collapsed in bed." She admitted.
She turned to Stephen. "Actually, we need to figure out how the balrog got into this dimension to begin with."
"After we work out how you got covered in magical henna," he told her.
Emily raised her eyebrows at him. "This is weird, but it's not a danger to Earth. Or me. The balrog should probably be your first priority here, being Sorcerer Supreme: Protector of Earth. "
Stephen hummed. "If we can't find anything by the end of the day, then I'll turn some of my attention to the balrog. I would like to figure out what caused this and why."
Emily and Loki rolled their eyes but Wanda cooed at the two sorcerers.
"You two are so sweet," she told them.
"It's kinda disgusting," Peter replied with a laugh.
"That's enough from you," Stephen said archly with a smile. "Don't you have classes to be getting to?"
Peter looked at his watch and groaned. "Even if I swung there, I'm going to be late."
Emily shook her head in exasperation. "Tony and May would have my head if you got a note for being late."
She twisted in her chair and created a portal that opened just outside the gate to Midtown High school. As she did so, a ripple of bronze flared along the patterns on her arm, starting at the shoulder and flaring off her fingertips.
"That was, new," Emily commented.
"You will be repeating that in a moment," Loki said thoughtfully.
Peter just looked at her. "Is it safe?"
Stephen pursed his lips, looked at the portal and then nodded. With that confirmation, Peter grabbed his backpack and hurriedly stepped through.
"I'll drop by later," he called, as the sound of a school bell rang. Then Peter took off for the front door of the school.
It was mid-afternoon, and other than discovering that some spells caused the mystery patterns to sparkle while others didn't, they hadn't learnt anything. Emily and Stephen had gone back over their memories, both conscious and subconscious, of the battle yesterday with Wanda's help. Stephen was familiar with all the spells that the both of them had used, having learnt them alongside Emily or taught them to her himself. They hadn't had magical patterns as a side effect before now.
Stephen pinched the bridge of his nose.
"I'm starting to think this has never happened before," he groaned.
"Well something has to have caused this," Emily responded in exasperation. "And not that I don't love the design, but I don't really want this on my arms forever."
"Rotate your right arm counter clockwise," Loki instructed her.
Emily looked up in surprise, to see Loki sketching on some paper.
"You could just take some photos," She said to him, moving her arm obligingly.
"What I would prefer to do is take you to Asgard and get the healers to do an assessment," Loki told her. A slight frown crossed Stephen's face.
"Loki, I don't think that would be the best idea."
Loki held up a hand to stop Stephen's protests. "I am aware that I cannot take Emily to Asgard for a number of reasons, the least of all being your insecurities. That is why I said it is what I would prefer to do. It is not what I am going to do."
Stephen nodded at Loki to go on.
"I shall return with the sketches and notes that I have taken. The libraries of the Yggdrasil may have further information that the Sorcerer Supremes' have not had access to."
He stood and gathered all his papers.
"Thank you for the help, Loki," Emily said.
He nodded at her and smiled.
"There is no reason to worry. We will find something to sort this out."
Loki turned to Wanda.
"I am going back to Stark's tower to call Heimdall. Will you return with me or remain here?"
Wanda looked at Stephen, who shrugged and then smiled gently at her.
"I don't think anyone will be getting any further today," she said scrunching up her eyes. "And sorry Doctor Strange, but I think I'm all studied out."
"That's perfectly alright, Wanda. Your help has been greatly appreciated today." Stephen told her. "Yours as well, Loki. I would be grateful if you could find anything of interest in Asgard."
After collecting papers and a few more books that Wanda wanted to study in her own time, the two magic users left, leaving just Stephen and Emily in the sanctum.
"How are you really, with all this?" Stephen asked her gently.
Emily took a moment to think.
"I'm very confused, because I don't know how it happened. But I'm not in pain or any discomfort. I don't even feel it when it does the weird glowing thing."
Stephen nodded and stepped close to Emily.
"But you don't want it forever."
"Gods no," she agreed and walked into the embrace that he was offering her. "I want to have a choice about how I look. And I'd rather not advertise that I'm a sorcerer for everyone to see."
They stood like that for a moment, comforting each other .
"At least they haven't spread," Stephen commented when they broke apart.
"Small mercies," Emily muttered. Her eyelids were half closed, the lack of sleep and the worry of the day catching up with her.
"Go have a nap," Stephen said kindly.
"It's only 4pm, and Peter said he would drop by later." Emily would deny the fact she was whining.
"Though we don't have anything new to tell him." She added.
"Peter usually patrols after school. He won't be by until after dinner. And you look dead on your feet."
Emily sinks into a chair in the library. "I won't nap, but I might just sit here and read for a bit."
Stephen raises an eyebrow at her.
"Not research. Something else, something relaxing and fantasy." She waved her hand around vaguely. "Our lives are basically your fantasy stories as it is," he pointed out.
"It's relaxing when it's not actively happening to you," Emily replied.
Stephen chuckled in amusement. "I'll get you our copy of the Hobbit then."
"Thanks sweetie."
Peter did drop by after they had eaten dinner, which was prepared by Stephen as he wanted to let Emily rest; and because he felt just a little bit guilty that he was the Sorcerer Supreme and he hadn't been able to figure out what had happened to his own partner.
True to his nature, Stephen had gone back to studying the texts at his disposal, also looking into the history and tales around balrogs. It wouldn't be the first time that an adversary had tried to curse them as it was sent back to its own dimension.
At length, Stephen started scribbling madly and then looking through his notes for something else.
"Found something?" Emily asked, watching papers fall to the floor. They didn't actually hit the ground, as the Cloak of Levitation caught them at the last moment and lifted them back onto the desk and into neatly arranged piles.
"Maybe." Stephen replied. "Do you know what Balrogs are? Neither did I, until now. They aren't just balrogs. They were something else before they became what we saw. Something with their own inherent magical ability."
Emily nodded. "So it's entirely possible that the balrog did this to me?"
"It's the most reasonable suggestion I've come across." Stephen granted.
"I suppose someone should let Loki know," Emily sighed. "It might help him narrow down the search."
Stephen paused his movements to look at her.
"How do you suggest we do that? He doesn't have a phone, and even if he did I doubt it would work in Asgard."
"Heimdall," Emily smiled. "The watchman and guardian of the bifrost. He looks over the nine realms and will hear his name across all of them. It's how Thor and Loki can call on him to open the bifrost from where ever they are."
"So you're just going to call on him and tell him that we want to speak to Loki?"
"Yea," Emily shrugged. "That's basically the plan."
As far as plans went, it wasn't the worst one that either Emily or Stephen had come up with, let alone been involved in.
"Right," Loki nodded, taking in everything he'd just been told. "It will be easier to find information on balrogs or what they once were. From there it may be possible to determine what exactly happened."
"You think that the library in Asgard will have that sort of information?" Emily asked hopefully.
Loki smirked at her. "I know it will have that information. The All father has fought balrogs many times before. There will be as much information on these creatures as possible."
Emily let out a sigh of relief, and even Stephen looked like a weight had been lifted.
"I shall be staying here tonight," Loki told them.
"And why is that?" Stephen asked.
"Because I have travelled by bifrost three times today, at your request." He told them. "I am tired and I do not wish to undertake that form of travel again in such a short amount of time. So I shall be resting in one of the sanctum's spare rooms."
It was a reasonable demand, and it wasn't as though the sanctum was short on rooms. Emily stood to show him to the tidiest of the extra rooms, which luckily had a bed already made up as Peter occasionally stayed there overnight.
"It's alright, love," Stephen addressed Emily. "I can show Loki the way. There's something I want to discuss with him anyway."
Emily shrugged and sat back down. "Suit yourself. I was about to head to bed anyway. Night Loki."
Once Stephen was sure they were out of ear shot, he turned to the Asgardian.
"It's likely to have been a curse, isn't it?"
Loki nodded, pursing his lips. "Yes, but I've never seen a curse that is so," he searched for the word he was after.
"Inoffensive?" Stephen supplied.
"Yes." Loki agreed. "This is strange and mildly inconvenient. But as far as everyone has been able to tell, it has caused no harm."
Stephen exhaled slowly. "I think I need to tell you something."
Loki narrowed his eyes at the Sorcerer Supreme.
"What have you done, Strange?"
Stephen wouldn't quite meet Loki's eyes.
"I cast a protection charm on Emily, embedded in her very soul." He admitted. "It isn't particularly strong, but it's enough that it could change a death blow to a serious injury."
Loki tipped his head back to look at the ceiling.
"That is both the stupidest and possibly most disgustingly sweet thing I have ever heard of a Sorcerer Supreme doing." He commented.
Stephen shrugged unrepentantly.
"Nonetheless," Loki said to him. "I believe this is proof that the charm worked. The balrog most likely intended serious harm, and the charm has twisted it to this instead."
Stephen smiled in satisfaction.
"So we need to work out what the curse was and reverse that?" he asked.
"That would seem to be the best course of action," the Asgardian agreed.
They reached the room that Loki would be staying and went to part ways. But before Stephen could walk off, Loki called out to him.
"You know that you will have to tell Emily what you have done?"
Stephen closed his eyes but nodded.
"Very well. Good night, Strange."
And with that Loki went into the room and shut the door.
It wasn't until they were lying in bed that night that Stephen had worked out how to tell Emily what he'd done.
"Emily," Stephen began, sitting up to look at her.
"Ssssh," She mumbled sleepily. "It's bed time now."
"Emily, there's something I need to tell you."
Groggily she sat up, turning towards Stephen. She blinked away the sleep when she saw his expression. He looked sad and determined, and a little bit scared.
"What is it? What's happened? Am I actually dying?"
He swallowed once. "Loki and I are reasonably sure that the balrog meant to curse you."
"Then why have I only got these marks? They don't even hurt." Emily interrupted.
"Yea, about that." He stopped again. Took a deep breath. "Please don't be angry at me."
Emily looked at him and solemnly agreed.
"It took me a while to work out exactly how to do it, but I placed a protection charm on you. It's not going to make you impervious to all harm, but it will save your life. You can still get seriously injured but hopefully it wouldn't kill you."
Emily looked at Stephen in silence.
"I'm sorry? Please say something. Anything would be good." Stephen pleaded quietly.
"That's brilliant." Emily said finally. "Why would you waste that on me though? Surely there are other people that would be more worthy?"
Stephen shook his head. "You could easily be Sorcerer Supreme in your own right. If anything happened to me, I'd want you to take my place. And before you say anything, the Avengers have their own protocols. To me, there is no one more important than you."
Emily launched herself at him, burying her face in Stephen's neck as she hugged him.
"You're, not angry then?" Stephen clarified as he held her close.
"No, sweetie. I'm not," she replied. "Flattered and a little bit worried about your priorities, but not angry."
Eventually they pulled away to sleep, knowing that tomorrow they still had to work out the counter curse for whatever the balrog had thrown at Emily.
The sun was up and the bright light falling on Emily's eyes was what woke her. It was 9am and, when she looked over, the other side of the bed was empty as she had expected. The marks were still there on her arms, she confirmed when she showered.
By the time she made her way to the kitchen, it was empty. However, there was a plate in the sink with the remnants of toast crumbs on it and Stephen's cup was missing from the cupboard. She made herself a bowl of cereal and boiled the kettle. It had gone cold since Stephen had made his drink, so rather than just making a cup for herself, Emily took the teapot out. The sanctum was silent, the ambient noise of New York filtering in a muffled background to the constant thrum of magic that occupied the entire building. There was no evidence as to whether Loki was awake, asleep or even still in the Sanctum, but Emily grabbed an extra cup as she made her way to the library.
"Would you like some more tea?" Emily asked as she walked into the library.
Stephen looked up from the book he was taking notes from when he heard her.
"Morning." He replied. "Tea would be lovely, thank you."
As she was pouring the tea, Emily read the page over his shoulder.
"Winding tree roots, avalanche of leaves, petal suffocation. How delightful." She commented.
"Apparently there are enough ways of using plants to harm someone that there is at least one entire book dedicated to it," Stephen told her, lifting the tome up.
"Plant power: A hedge witch's guide to curses and charms using the natural world," she read. "Well, that's a start."
Stephen hummed his agreement as he took a small sip of his tea.
"I've made note of anything involving vines or climbing plants." Stephen told her. "We can compare them to what Loki finds when he returns at midday."
Emily nodded at him. "I'll do the same then. I'll keep an eye out for strangulation or immobilisation as well. They're the two most likely intended outcomes from the curse. "
Stephen nodded absently, then frowned and watched Emily for a moment. She saw him looking and kissed his cheek as she went past.
"I'm fine," she reminded him.
Loki arrived right on midday.
"Is that the time already?" Emily commented as she raised her head from the book of defence spell she had been examining.
"Good day to you as well," Loki said sarcastically.
"Yes, hello Loki," Stephen said, barely managing to not roll his eyes.
"I believe I have found something of interest. It's about the origins of the balrog and their powers."
"Thanks Loki, that's great. Do you want to tell us over lunch?" Emily asked as she stood up.
"I am amenable to that."
Stephen stood as well. "I'll go make something." He offered. "I can't let Loki think you're the only one who does any cooking."
Emily rolled her eyes at him, but agreed.
Loki sat down and looked over Emily. She shifted anxiously under the scrutiny of his green eyes.
"He told you?" Loki said eventually.
"About the protection charm, yea." Emily confirmed.
Loki nodded once. "Good. Make no mistake, Emily. That is a complicated spell. He is more powerful than most give him credit for."
She looked at the Asgardian curiously.
"You think the curse was meant to kill me."
He inclined his head. "Quite likely. At the very least it would have totally immobilised you.
Emily sagged against the chair she was sitting in. "I need to be more careful. I should have been more aware of what was going on."
Loki shrugged. "From what I saw, it was a lucky shot. And your focus was, rightly, on the spell you were casting. This sort of thing happens in battle."
They were quiet for a bit, until Emily pushed her notebook towards him.
"Could you look at these? Maybe narrow down which ones you think are more likely?"
Loki picked up the book and a pen and started reading, murmuring under his breath occasionally.
By the time Stephen returned with chicken Caesar wraps, Loki had crossed off most of the curses on Emily's list.
"Alright, what did you find?" Stephen asked as he placed the plates down.
Loki picked a wrap up and looked at it curiously.
"Balrogs are a corruption of a much older species. Their powers turned towards evil, and twisted them into what we saw today."
Loki glanced across at Emily, who was nodding while chewing on a mouthful of food.
"Despite this corruption, their powers still come from the original source. They are under a certain higher being or god, which had dominion over things such as the air, the sun, the moon etc."
"So, their powers would focus on spells and curses based on this source?" Stephen asked while Loki took a bite of food.
The other man nodded. "I was able to find a list of the sources and cross referenced them against the known Maia and Balrogs. If you knew which balrog you were fighting that would help considerably."
Emily and Stephen both shook their heads.
"The best I could do would be to give you a description, but I feel like all Balrogs look much the same," Emily said.
"If they are based on sun, moon or air then technically this curse could have come from anyone."
Here Loki smirked at him.
"I have done more research, Strange. I believe I could suggest which dominion your balrog originally belonged to. "
Stephen waved his hand in an indication to continue.
"There were a group under Yavanna, the fruit giver. Vines are plants, and plants bear fruit."
Emily smiled at Loki's words. "So, this is likely a plant based curse?"
Loki nodded. "There are a couple of the defensive curses you found that may also create vines if they were coming from someone who specialises in nature, but most likely the book Strange was reading will have the curse."
"So now we look for the counter curse to each of these and try it?" Stephen asked, wiping his hands.
"Trial and error, yay." Emily said drily. "Do you want me to contact Wanda?"
"The more magic users we have, the quicker this will be sorted." Stephen agreed. "And the less we will tax everyone's reserves."
"With four people we should have this off of me by tonight," Emily smiled.
"Three," Stephen corrected her.
She looked back in confusion.
"I'd rather not risk you trying it yourself in case the curse has a failsafe designed to stop the victim from removing it themselves." He explained.
"I really dislike that I'm saying this," Loki added. "But I agree with Strange."
Emily tipped her head back in annoyance. "Fine. I'll go ring Wanda and the two of you can start looking for counter curses then."
The sun had well and truly set and they were down the last handful of counter curses. None of the previous ones that succeeded, but only one had produced a shower of sparks that was aimed at the caster. They were mostly harmless sparks, however it was Stephen who had been the caster and the shower was enough to cause the Cloak of Levitation to abandon its position on his shoulders and instead hover on the far side of the room. Emily had laughed when Wanda had likened the ancient artefact to a startled and slightly petulant child.
They were down to four counter curses and Stephen and Loki were arguing over the best way to pronounce it.
"It is an old spell. Older than any of your languages," Loki argued. "It is more likely to be said in the tongue of Asgard, or even Vanirheim."
"It's a counter curse," Stephen disputed. "With the right intent it shouldn't matter what the language. I certainly didn't hear the balrog say anything when it cursed her."
"And I'm sure you were paying a huge amount of attention to what it was doing, compared to what you were casting." Loki said snidely. "Asgardian would barely sound like a language to your ears. You would not have even recognised if a curse had been uttered."
"Could they not try it in each language?" Wanda asked Emily quietly.
"Probably. I can't see why not."
"Should we, suggest that to them?" She asked warily.
Emily chuckled and nodded.
"Any reason you can't do it in each language?" Emily raised her voice to be her over the bickering.
Stephen looked at her thoughtfully, and she could see the possibilities and consequences running through his head.
"No," he admitted. Then he looked over at Loki.
"I can foresee no adverse effect to trying that," the Asgardian confessed.
"Great, argument over. Get over here and try it." Emily spread her arms out to her sides and waited.
It turned out that the counter curse responded slightly to English, the marks fading slightly but not going completely. Loki tried the same counter curse in Asgardian next, which had no effect, before moving on to the language of the Vanir. However, he became tongue tied part way through and mispronounced a word.
"I apologise," Loki said, taking a sip of water. "I will try that one again."
"Wait!" Wanda exclaimed.
They turned towards her and she pointed at Emily's arms. The leaves of the vines were cracking like autumn leaves, and as they all watched they disappeared entirely. And then the branches were shrinking to thin lines.
"I don't think you said anything the wrong way at all, Loki," Wanda told him a little breathlessly. "I think it needed to be said like that all along."
Emily was looking at her arms, turning them and watching with a smile as the markings disappeared.
"Can you look on the back of my arms?" She asked Stephen.
"They're gone," he told her gently. "All the marks have gone."
A laugh bubbled out of Emily, and she flung her arms around him. Then she turned to Loki with a wide grin.
"Thank you," she said sincerely as she gave him a more gentle hug. Loki's eyes went wide before he hesitantly returned the hug. Emily pulled back sensing his slight discomfort.
"We wouldn't have been able to do it without you," she told him.
He gave her a small smile. "I know. I am just not yet used to being thanked for my magic."
"Get used to it," Wanda told him. "You're one of us now."
The rumbling of Emily's stomach broke the moment.
"Dinner?" She asked. "I was thinking maybe Greek, to celebrate."
"Only if you're ordering those vine leaf things," Wanda replied cheekily. Then she paused, her eyes wide. "Unless, you don't want to see anymore vines. That's okay. I totally understand."
"Dolmades," Stephen said. "And I think we can order them anyway." He winked at Emily who just laughed.
That night, as Emily was changing for bed she noticed Stephen looking at her arms.
"What?" she asked cautiously.
"Nothing," he assured her. "It's just that I've spent the last two days staring at the patterns on your arms, and now they're gone."
"Which I'm glad about," she emphasised.
"I know." He assured her. "I won't say you look better or worse with or without them. But I'm happy to see you happy."
"Sap," Emily replied as she got into bed.
Stephen hummed in agreement as he turned the light off.
"Night, sweetie."
"Night, love." He replied. "No more surprises, okay?"
"Agreed."