Ruyi Jingu Bang
Summary - Loki is not best pleased when he learns that the staff he found is more or less, useless to him or to anyone else.
Alfheim was a realm beautiful enough to rival Asgard. It was covered in lush forests with exotic plants and creatures that roamed it freely. The buildings were made of almost white stone and they merged effortlessly with the greenery in which they were set. The Light Elves believed that life was sacred and to harm an animal, for any purpose, was an act of unnecessary cruelty. That wasn't to say that they were pacifists, if they had to, they would fit to the death for a cause they believed in. *1
It was home to many different Elves but Loki mainly visited for his old friend and teacher, Aventir. Aventir was old, even compared to Loki. He was over three thousand years old but he was perhaps one of Loki's only friends. The Light Elf was one who had trained the young Asgardian Prince when he had visited the realm in search of magical knowledge. He, like many of his kind, had long pale blonde hair, and almost white skin, his eyes were black and he was tall and slim. He loved in a large, open house that was Romanesque with hanging drapes fluttering in the wind because there were no windows, only stone columns to separate the building from the forest.
Loki had brought the staff he had found to the elf in the hopes of getting some answers. He himself, with all his knowledge had failed, but his old teacher had two thousand years more wisdom than he did.
"You're saying...that this weapon...is useless?" Loki frowned, "That's not what I want to hear."
"Of course not, but I can't change what is, my Prince," the ageless elf replied, calmly. "The mortal who designed this staff was truly a prodigy. It's spell craft is far beyond anything I should have thought any Midgardian capable of."
"A mortal sorcerer was welding this with ease when I found it. It was clearly not useless to him."
"From what I've discovered, this mortal wasn't using even a fraction of its true power. Had he used it for an extended period of time, it would have destroyed him. It would have burned him alive as it could have done to you. You have far more sedir than any mortal, therefore you were able to use more of the power inside the staff."
"So, it tried to stop me more quickly than it would have done for him," Loki scowled.
"Yes," Aventir nodded. "It is a perfect mechanism to prevent another from using it. I'd almost call it a curse."
"Is there a way to remove this...curse?"
"None. Well, not without destroying it."
"You are the best curse breaker in the Nine, and you refuse so quickly?"
"It's not that I refuse, it's that I can't. Only the man who forged this staff can remove its curse..."
"That mortal is long since dead."
"And were he not, I don't doubt that he would refuse. He went to great lengths to forge this spell, he must have had a reason."
"Yes, greed, to keep his power to himself."
"No matter the reason, you know as well as I, old friend, that some magics are impossible no matter how powerful we are."
"I wasted my time and effort for nothing in recovering this...trinket," Loki hissed, leaning forwards over an old table with his pale fingers splayed on its smooth surface.
"I'm sorry to say, yes, you did."
"Not exactly comforting to hear you agree with that."
"I know better than to lie to you," he gave a small smile. "I would suggest that destroying it is the best course open to us now. It is useless as it is and it will only kill whomsoever wields it. It is pointless to study it further."
Loki sighed and turned to face his friend with a look of resignation. He knew the elf was right. The staff was useless to him and he was back where he started. He wanted a weapon to prove his power. His magic clearly hadn't done the job on Asgard but if he could prove that there was a powerful artefact sow where out there that would accent him, then perhaps it would prove that he too was a worthy son.
"Why did you search for the weapon in the first place? You do not need weapons to fight, you've made no secret of it over the centuries."
"'It isn't that..."
"You want a weapon of great power just as your father has Gungnir, just as your brother has Mjölnir, do you not?" Aventir asked, insightfully.
"Have you been studying the forbidden mind magic again?" Loki sneered.
"A little," Aventir admitted. "But not nearly enough; your mind is a fortress, Loki. In this instance, I did not see your thoughts, but your face. I know you, young Prince, I trained you. I have known you for centuries and I know that your jealously runs deep. You already know this, but I will say it regardless. Gungnir works for the AllFather because it was enchanted to serve the King. It worked for you when you were King because Odin was unable to wield it, but now it will not. Mjölnir serves Thor because it was..."
"It was forged to serve those who are worthy! Am I not worthy?!" Loki sneered.
"It was forged to protect," Aventir continued, "It will not serve one who tries to use its powers merely to prove his worth. You know this. Should the time come when you need its power to protect, I am sure it would answer you as it would answer any being who truly needed it. But you have great power without it, Prince Thor does not. He is strong, yes, but when faced with magic, he would fail without it. You would not. This is not the first time I have seen you try, and fail, to find something that will suit you. Why do you persist?"
Loki knew that Aventir spoke the truth, but what the Elf didn't know what that he was a Frost Giant. His reasons may be true about why Mjölnir wouldn't work for him, but surely it was because he wasn't meant to purely because of what he was. He didn't believe that the hammer would work for anyone but an Aesir, a real Aesir, not a being in the disguise of one.
He began to take slow steps along one of many long bookshelves which lined the walls as his friend and teacher continued to speak. "You magic will hinder your search if you wish to find a weapon to rival those of your family. Powerful magical artefacts have a consciousness all their own and if they do not mesh well with your own magic, you would injure yourself, or worse."
"I am not the only one with magic on Asgard, Thor has magic, granted it is weak, but it is there. He will never use it, but that doesn't change the fact that..."
"Yours is different. In all my years I'd never seen seidr such as you wield. 'Tis different from your mother and your father and any Asgardian I have yet met. It was fascinating to teach you," he said and Loki smiled.
Those years as Aventir's student had been some of the best Loki could remember. Elves did not see magic as weak, they valued it almost to the point of worship. He had not been ridiculed on Alfheim and his pranks and jests had never earned him a punishment, not once. His love of words over battle was a trait much prised by the Light Elves but the fact that he, like them, could and would fight if necessary, was respected too. Perhaps Odin would have done better to banish him to Alfheim once they had begun to see that he was different, rather than trying to force him to be more like Thor for centuries.
"I have been told that you have been absent from Asgard for a time," the Elf remarked.
"That is not unusual," Loki shrugged, casually. He had often travelled away from the Realm Eternal, sometimes alone, sometimes with Aventir and sometimes, in days gone by, with his brother.
"No, it is not. But it is curious that you would leave after ruling so successfully as King so abruptly. Has something happened that I am yet ignorant?"
"...Nothing you can solve," Loki said after a moment.
"I know once your mind is set, it is impossible for any to change it and I know that you will not tell me all. I swore to be honest with you, young one, I did not force that oath to go both ways."
"Oh, I am glad you remember that," the dark haired man replied sarcastically.
"How could I forget the day you burned down my home?" Aventir chuckled.
"It was an accident...and it was not the entire house," Loki winced.
"I leaned my lesson that day not to keep secrets from you for you will surely find them out no matter the consequences," the Elf said.
Loki had been curious, as a child, about magic, far more curious than anyone Aventir had taught before but the boy had wanted to learn too much too quickly. The Elf had tried to teach him patience but Loki had tried to uncover a hidden book and after one thing leading to another, a simple candle flame had been responsible for the destruction of his home. Loki had read how to control fire, thought he understood the principle, and failed. There were stages to learning magic and the boy had tried to throw them all out of the window. But Aventir hadn't been angry, instead, he spent months after the accident teaching the young Prince to control the element so that such an incident wouldn't happen again. And it hadn't.
"I am not keeping secrets or knowledge from you now," Aventir declared. "I was able to heal the wounds this weapon inflicted on you this time," he said and Loki glanced briefly at his now uninjured palms. "But next time you may not be as lucky. If the damage had been greater, I doubt that I would've succeeded. I implore you, do not use this staff again. I do not want to see your search and jealously lead to your death."
"It is truly useless?" Loki asked, solemnly.
"It is," he nodded.
"It could take weeks, perhaps even months to break enough of the enchantments to be able to destroy it completely but I..."
As he spoke, Loki picked up the staff in both hand, his knuckles whitening as he applied pressure with his string fingers and quickly, he snapped the object in two with as little regard as though it was merely a twig. With a great spark of golden light it broke loudly and Aventir raised a perfect eyebrow.
"Taking lessons from Thor are we?" he asked.
"I don't want to be reminded of my failure," Loki replied, simply. "Here," he said, holding out one half to the Elf, "Do what you will with this half; burn it, study it, display it, I don't care."
"And the other?"
"I'm not the only one who failed in regards to this staff. I failed to use it, but someone else failed to find it. At least if I can't have its power, I can amuse myself with the fact that neither can the mortals."
"Is that wise?"
"It's power is broken now, it will be as useless to them as it is to me."
"That my be so, but is it wise?" Aventir repeated.
"I am not the God of Wisdom, I am the God of Mischief. Allow me my fun, Aventir," Loki grinned.
"I doubt I could stop you even if I tried," the Elf shook his head and began to examine the half of the broken staff he held. "But you are right. Unconventional though your method was, it clearly worked. This won't be harming anyone else again."
"Nor will it be serving anyone else...again."
"And where exactly did we find this?" Director Fury asked through gritted teeth.
"Right outside the front door, sir," Coulson answered, stoically.
The second half of the broken staff was resting on a lab table in S.H.I.E.L.D headquarters and around it was Fury, Coulson and two of the agency's prized scientists, Agents Fitz and Simmons. *2
"Who left it there?"
"We don't know. There's no trace of anyone leaving it there on any camera."
"That's not possible."
"Well, with all due respect, sir, clearly it is," Coulson replied.
"Thor said Loki could avoid cameras," the Director muttered.
"If he took it, why would he give us half of it after its been broken?" Simmons asked.
"Is it dangerous?" he asked them quickly.
"Whatever...power, this thing had, sir, it's gone. It's just a useless lump of wood and metal," Fitz said.
"Great," Fury sighed.
*1 I made this all up about the Light Elves and Alfheim.
*2 I just finished watching the first series of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D and I just had to include these guys in here since they're so great. And technically, the staff would be an 084 I guess, so Fury would have to get someone in to look at it.