"Is anything about this place real?" Bucky asked.
Thor said nothing but walked over to the table and placed his hand over it. His eyes glowed for a moment. "So this is what you experienced, where you were being held? Things being created out of... nothing?" He asked.
"Yes. Wanda wondered if it might be like Vibranium."
"This is not Vibranium. Vibranium is a metal. This is…" He positioned both hands on the table and his eyes glowed again. An electrical blaze came out of one of his fingers, and a piece of the table broke off. The small chunk tried to recreate itself but Thor's strong hands interfered with the process. With one loud crunch, he broke into even smaller pieces. Again and again, he broke the pieces until they became smaller and smaller. He stared them for a few moments, then looked up, puzzled. "This material is malleable, can take many forms. At first guess, someone tried to fuse magic and science but had an incomplete knowledge of both. I know of this because on Asgard, science and magic are the same."
"I heard. I didn't understand it, but I heard."
"Few of your people can, at this stage. They are both grounded in reality, but as you would say, opposite sides of the same coin. This is something someone started but did not finish." Thor formed one small piece of the material into a ball and rolled it around between his fingers. He set it down on the table and it remained a ball until he pressed down on it. It remained flat, reminding Bucky of liquid clay.
"The portals were magic but Regina looked like a hologram. She was…" Bucky said.
"Technology. Science," Thor finished the idea. The two of them said nothing for a few moments, staring at the tiny pieces of material. Bucky half expected them to come alive again but Thor's powers had stopped their recombining.
"These people say they have no sorcerers. Nobody like Wong, or Doctor Strange, but those people the ones who call themselves the Ritkia, they come close. They can do things…" Bucky said.
"Yet the city is, as I told you, as advanced as your own earth. No magic. Any that exists is here, in this sanctuary."
"Steve, the others, they're here somewhere. That's how Regina described it, as a place set apart. That woman, the Speaker, told me she fell into a coma, just like Steve, and when she woke up, she remembered things that didn't happen here, she could do things she couldn't before, and she says the others are jealous of her. I don't think if she can actually read minds, but she can sense when people are holding things back. She knows more than she's saying."
Thor let out a sigh. "This was a risk, this blending. We believed we could set things right, but we may have caused more problems than we solved. We allowed this, exposing this person to things she was not ready to handle."
"If it's any consolation, I think we would have done the same thing," Bucky said.
Thor flashed a warm smile at him. "They might not allow you to wander, but I can. There must be a library or some center of knowledge here," he said as he pulled his hood back up over his head and turned to go out the door.
"Can't you find another one of those outfits and let me go with you?" Bucky asked.
Thor stopped in his tracks and turned to face him. "You are strong and brave, but if they return here and find you gone, they might raise an alarm and for now, stealth is our friend. If anything would happen to you… how could I face my friend Steven again?" Thor's smile grew wider. "The things he endured to ensure the safety of your counterpart. If there were a woman in his life, there would have been a great conflict," Thor said, letting out a hearty laugh.
Bucky felt his cheeks grow warm and hoped to hell Thor didn't notice. Why couldn't he just react like a normal person? The answer came hard and swift. Because I'm NOT a normal person. He found something on the ground very interesting and kept his eyes fixed until Thor stopped laughing. When he finally looked back up Thor had his head cocked at an angle and was eying him curiously. He had noticed.
"Courage," he said. "And if you need help squeeze on that device. I will return. I would not touch those... things in their pure state if I were you." He pulled the hood over his head and left the room.
Bucky watched the door close with a heavy heart. He wanted to hit things again but decided that was an exercise in futility. Sitting down he stared at the broken pieces piled on the side of the table. Thor was right. They had no idea what these people were capable of and it would be foolhardy jeopardize the chance of finding Steve and his friends. The pieces became more interesting. He realized he shouldn't touch the material with his real hand, but would it affect vibranium? He stretched out his hand, his metal index finger was just inches away when the door opened. His reactions were quick enough for him to make the decision to stand in front of the broken table, hiding Thor's destruction from view.
It was the Leader and the Speaker.
"James," he said, closing the door behind him. "We discussed your situation, and it is a mystery. Our knowledge and traditions are oral although some have attempted to keep written records in the past. It might take time to research what it all might mean…"
"Can you send me back to them?" Bucky asked. "I don't care about the danger. I have to be with them."
"We understand they are your friends, but creating the portal took great effort on our part. The new knowledge The Speaker brought back with her, given as a gift, is a fragile discipline. We were fortunate it worked the first time…" he said.
"And you will be safer here," The Speaker said.
"I don't care about my safety!" Bucky was on the verge of shouting. "You brought me here, against my will. You need to send me back!"
"We understand your frustration, but please, try to see things from our point of view. We existed in isolation for centuries. When we saw you…" The Leader was having difficulty expressing himself.
"What are you people, if you're not magicians?" Bucky asked. He was losing patience.
"We are students of The Great Way. No names, no titles. We are…" the Speak said.
"I know, unworthy. WHY are you unworthy? What did you do?" Bucky asked. The Great Way. The way they repeated those words 'unworthy', was like a mantra. Maybe Thor was right. It did sound like a religion.
"We did nothing," The Leader said. "We simply keep alive the ancient ways."
"The sorcerers left. That's what Regina was trying to tell us. They left and you…" Bucky was on the verge of figuring it out.
"What is this? What did you do?" The Speaker's voice cut through the conversation. He had been so intent on getting answers he made the fatal mistake of taking his attention away from her. She was now between him and the broken table. The tiny bits of the element were out in the open, exposed to view.
"I broke the table. I was angry. When I'm angry, I hit things. I'm sorry…"
"I knew you knew more than you were saying," The Speaker's hands came up, golden light emitted from her fingers and she aimed them toward the Leader. He became a statue.
"He is unharmed. I know you came from the Vault, and together, we will find it," she said. "But first, I will have answers of my own."
Buck's hand went to the gold device on his wrist, his fingers encircled it and pressed around as hard as he could before he felt her paralyzing waves envelop him.