The Art of Lore: Chapter 5: Their might in war

Author: starhawk2005

Fandom: Marvel's Avengers

Date: Nov 2016

Pairing: Loki/ Jane (Lokane)

Rating: Adult (18+).

Summary: Loki takes Jane to the Dark World

Disclaimer: Marvel owns it all, except for the occasional OC.

The next week passes in much the same way, in a blur of amazing discoveries for Jane. Through it all she documents as much as she can, uploading everything to her laptop nightly (thank God she brought her four terabyte external hard drive!) to make sure there's enough room on her cameras to take more pictures.

Among the highlights are Loki showing her the teleporter room again, and though one of the Elves tries to explain the process to her, most of it is incomprehensible to her, described in terms she can't easily translate into science.

From what she can glean, the Light Elves take magic from the Source to fuel the transporter discs, and that energy moves people from one disc to another as needed, but the actual mechanics of it don't make any sense to her.

How can one quantify magical 'energy'? What are the physical properties of that energy? The limits on it? She has no clue where to begin, and quizzing Loki on it night after night is no help at all either. Most of his responses are along the lines of 'because that is the nature of magic' or 'because that is the nature of our universe', or Jane's current personal (un)favourite, 'because it just is'. It frustrates Jane to no end, being faced with a problem she can't even begin to solve. Though at least she has her own, proven portal at home, so that takes some of the edge off.

Another highlight, from a scientific perspective, is when Loki takes her to see the massive machines that keep the city aloft. They also take their power from the Source but this time the energy is translated somehow into thrust, though the output is much less noisy than anything Jane's seen on Earth, outside of the Helicarrier in stealth mode anyway. Tony would kill to find out how they're pulling it off, Jane's sure.

She also wonders at first why the Elves seem far less curious about her (beyond her apparent position as Asgardian royalty anyway) than she would have expected. Until Loki explains that the Light Elves visited Earth centuries ago, and therefore humans are not that mysterious to them (if rare to see on Alfheim itself).

Looking back, however, Jane will later decide that the most thrilling moment of all during their Alfheim visit is something far more low-tech. It's the day Loki takes her back to the first balcony-pasture they saw when they arrived here.

An elf who introduces herself as Da'ia first brings over a small herd of those fascinating Alfheim horses. As they feed the animals with the Alfheim version of sugar cubes and scratch their long necks and around their horns, Loki explains that the two-horned ones are referred to as bicorns, the three-horned as tricorns, and the winged ones (regardless of the number of horns they have) as alicorns.

Darcy's going to freak out when she sees the pictures, Jane thinks. OK, so the bicorns have two horns growing side-by-side, framing their bushy forelocks, and the tricorns look a bit like the mammalian version of a triceratops, but still. It's close enough to a unicorn, right?

Jane has to wonder aloud at how remarkably similar these animals are to Earth horses, at which point Da'ia informs her that the original horses were brought over from Midgard, and then bred to local animals to yield the first bicorns, and later careful breeding the tricorns and alicorns. More proof that elves did visit Earth in the past…I guess that explains how the 'pointy-eared' thing made it into Earth lore about elves. It's no coincidence.

Just being close to such unique animals would already have been incredible enough for Jane, but then Da'ia murmurs to the horses in an unusual sing-song language and rubs their noses, and then she leads two of the bat-winged alicorns away.

She returns a few minutes later with them saddled, introduces them as Zei'ru and Mai'tet, and holds out the reins with a smile to Loki…and Jane!

Jane gulps hard and hesitates. They don't actually expect me to ride a flying horse, right? That's going to be a long way to fall. Mai'tet snorts and nudges her with his nose (fortunately hornless) as if he can tell what she's thinking. While these horses seem placid enough, Jane's only experience riding has been on Asgard, and that maybe a handful of times. While sitting behind another rider.

Riding solo? Not so much. Riding solo on a flying horse? Double not so much.

"Um, thanks for the offer, but no," she protests. "I'd love to, but...I like staying alive more," she adds with a nervous laugh and a sideways glance at Loki, worried now about offending their hosts.

"Midgardians have grown out of the habit of riding their own such animals. At the present time they generally ride in great metal wheeled beasts," Loki explains to Da'ia.

"Yes, I have heard tell of those conveyances. Still, such a lack of experience is remedied easily enough," Da'ia counters with a broad grin and a quick gesture of respect to them both. She leads both mounts away again, and this time when she returns Mai'tet is unsaddled, galloping off to join the others frolicking in the long grasses. Zei'ru, the larger of the two, trots calmly at the she-elf's heel, now wearing a saddle that is obviously engineered to carry two riders.

"I still don't know about this," Jane whispers to Loki, scratching the alicorn's nose to buy herself some time as Da'ia steps back to give them room.

"It's a child's saddle," Loki explains. "The Light Elves use it to teach their children to ride alicorns. You have little to fear." Before Jane has the time to object further Loki lifts her into the front part of the saddle. "Courage, my Jane," he says in a low voice as she clutches at his forearms with anxious fingers, "You who destroyed the beast Thanos, what is a mere romp through the sky to such as you?" Amusement glimmers far back in the depths of his eyes.

Jane frowns and glares at him - C'mon, really? – but he shows no signs of relenting, so with a huff she allows him to settle her in the saddle. He guides her feet to the first set of stirrups, adjusting them to her shorter height, and then he attaches a wide leather band around her waist, securing her in place. Then he practically leaps into the saddle behind her, reaching past her to take the reins. No 'seatbelt' for him, she notices with an annoyed grind of her teeth. He inclines his head regally to Da'ia and then clucks his tongue at their mount.

Zei'ru launches himself forward, galloping across the field. Powerful muscles bunch under her and she has to bite her tongue hard not to shriek and startle the big stallion as he leaps into the air. She settles for grabbing the animal's mane in a death grip as they rise through the air, though they soon level out and begin to wheel around in a slow, gliding circle. The clouded edge of the city drops away beneath them and the majestic landscape of mountains and trees is revealed below.

Jane grips even tighter to the alicorn's mane despite the cramping beginning in her fingers, feeling the alicorn's muscles continue to squeeze and release underneath her thighs. Wings beat rhythmically behind her and the icy wind nips at her face, stinging until Loki mutters something behind her and the air around them warms to a more comfortable temperature.

She feels his breath tickle her ear. "Are you well, Jane?"

Turning to look back over her shoulder at him, and now grinning so much her jaw aches, she answers: "Am I 'well'? I'm flying on the back of a freakin' unicorn on an alien planet - I'm AWESOME!"

"An alicorn," Loki corrects her, smiling tolerantly. "I knew this would excite you in the end, my fierce little Valkyrie." Jane just giggles, shakes her head, and goes back to admiring the jaw-dropping view. And occasionally she stops to marvel at just how far she's come from her makeshift lab in dusty, isolated Puente Antiguo.


In all they spend ten days on Alfheim, at least according to Jane's watch, though the days are longer on Alfheim by six hours compared to Earth days.

But now, after a variety of truly amazing sights, sounds, tastes and smells, as well as after a final farewell dinner with Queen and Consort (during which Jane had done her best to describe the Stark-Foster portal saga and its science to them), Loki informs her that it's time to move on, particularly if she intends to stick to her 'schedule'.

He offers for at least the fifth time to buy Zei'ru and have him brought to Earth, but Jane refuses each time. "Fury and SHIELD will have a collective aneurysm," Jane tells Loki, though he doesn't seem to think this is a worthwhile excuse at all.

Back on the forest floor, Jane takes a last lingering look across the pool they visited when first arriving on Alfheim. She tosses a few final crumbs to the bird-fishes, wishing she'd never told Fury and Phil (and Tony) that she'd be gone only two months or so on honeymoon. But we can always come back, right? Well, once Loki is released from 'house arrest' on Earth anyway. But let's get real, it'll probably take me years just to process all this!

There's also the thrill of the unknown, calling to her.

So she dusts off her hands and follows Loki to the spot where they first set foot on Alfheim, where the end (beginning?) of his natural pathway between the stars lies.

"Where shall we journey to next, my love?" he asks.

Jane thinks back to the images of the 'Realms' he first showed her in the desert back on Earth. Asgard? Jotunheim? Home? She shakes her head minutely. I've seen the Light Elves and their wonderful home, I suppose it's only fitting that we visit the flip-side next.

Decision made, she looks up at him and smiles. "Let's see the planet of the Dark Elves next."


This time when the white light of the natural 'bridge' fades away, Jane is left in utter and complete darkness. It's also hot and stuffy in a way that immediately makes her feel suffocated.

She's damned glad she can still feel Loki's hand in hers, otherwise-

Jane may not be able to see him, but she feels him shift next to her, and soon after a globe of pale white light blooms above and in front of them, startling her at first. Her eyes adjust quickly to the improvised light, taking in the craggy stone walls around them. "What the-?" Her voice echoes strangely.

"We seem to be within a cave," Loki states. "There are many on the surface of Svartalfheim." He releases her hand, taking a few steps away to examine one end of the high-ceilinged tunnel they are standing in. Then he passes her to assess the other end. "Come," he says at last, holding a hand out to her, the globe of light moving to trail after them. "This is the way to the surface."

"How can you tell?" she asks, trotting to keep up with his longer stride. "Magic?"

He smirks down at her. "Not anything nearly so esoteric. The air this way is slightly less stale. Well, for Svartalfheim."

The cave walls around them are formed of rock mottled in black and grey, threaded here and there with thin veins of white. The occasional stalactite and stalagmite stab their way into their path from time to time, forcing Loki and Jane to weave around them.

After what Jane thinks might be five minutes, the tunnel begins to slope sharply upwards, and Jane abandons any other questions she might have asked, clutching Loki's hand in a death-grip to maintain her balance as small rocks and bits of gravel slip beneath the soles of her sneakers. At some point she notices there's light in front of them now, though Loki's magical floating lightbulb is far brighter.

The ground banks even more steeply and Jane has to grab at Loki's elbow. But after a few steps the tunnel levels out again and she can see the mouth of the cave in front of them, and beyond that, a cloud-covered sky.

A little ledge outside the cave is where they pause, Jane taking the opportunity to catch her breath and look around. It's not much cooler out here, so Jane shrugs off her hoodie, Loki helpfully making it disappear into his Interdimensional Closet as Jane studies the landscape.

She remembers the (ugly, if the truth be told) dark grey clouds from the vision Loki showed her, and here they are again, filling the sky as far as the eye can see. Which is a shame, because they are backlit by a gorgeous golden light. Once in a while, when a couple of the clouds drift slightly apart, a shaft of pure golden yellow light pierces down to the rocky ground. It would be a beautiful day, if only the clouds weren't so thick! Jane laments.

"Behold Svartalfheim, former home of the Dark Elves," Loki intones gravely from behind her.

Jane shakes her head. Talk about polar opposites! Alfheim, so full of life and light, and this place, so grey and gloomy and…dead. Far off, Jane hears the rumble of thunder, and a hot, stale wind whips at the ends of her hair. It's pretty warm on this planet. "Yeah, I see what you meant earlier. This place isn't all that hospitable, is it?"

"No, it is not," he agrees, appearing at her elbow. "No life of any kind flourishes here, not since the last Great War. Such was the high cost of the Dark Elves' hatred of light." He motions with his chin at the ominous clouds.

Jane blinks. "What? You mean, they did that?"

"Indeed. Their magic and their will filled the heavens, until there was no region on the globe where the sunlight would fall unimpeded."

"Jesus," Jane mutters, shaking her head again and wrapping her arms around herself against a shudder. "Guess I won't be doing much star-gazing here."

"I will aid you in that regard," Loki promises. "I can, for a time, open a hole in the cloud-cover if you so wish. I wager there will be little else here to interest you, other than the stars. And perhaps the ruins."

"Ruins?" she asks.

"Of their underground cities, and of the ships they used to cross between Realms," Loki clarifies, and Jane's eyes widen in shock.

"Wait, you mean starships?" she asks incredulously. For all the technology Jane had seen on Alfheim, there had been no starships. Not that they'd needed them however, considering their portal 'technology' (or magic, or whatever it

was).

"Correct. They did not employ Bifrösts as Asgard and Alfheim do. In that way, the Dark Elves were not so different than Midgard. Would you like to see what remains of those ships? Even long past their prime, I expect you will find them fairly fascinating."

"Yes, please," Jane agrees readily enough. They're here, so they may as well see the sights. Such as they are, anyway.

Loki closes his eyes, plainly concentrating, and after a few moments he reaches for her hand. The world around them whites out in a way that has become completely familiar to her as he teleports them away.

The next thing Jane knows, they're standing in a wide canyon with dark, jagged cliffs rising on either side of them. The ground beneath the soles of Jane's sneakers is a mix of black gravel and dusty grey sand, heat rising from it to warm the soles of her feet through her sneakers. Massive rusting hulks litter the ground as far as the eye can see.

It's only once they approach the first one that Jane realizes what she's actually looking at. Her mouth falls open as she stares around at the crumbled tangles of metal. "Holy-"

A few of the ships' sections are at least partially whole, enough of them that Jane can get a general idea just how huge these ships were in their day. They were tall enough to rival some of our skyscrapers, she thinks in awe.

She moves towards the nearest almost-whole-looking section. She has to pick her way carefully (well, she does after the second time she trips over some debris anyway) through the metal and the sharp rocks that litter the ground, her feet sinking into the sand at every step. Loki trails silently after her.

It's a long tubular section she's aiming for, though Jane pauses by a ragged

tear in its side to glance back anxiously at Loki. He nods and conjures another ball of light, speeding it ahead of her to illuminate the way.

Jane squeezes herself carefully past the jagged edges of the hole, nearly catching her jeans on one particularly sharp twist of metal, though of course Loki slips in behind her as easily as water poured into a glass. She really envies his lack of clumsiness sometimes.

It's even hotter and stuffier in here, and Jane feels sweat beading on her brow and starting to dampen the underarms of her tee shirt. But she's too enthralled by the sheer, well, alienness of the ship to dwell on these discomforts.

They're in some kind of corridor, the grimy black walls lined with pipes and wires, though time has eaten holes in most everything. Jane quickly gets her camera and a notepad from Loki, and after taking a few pictures she begins to move down the tube, following the drifting ball of light.

After what feels like a long walk the hallway opens out into some kind of control room. It's also coloured entirely in black, at least as much as Jane can tell under its coating of dust and dirt. "Gee, more black. They sure took this whole 'Dark' Elf thing seriously," she comments to Loki, who smirks faintly in return. The walls are lined with consoles, and when Jane steps nearer to examine them closely, she sees that the large buttons are marked with arcane symbols. They look fairly similar to the letters Jane has seen on Alfheim.

Too curious for her own good, Jane brushes the dust from one set of buttons and presses a few experimentally. But nothing happens. It's probably for the best, knowing my luck.

Loki is waiting at the other end of the room, directly opposite to where they first came in, so after snapping a few more photos and jotting some notes for herself, Jane joins him. They walk down another, shorter corridor.

Jane covers her mouth with her hand, eyes wide, as the hallway ends in a chamber as large as a stadium. It's lined with structures that look like open pairs of jaws to Jane, and within many of them she can see….Oh my God, those aren't…are those legs?

Something brushes against her back and she flinches, but of course it's only Loki as he moves to her side, his boots raising a cloud of dust from the thick layer on the floor. He reaches for her hand as he nonchalantly scans the room, obviously far less bothered by the tableau in front of them than Jane is. "The Dark Elves would enter a deep slumber during their longer voyages between the stars, or so the tales tell us." he explains, his words echoing unsettlingly in the cavernous room. He tugs her hand gently, leading them towards one of the sleeping pods, or whatever it is.

"You've seen the inside of one of these ships before, I take it?" Jane asks, her voice hushed as she follows him.

"Yes," he replies, though his tone is distant. "Fath- Odin thought it wise to bring Thor and I here when we were but children, to exhibit to us the high cost that war can bring." Here he looks over his shoulder at her, though his smile seems so bitter to Jane. "A lesson sadly lost on Thor; always was he eager to court battle in his youth. At least before he fell to Midgard."

"If he hadn't been like that, we probably would never even have met," Jane points out as she speeds up her steps to walk beside him, squeezing his hand to punctuate her point.

His smile is more genuine now. "A fair point, esteemed wife." He stops and half-turns towards her as he raises her hand to his lips, his eyes glittering in the pale light of his magic 'bulb'. Then he turns and continues on his path.

Jane trails reluctantly after him, gripping his fingers tightly. The dust rises again as their feet scuff against the floor, whitening the legs of Jane's jeans.

She's not sure she really wants to see this.

Mercifully a jointed helmet of some kind covers the face of the withered, mummified form hanging inside the pod. That's just fine with her; the remains of the hands she can see are bad enough. Out of a sense of duty she snaps a few more photos, but that's all she has the stomach for.

She wonders how Loki can be so casual about all this, but then a second later she mentally kicks herself. Of course it's no big deal. He's a warrior, right? How many times has he dealt out death, let alone seen it?

To distract herself, Jane permits her eyes to trace over the myriad wires that feed into the frame the armoured body is dangling from. She shakes her head. So much technology, so much knowledge, and…it hadn't stopped this race of obviously advanced beings from war and ultimately, extinction.

Then again, is that so different from us humans?

It's not a comfortable thought. Jane shakes her head and turns to Loki. "What happened, exactly?"

Loki gives her the highlights of the battle which had led to this endless field of ruined spaceships. The Convergence. The Aether. Odin's father Bor. Malekith ordering his ships to crash down on the Asgardian armies. The Aether being hidden away, and its location never recorded.

"Ironically enough," Loki finishes, his voice low, "the time of the Convergence approaches once again."

Jane blinks, a slow curl of excitement inside her lifting her grey mood for a moment. "It is?"

"Yes. To my knowledge, Dr. Selvig is already studying it. Perhaps when we return to Midgard, you will consider taking some time from your Bifröst work to study it as well. It is a very rare phenomenon, occurring only once every five thousand years. Even among immortals, that is a long time to wait for the next such event. For a mortal like yourself…" His words trail off and his brow creases slightly as he eyes her, though whatever he was about to say, Jane doesn't find out. He drags her into the circle of his arms and presses a hot kiss to her lips.

The dust puffs up around them again, drifting up in a cloud that reaches nearly as high as her waist, and it's then that Jane realizes the completely horrible truth: This dust is probably made up mostly of dead Dark Elf skin cells.

Oh my God, get me out of here!

As if he can read her mind, Loki chooses that moment to ask: "Have you seen enough, my love? I for one find myself tired of darkness and destruction for the time being."

"Yes, please. Let's see….something else. Anything else."


They teleport to a few other places. First Loki shows her some of the more impressive parts of Svartalfheim, namely a massive chain of mountains to rival even those on Alfheim. There are also deep canyons, which he tells her once were home to waterfalls and deep rivers, though now these places are long dry.

There's a kind of austere beauty to the place, Jane decides in one of her more charitable moments, though mostly she finds herself feeling rather…depressed by it all. She puts on a stoic face for Loki, however. He'd warned her some of the planets they would visit were 'uncivilized', as he'd put it. So I really shouldn't have expected that every place would be full of rainbows and unicorns. Even if Alfheim basically was like that!

After several hours the shafts of golden light struggling to pierce the blanket of cloud begin to dim, and a dusty, warm wind starts to swirl around the plateau of black rock they stopped to have a picnic supper on.

The food (Alfheim leftovers) and Asgardian ale had been conjured from Loki's Interdimensional Closet, and a few domes of magical light sit on the ground around Jane, illuminating the area.

As Jane finishes her ale however, Loki extinguishes nearly all of the lights before, as he promised, he coaxes a hole to open up in the mass of ominous-looking clouds above their heads.

The skyscape, or what Jane can see of it anyway, is as astounding as it was on Alfheim. She recognizes not a single constellation that she would normally see from Earth, and she doesn't see anything she remembers from the skies of Alfheim or Asgard either.

A band of asteroids obscures part of the sky, and far-off (though close by Earth standards) Jane can see a pale planet (Loki informs her it is indeed a planet, though uninhabited as far as he knows), and of course numerous stars. She sketches out everything as best she can in her notebook, also taking some stills and videos, as well as readings with some of her other equipment to study later, working until her eyes blur and her fingers are aching around the barrel of her favourite pen.

This turns out to be good timing; thunder begins to rumble again off to Jane's left, and when she glances that way she sees a huge column of sand and dust bearing down on them. She scrambles to put her equipment away though Loki as usual isn't fazed at all. First he makes all her cameras and notebooks disappear, and then, taking her hand, he makes them disappear.

When the aftereffects of the light from their teleporting are out of her eyes, Jane realizes they're in a cave again. Wind and sand are roaring into the cave's mouth, but a quick spell from Loki first pushes the airborne particles back outside, and then prevents the wind and dirt from coming past the cave entrance again.

Still, when Jane looks down at herself she realizes she's covered head-to-sneakers in a fine layer of grey sand. Or is it leftovers from their earlier visit to the 'Tomb of the Mummy Elves'? Jane shivers and decides it's better not to know.

Trying to brush the dust off proves easier said than done, and though Loki chuckles at her fruitless efforts his armour doesn't look much cleaner. After a few seconds of letting her struggle, another spell cleans them both off. I am so getting him to clean the apartment and lab with magic when we get home, Jane thinks with amusement.

It's oppressively warm in here so they don't really need a fire, but Loki conjures a green-hued smokeless (and fuel-less!) one anyway in the center of the cave to give them some light. Jane seats herself on one of the smoother sections of the cave floor as he does so, shrugging out of her sweaty button-down shirt with relief. Loki stalks the perimeter of their temporary home, disappearing into the shadows at the back of the cave for a few minutes, then returning to sit at her side.

"I thought you said there's nothing alive on this planet anymore," she says, wondering at his sudden need to be on guard.

Loki shrugs as he loops an arm around her waist. "Nothing to my knowledge, but as you've seen Asgard is not the only Realm with the capacity to travel between the stars. It is always possible that other visitors might be here, and not all of them may be as friendly as one might wish."

The inevitable thought occurs to her, and Jane can't stop herself from blurting it out: "You mean one of Thanos' allies?"

He tilts his head towards her in reluctant acknowledgement. "Sadly, it is possible. Though Heimdall has not seen any sign of such beings, nor have any of the other Realms reported as much, I generally prefer to be prudent. And," he adds after a second or two, "it is also possible that I have, in the past, made some enemies among the Nine Realms." Though he sounds contrite, the corner of his mouth is quirking in a way that Jane is all too familiar with.

"Noooo," she breathes, smirking back at him, "You? The 'God of Mischief' making enemies? Not possible!"

He chuckles and the hand on her waist begins to trace little patterns on her side through her t-shirt. "Alas, I can only blame the folly of youth."

"Ha!" Jane scoffs, wheeling until she's straddling his lap. She laces her fingers through his sleek hair, tugging lightly. "Youth, my ass."

One of his eyebrows lifts incrementally higher. "That is indeed a part of your body that I entirely enjoy, my love." So saying, his hands attempt to curl around the body part in question.

"Nuh-uh," Jane scolds him, slapping his hands away (and he lets her). "Don't you change the subject or try to distract me, Loki. You've been a bad boy, and I think you need to be taught a lesson." Warmth births itself low in her belly as she grinds herself down into his lap, fully aware of the bulge forming within those sinfully tight leather pants of his.

His other eyebrow now joins the first. "And you presume yourself to be the one to do so, little wife?" he drawls. "Such hubris," he suggests, a dangerous light now flickering in his eyes though Jane doesn't let that stop her.

"Damn right. And don't call me little," she snaps mock-angrily. She's enjoying this. "Those inescapable magic-blocking cuffs of yours, I want them. Now."

His mouth twitches as though he's trying to hide a grin as he motions with one hand. The items in question materialize in mid-air then clunk into the dusty floor of the cave, glinting in the firelight.

Jane stretches to snag them, deliberately ignoring how Loki helpfully grabs for her hips to keep her from tumbling off his lap. She wriggles out of his grasp and stands in front of him, glaring. "Get that damned armour off. Don't make me tell you twice, Loki of Asgard."

He rises to his feet slowly, fluid as a hunter about to pounce on its prey, showing his teeth. But he does nothing but follow her order, if as slowly as humanly (god-ly?) possible.

One bracer hits the ground, then the other. Then the greaves, followed by a few more bits of metal. Then his surcoat, tunic and shirt, all leisurely shrugged over shoulders and arms to pool on the ground between them.

"Faster," Jane barks at that point, getting impatient with him. I should've known better. Of course he's going to try to push as many buttons of mine as he can, whenever he can. That's him, she reminds herself.

"As you command, fairest of wives," he lilts, looking up at her from under sooty lashes as he bends gracefully to kiss her hand. Jane firms her mouth to keep from laughing at him, crossing her arms and continuing to glower until he is finally, gloriously naked in front of her.

"Turn around," she growls and he smirks but obeys, putting his wrists behind his back before she can ask. It's not quite what she once promised him; that she would tie him to a bed and tease him the way he's teased her countless times, but it will do right now.

Securing the cuffs around his wrists, Jane plans her next step. OK, so we need something to lie down on. In one corner of the cave is thethick blanket, a dark green edged with gold embroidery, which they had their picnic supper on. Perfect. Janestoops to collect the crumpled folds, shaking it out and spreading it on the smoothest part of the cave floor she can find.

She orders Loki to lie down on it, watching him closely as he complies. Her mouth goes dry and the rising tension inside her goes up another notch, as she appreciates once again just how exquisitely beautiful he is. The firelight slides lovingly over pale skin and lean muscle, highlighting every flex and curve as he lowers himself down onto the blanket, his motions graceful in spite of his bound arms.

Jane takes a deep breath, reminding herself that it's OK to take her time and let him wait while she works out her next move. Briefly she debates whether to strip down herself. Not yet, she decides after a few moments' consideration.

Now it's Loki who seems impatient. He licks his lips, slowly and deliberately, a hungry light in his eyes as his gaze tracks over her form from toe to top. He's very aroused, and definitely eager for things to progress. "Is this to be my punishment, Jane Foster of Midgard? To lay here and wait all night on your pleasure?" he asks in a low, hoarse-edged voice.

Moistening her own lips, she makes a decision at last. Walking to his right side as nonchalantly as she can, she drops to her knees on the blanket with a lot less grace than he just did. Doing her best to hide her smirk she bends over him, allowing the tips of her hair to drag across his chest and fall over his face as she leans to his ear. "No. But I am going to tease you like you always tease me. Until you beg me." He's certainly played that card enough times with her. Time for payback.

He chortles, his breaths puffing strands of her hair off his mouth. "Making a God beg? An ambitious plan indeed. But then, you mortals so often overreach yourselves."

Jane rolls her eyes. "Just for that I'm blindfolding you, too. Scarf." She sits up and holds out a hand, fixing him with the most steely-eyed glare she has. He narrows his eyes at her instead, so Jane narrows hers back, a battle of wills that she's sure she's ultimately going to win, because he so obviously wants this.

His cock twitched when she said 'scarf', after all.

Jane's just starting to think she's utterly misreading him, when the item of clothing in question pops into existence – right over her head. It unfurls over her face and shoulders, startling her, and when she bats the gossamer fabric aside – it's also dark green patterned with gold, of course – it's to see Loki's mischievous grin.

"You are such a brat," she informs him haughtily, bending over him to wrap the scarf over his eyes. "I think you want to be punished." He snorts at this but Jane chooses to ignore it in favour of pressing a quick kiss to that thin-lipped mouth.

Their tongues twist sensuously around each other, until Jane breaks the kiss in a bid for oxygen. She sits back on her heels once more, letting him wait as she catches her breath, letting him guess what's coming next. Maybe it's hotter in here, or maybe it's just her, but either way she shrugs off her button-down shirt as quietly as she can.

Borrowing ideas from some of the ways he's teased her in the past, she shifts to hover over him on all fours, allowing her hair to spill onto his chest once more. He takes in a breath, sharp and quick, which only urges her to move her head. Slowly, lazily, she trails the strands across his pectorals, his shoulders and neck.

Is he breathing a little faster now? Good. Smirking to herself, Jane slides down his body, just a little lower. She tries to avoid brushing against the throbbing pillar of cock that she can see if she looks down between her own legs. Not yet. Not so fast. For now it's too entertaining to drag the ends of her hair down his belly, swishing them idly from side-to-side, watching his muscles bunch. How the hell does a Frost Giant put out that much body heat?

She's learned enough from the master (him) to know to draw everything out as much as possible. So after a few moments she slips even lower down, straddling his feet. Jane has to curl her fingers in the soft blanket to resist the urge to stroke his skin, the temptation to touch and enjoy the hard planes of muscle in his legs. Deep inside her own body, a pulsing heat is building, but she sets that aside for now.

Not yet, she repeats to herself, only letting her hair caress him still, drawing it along his left thigh. Then across his knee, calf, and down all the way to his foot, though by then she's been forced to back off not just his body, but onto the rocky cave floor.

It's just for a second or four, again making him wait. Then Jane crawls forward, picking her way carefully with hands and knees as she drapes her hair over his other leg, moving that tickly touch up from foot to knee, and from knee on up. There she stops, hair pooled in the crease between his leg and his torso, mere inches from his straining length. "So you ready to beg yet, little God?" she asks insolently.

His answering laugh sounds like a growl. "I have endured many tortures and many wounds, and most were gained in battles that were waged eons before your birth. If you think so little can break me, you are sadly mistaken, Midgardian."

"Oh really? Well we'll see about that," she purrs, a grin curving her mouth as a thoroughly evil idea suddenly occurs to her. It's not something she's ever done to him before, or hell, ever even considered doing to him or to any of the few other men she's dated. But why not try it? It might even surprise the 'God of Mischief'.

But she'll get to that soon enough. Payback first, right? She repeats the same pattern again; the tips of her hair inched slowly down one leg to his foot, pause, then up the other leg, repeat, all while skipping the far more sensitive area. Jane does that three times, and the whole time Loki does nothing but lie there and breathe harshly, occasionally twitching. Jane can't see his hands, trapped as they are beneath him by the cuffs, but she can imagine them clenching tight. That's what she'd be doing in his position, she's sure.

Time for a new trick. She stops again, waiting, letting the quiet of the cave seep into her bones. Just when Loki opens his mouth, no doubt to snark at her, Jane finally dips her head and permits her hair to spill over his reddened shaft. He arches up, a gasp squeezed out between his teeth, and Jane has to smile. At last, a reaction.

She draws the ends of her hair as lightly as possible over the swollen head, encouraged by the evidence of his arousal beading on the tip, then down the hard shaft to finish trailing the strands over the tight sack of his balls.

Once again she repeats this three times, though on the last go-round she can't stand it any longer. She needs to taste him, if only for a second, so she licks a wet stripe along his cock from bottom to top, savouring the salty tang of his skin and the thick veins that pulse under her tongue, even reveling in the bitter flavor of the droplet at the end. Loki bucks upwards as she does this, hissing between his teeth and Jane is tempted to continue, to end this little torture and take him deep in her mouth but…he's not begging yet and she knows if their positions were reversed he wouldn't be showing her any mercy.

Jane pulls away to sit back on her heels again, trying to decide the next steps between this and the 'main event' that she decided on earlier.

Loki's chest is heaving with his rapid breaths, and Jane can't resist tracing her fingernail in a circle around the areola of his closest nipple. Loki growls again, the sound low and rumbly in his throat as his hips cant upwards again, and Jane grins her satisfaction.

OK, this is fun. No wonder he loves doing it to me. It's times like this I wish I had some magic of my own, because I'd really love to tease him with little snakes the way he's done to me befor-

Her eyes widen, one hand going to her neck as another wicked notion pops into her head. Well why not?

There's a little button under the jaw of her new snake necklace that makes it release its own tail from its mouth. That is such an improvement over the last one, Jane notes to herself. Holding the little snake by its head, Jane bends over Loki again. "I don't have your powers," she whispers in his ear, "but I bet I can make up for it with a little…creativity." Then she licks a slow circle around the shell of his ear, sucking the lobe into her mouth for good measure.

He does jerk ever so slightly when Jane trails the little enameled snake across the base of his throat. She's really enjoying this, she realizes, becoming aware for the first time just how wet she's becoming in response to this whole scenario. She's definitely coming to appreciate why Loki so loves taking control in the bedroom. It's…exhilarating.

She presses a kiss to the hollow of his throat, moving the snake along his collarbone and then down across one sculpted pec. She draws the snake in a slow circle around a nipple, then lower, following the thin trail of hair leading down to Loki's own particular 'serpent'.

His hips flex as the little snake slides in a roughly straight line down his shaft. It is definitely way too fun to give him a taste of his own medicine. Jane's only regret is that she can't change the temperature of the piece of jewelry the way he can.

She runs the snake up and down a few more times, relishing the ragged sound of his breathing and the quiet growls he's fighting not to voice. But even winding the snake loosely around his shaft with tormenting slowness doesn't make him start to beg.

Giving up on it, Jane winds the necklace back around her neck, working its tail back between the snake's jaws. She shrugs off her tee-shirt and bra, leaning over him and allowing her nipples to scrape along his body as she studies the other side of the cave and the pile of items there. The heat of his skin against hers threatens to distract her and she bites her lip. Focus, dammit!

Besides conjuring the fire for them, Loki had taken a few things out of his Interdimensional Closet earlier. There's a skin of Asgardian mead, two goblets that appear to be carved out of solid bronze, and a couple neatly-folded furry pelts that she suspects he planned to use as their mattress for the cave floor. Well, she's got a better idea for one of them right now.

Bet he won't be expecting this- As quietly as possible she crosses the cave floor to get the pelt, then returns to kneel beside her husband's right side. Husband. It still seems strange, wonderful, and still unbelievable to Jane that this being is her actual real-life husband.

Jane arranges the pelt over her left hand and arm like a sleeve that's too long for her. Then she waits again, letting his curiosity and anticipation build. She might actually be getting the hang of this.

After a while Loki licks his lips and opens his mouth, and that's when she chooses to run the soft fur down his cheek. He greets this with a kind of gasping laugh but she doesn't stop, moving to stroke the fur down his body, throat to chest to belly, before taking another pregnant pause. Even topless Jane feels too warm now, her heat rising to match his. She's not sure how long even she wants to make him wait any more.

But a stroking touch along his thigh makes him shudder, and steeling her revolve Jane copies the same pattern from before with her hair. At least until Loki groans and slumps underneath her as if resigned to his fate.

That's when she grips his aching cock at last with a fur-covered palm. Barking something in what Jane presumes is Old Norse, Loki thrusts violently up into her hand. She can no longer tolerate the answering ache between her own legs, so Jane reaches down with her free hand, rubbing herself through her jeans to relieve some of the pressure. She should've taken the time to strip down earlier, but she's too busy for that right now.

Jane wants to see if she can make him come apart first.

She fondles him, sometimes softly, tickling him with the fur, and sometimes with a firmer touch, and it's working; he's groaning louder, his head rolling from side to side on the blanket as he bites his lip. It's working, but he's still not begging.

She needs to take it up another notch, so her free hand moves from between her thighs to between his. Her nails graze along the taut sack of his balls, and he makes another strangled noise, hips jerking up into her touch. I think it may be time to blow his mind. I hope, anyway! "Ready to say 'uncle' yet, Loki?" she taunts him.

Loki's attempt to snicker comes out as more of a snarl. "I f-fail to see what my m-mother's or father's brothers have to do wi-" His words cut off quite enjoyably as Jane changes her touch from stroking his balls to tracing the hot ridge of his perineum. With a loud gasp and another uncontrollable jerk of hips, his thighs spread open to give her more access.

"I'm sorry, were you saying something?" she teases. His body is begging her, even if his damned pride won't let him utter the words. Well, Jane's too curious to see what he'll do if she moves her hand even lower.

She shakes the fur off her hand so she can grip him tighter, milking his cock as she goes in for the kill at last, delving her other hand further down to massage the tight pucker there.

"Ah!" Loki shouts, and a couple seconds later he climaxes, the jet of sticky fluid coating his chest, belly, and Jane's hand. She slows, gentling her touch as he convulses and then subsides, his breath whistling in his throat and his ribs heaving, his entire pale form dewed with sweat. He looks utterly gorgeous in the shifting light of the fire.

"I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that you liked that," Jane comments with a smug grin. It's enough to make the nagging ache in her core totally worth it. She reaches to pull the blindfold carefully from his eyes and he blinks once or twice, his pupils so dilated that his eyes look black. "Release me," he orders in a rough purr.

"Gee, I don't know," Jane declares, smirking down at him. "I think I kinda like you all tied up and at my mercy."

"Release me, now, or I will show you no mercy," Loki rasps with a ravenous gleam in his eye, and Jane has to hide a grin. Sounds promising! So when he rolls onto his side she undoes the cuffs immediately, then sits back and waits to see what kind of revenge he's about to enact on her.

He sits up, still breathing heavily, and motions sharply with his hand. The sticky trails on his body vanish, cleaned away by magic, though those hungry eyes pin her in place the whole time.

Everything blurs for a second and then Jane finds herself on her back on the blanket, Loki stripping her jeans from her with efficient roughness. "I enjoyed that immensely," he tells her, voice still pitched to a quiet, feral rasp. "However," he pulls her panties off with such ferocity that they tear, "I enjoy it just that much more, my Jane, when you are the one begging for my clemency."

Strong hands shove her thighs apart, pinning her knees to the floor, and Jane has only a split second to notice how cool the cave air feels on her wet folds before Loki's searingly hot tongue begins to ravage her clit.

It's her turn to cry out, to arch up against him as he works the little bundle of nerves back and forth between teeth and tongue. She's been aching so long for his attentions that it's almost too much to take. His hand leaves her knee to slither up her body and pinch a nipple hard, and it's almost enough to make her come right then and there.

She's about to go over the edge when he backs off for a second, and with a snarl of her own Jane decides right then and there that if he's going to try to make her beg this time, she's going to smack him across the face, god (and husband) or no god.

But he pushes two fingers deep inside her, prodding and pushing, and simultaneously the remaining fingers of that hand skate down her slick flesh to tease at her little pucker. He's more aggressive than she was, pressing in slightly, and her eyes go wide.

Hey, that was my idea! Copycat- she wants to mock him, but it feels just too good and she's breathing too hard and fast and that tension that's been winding itself tight inside her since she first sat in his lap is compressing itself into an explosion in the very center of her body and just like that she's. right. there.

Waves of volcanic heat pulse all over her from head to toe, erasing all ability to think or speak, though she's fairly certain later that she made some kind of high-pitched, incoherent sound.

She blinks the sweat out of her eyes, whimpering as she feels Loki's fingers withdraw. But not for long; spasms are still shaking her body as he slides himself into her, hands urgently clamped to her hips.

He thrusts forcefully, that voracious gaze still locked on her face as if he wants to devour her. "Loki," she gulps as she reaches out to him. He leans into her touch, bending deeper over her and kissing her hard, pushing his tongue into her mouth in time with the demanding shoves of his hips against hers.

The ground underneath her hipbones is unforgiving through the blanket and Jane's sure she'll have bruises on her back tomorrow. Right now however, she can't care less, particularly once Loki reaches between them and gives her little nub a firm massage, with a finger that's unexpectedly cold as ice.

OMIGOD, is the last lucid thought Jane has before she yelps and climaxes again, clinging to Loki like he's her only anchor in this flood of sensation. Stars to rival the alien skies she's seen fire off inside her head, Loki's uneven breaths filling her ears as his rhythm falters. His hips crash against hers one more time before he growls his release against her neck, his breath a hotspot on her skin.

He collapses on top of her, his weight pressing her down. It's hard to breathe but she doesn't really mind, and in any case it's only for a moment before he rolls off her. His arm wraps around her, tugging her close against his side, pressing their damp skin together once more.

Jane waits until her breathing and her heart rate have evened out a bit before she untucks her head from under his chin to look into his face and his thoroughly sated smile. "I take it that was good for you?" Jane inquires dryly.

"Oh yesssss," he purrs happily. "You are quite the quick study, my Jane. Evidently I chose well."

Jane rolls her eyes and smacks him lightly on the shoulder. "Ha! Must be all those advanced degrees I've got."

Chuckling, he gathers all the pelts to press into service as their mattress. He also conjures at least six too many pillows, and a sheet that feels like it is woven of the softest, rarest silk, but despite his efforts Jane's sleep is uneasy that night.

Her dreams are full of darkness. Of clouds with a poisonous green tinge, and of creatures with alien armour and mummified limbs dangling row upon row inside rooms large as stadiums. Of something crimson and fluid that screeches faintly and keeps shifting itself so that it stays at the very edges of her peripheral vision.

She dreams of the end of all things.


The next morning Jane remembers little of her dreams, except for a feeling of foreboding. That feeling lingers as they eat a small breakfast of bread cooked over the magic fire, and some leftover fruits from Alfheim. Loki asks her what is troubling her but Jane can't put it into words just yet, and tells him so.

They spend the rest of that day, its weather dark and gloomy as the previous one, visiting a few of the ruined cities of Svartalfheim.

All of them are underground, of course, given the Dark Elves' hatred of light of any kind. Each city is much the same; the entrance to each barred by a massive gate (which Loki gets them past with a teleportation spell) of some kind of metal twisted into intricate knotwork and decorated by more of those alien symbols. Then there's a cave tunnel with a paved floor that seems to go on for miles and when it opens up at last, there's a collection of buildings made of metal, all of them arranged in concentric circles inside caverns so large and smooth-walled that Jane can only conclude that these too were made by the Elves.

Some of these buildings could even be considered skyscrapers, their tops reaching all the way to the high ceilings of the caverns. They certainly had a thing for building everything tall, Jane thinks, remembering the long tubular sections of the spaceships she'd seen yesterday.

Naturally everything is rusted and half-buried in sand, dust, and jumbled rock by the passage of time. Worse are the piles of grey bones scattered here and there, though mercifully not as many as Jane might have expected for a city. Loki explains that it had always been the custom of the Dark Elves that all the able-bodied men, women, and children above a certain age would go to war, leaving only the youngest behind. Jane is no anthropologist, but under the glow of Loki's magical light the bones do indeed look to be on the small side, and she turns away feeling faintly nauseated. It's probably better to turn her attention to the Dark Elves' long defunct technology anyway.

Some of the nearer structures are single- to three-storey family homes, or homes for small groups of elves, which are also made of metal that's been moth-eaten by time.

When they visit one such house, Jane is briefly excited to see all the Elvish computers and displays that line both the walls and many of the table surfaces. She blows the dust off of several banks of buttons to examine the intricate runic symbols, and takes a few pictures and videos of the whole home and of the larger cityscape as well, though her sense of gloom only returns and deepens.

Her mood doesn't improve even when Loki takes her star-gazing again, this time on the southern half of the planet, so that she can admire the truly massive pale blue nebula that takes up nearly half the sky. Jane takes her notes and her video and picture records, but even this new discovery doesn't thrill her as much as it usually would.

It's only when they are preparing for bed again that night – the last night Jane thinks she can stand on this dead world – when she finally realizes what's getting her down.

"They were so advanced," she explains sadly. "They'd achieved spaceflight, and automated so many aspects of their lives. But all that knowledge didn't stop them from being destructive. And from being destroyed!"

Loki opens his mouth but Jane isn't done. "But when you look at us humans, we aren't even half so advanced yet. We're effectively landlocked on Earth - at least until I can get my portal back up and running anyway - and we're always fighting amongst ourselves…while these Dark Elves were travelling to other worlds long before we even became the dominant species on the planet! Let's just say it doesn't make me feel all that optimistic for the future of the human race." There, I said it.

Loki unfolds himself from where he's been sitting by the fire, coming over to wrap her in his arms. "Midgardians and Dark Elves have much in common, it is true. But that could be said of many of the other races. Each of the Nine, including Asgard, has had its moments of violence and bloodshed. The Dark Elves are only unique in that they never once wavered from their deadly purpose. Had they ever attempted to make peace with the other Realms, I am certain they would yet exist today."

Jane sighs deeply and leans further into him, breathing in his scent and closing her eyes as he continues: "It is not possible to see the future, even for such as me, but I for one remain hopeful that Midgard will one day join in number with the peaceful Realms. And in any case, there is no use worrying about what may never come to pass." He puts a hand under her chin, raising her face to his for a kiss. "Perhaps I can find a way to improve your mood?"


A+ for effort, Jane thinks drowsily two hours later.

Her sleep, however, is worse than the previous night. She wakes every few hours and stares into the pitch darkness beyond the wavery perimeter cast by the green-hued fire, and she wonders how the future of humanity will turn out.

All in all, she's more than happy to leave 'Svartalfheim' the next morning.