And again he woke. He was escorted down the passage to the room where Thanos had been, and he was there again. Again the darkness of the room was interspersed with shafts of light. So this planet had day after all.
The guard left, and he stood in the room, and Thanos stood in front of him, and even with all his will, his nervousness made him feel sick. Thanos could not learn of his true motives. He could not be enticed by the staff. This was what must not happen. That was all. It was a short list of things, and he would be fine. He had had much practice.
"Come," Thanos said, and again they walked, footsteps soft against the ground, though Thanos's boots were hard. To the door of the chamber, and they walked inside.
Now Thanos reached to the staff but, desperate to put it off, Loki spoke rashly. "May I ask, my lord," he stammered, "what your plan is?"
Thanos turned to him at looked at him with his strange bright eyes. "Have you learned nothing? My plan is to court Death, to lavish gifts upon her in every realm."
"I only mean to say," Loki said, "how do you plan to go about it? This planet seems far from other realms, and would it not be hard to bring an army where you will over such long distances?"
"I have managed before," Thanos answered. "And yet I see you have some idea. Speak."
"Well," Loki said, and his tongue was now speaking while his mind cast around for something to say, something that had occurred to him only slightly, but which he felt was the key to everything. In the end, it was the glimpse of blue as his eyes passed over the gem that recalled it to mind. "the tesseract. It has power, almost as this gem does—and with it, it is possible to make portals between worlds."
Thanos looked interested. He came closer up to Loki, staring him down. "Does it now?"
"Yes. At the moment it resides on Earth, but of a long time it was held by Odin himself."
"really."
Loki swallowed slightly, his tongue felt dry as his throat. But it didn't help. "With that, you could travel wherever you wished at a moment's thought. You could even use it's power to destroy."
"And do you propose to get this tesseract for me?"
"Only if you wish it."
Thanos grinned. "Ah!" he said. "I knew you would be the one. I knew it the first moment I saw you." He reached out and brushed a hand over his hair, as if Loki was a favored dog. And Loki felt the well of hate in his heart gain one more drop, and he smiled.
"In fact, I have known about this tesseract long before," Thanos said. "But I did not know it was now on Earth." He turned and paced the few steps to the staff. "Leave me," he said. "I have much to discover."
Loki stood for one moment before it registered that he had gotten what he wanted, and yet he could not help the hungry glance as his gaze lingered on the staff before he turned to go.
As before, there was a guard waiting for him. Perhaps the same guard, he did not know.
"That was quick."
Loki shrugged, and they walked in silence back to his cell, and the door closed behind him with finality. And the more times he had to stay in this bare room the more he hated it with everything in his being. And he forced himself to think about the fact that somehow, he had become afraid of being alone.
It did not sit well with him, that thought. As though he could be accused of craving companionship. Perhaps it was only that, when others were present, there was no such thing as silence.
.
.
.