Author's note: Well, dear readers, thought I should mention that this story is pretty soon coming to an end, only a few chapters left now! Just giving fair warning! ^^
"That magic binding you've got on you is pretty interesting," Stark tells him one day as they're down in the lab. "The delta-polar radiation I'm sending out at it is all deflected, except there's this ultra-thin, well, chink along the edge where the radiation passes through. Like a reinforced steel door you can still pass a piece of paper beneath."
Loki startles a little at that. He hadn't realized that Stark had been doing readings on the seal blocking his magic too, he had simply assumed that it was his own seidr residues that had been the object of the man's research.
But he nods. Even if Stark is coming at this from a scientific angle, Loki understands the magical equivalent of the phenomenon the man is talking about.
"Yes. The seal is… attached. It cannot float freely if it is to function as a bond." It's difficult to express this in non-magical terms – if Stark had been a sorcerer, Loki would have put it differently and been understood immediately – but he does his best to find words that might make sense to Stark. "There will always be a razor-thin space beneath it where it attaches, but it's not wide enough by far for any seidr to slip through." He feels a stab of pain as he speaks the sad state of things out loud, even now.
"Interesting. And what's even more interesting, according to my calculations, it seems that if the ray of delta-polar radiation were concentrated say maybe twenty times or so, it would be possible to nudge that seal, just a tiny little bit. Stretch the attachment, sort of."
Stark is using very different words, but Loki knows exactly what phenomenon Stark is talking about. The seal has an attachment where the binding wards connect with his seidr to block it and can be slightly moved within the frame of that attachment since it's not completely rigid. He had thought that such a nudging could only be done by another sorcerer using his magic to slip through and push, but now Stark is saying he can do the same with his science. It would still only be a tiny insignificant tendril of seidr that would be able to get through, but…
In the blink of an eye, he's on his knees before Stark, despite the man having told him he didn't want to see Loki down there, desperately clutching at him like a drowning man at a piece of floating wood.
"Please, please, I beg you!" He babbles, incoherently, but is utterly unable to stop himself. If there's a chance, any chance at all, that he could have even the most microscopic amount of seidr back… "I'd do anything, I would swear you my eternal loyalty, I would…" Of course, he knows full well that he can't truly offer anything that Stark isn't already entitled to, but still. If only the tiniest spark of green would be his again…
Stark looks taken aback by the vehement force of Loki's reaction. So he pushes on.
"I would only use it on your orders, in your service, only as you wish me to! Please!"
Stark hesitates, uncertain. There is no reply.
"I will swear myself as your bondsman!" Loki offers in desperation.
This finally gets a reaction out of Stark, even if it's not the one he had hoped for. "As my what?"
So this is another thing that Midgard doesn't have then. But of course. He curses his own stupidity. Midgard doesn't have sorcerers, so obviously they don't have bondsmen.
"It's an arrangement used when… " It's difficult to describe this concept to someone who is unfamiliar with it, so he has to search for the right words. "A sorcerer can choose to enter into it when there is a debt of such size that it can only be paid through life-long servitude."
And he owes a life-debt to Stark. For… everything.
Stark looks deeply sceptical, a deep frown on his forehead. "You mean slavery? Didn't we already go through this?"
"No! Not slavery! It would mean that my magic would be inextricably bound to you. I would only be able to use my seidr in your service, on your orders." It's very rare that someone has entered upon such an arrangement, but it's been known to happen. And it would be a small price to pay if he could feel even the faintest touch of seidr again…
He gestures toward the piles of books from Vanaheim. "There is a detailed description of it in volume two of Spell-casting, how the bond works and what its effects are." One of the few excerpts he's read from Embla of Ravnaby's books, the bondsman concept being no secret among sorcerers.
Stark does still not seem convinced, and why should he be? He's personally familiar with what ill doings Loki used his seidr for when he last had it. Even if there is no way for Loki to misuse his magic again through a bondsman agreement, Stark might not want to take any risks. He feels his hopes plummet as he looks at Stark's still sceptical face.
"Please," he whispers pathetically. "I would not – could not – misuse my seidr. It would be firmly bound by your will."
Stark sighs. "Hm. All I will say is that I'll look into it. Which volume did you say I could find out more about this bondsman stuff?"
And Loki supposes that that's all he's going to get for now.
It's several days later that Stark breaches the subject again.
"So I read up a bit on this bondsman stuff."
Loki freezes. Is this the time that Stark will tell him that he doesn't want to go through with it, he doesn't trust Loki not to find a loophole to misuse his powers again? He almost wishes he hadn't brought the subject up. To have been so close and then have his hopes dashed would be unbearable.
"Let's go for it."
His head snaps up. Did he hear correctly? Does Stark truly mean that…?
"I figure it can't hurt. That book offered a pretty clear picture of the whole deal. And you having a little bit of your mojo back would be… interesting."
The world is spinning. The pit of his stomach is flooded with heat. His legs and arms feel oddly heavy and light at the same time. Stark is offering him that which no one else in the Nine Realms ever would or could offer.
"I would be eternally in your debt!" His voice is breaking, not quite able to carry the words. "I would-"
"Yeah, point clear," Stark says with a wave of his hand. "But I warn you, you're going to have to spend pretty much your entire waking time down here in my lab, 'cause I'd have like a million tests I'd want to run on you."
He's shaking as he's sitting down in the chair Stark directs him to. He can't believe that this is happening. He can't.
It feels like forever that Stark is setting up his machines and devices, connecting and calibrating and testing. There's beeping and blinking and vibrating.
And then it's all ready. "Alright, the delta photon ray is running at top speed and set to go. Ready?"
He's been ready for this since they put that accursed seal on him.
"Yes." He swallows. "I swear my magic to your service, Stark, as your bondsman, for the rest of my life."
He can feel the photon ray pulsing, sending out waves of prickling heat. For several minutes nothing happens, and then he can feel something shift inside of him. The seal moves, a small, minute shift barely perceptible, but he knows it is enough. Enough for him to touch his seidr.
He reaches out, and there it is, the smallest glimmer of green. So tiny, but still like ice-cold water to a parched throat, like the sweetest healing balm on a festering wound. He gives himself over to the amazing feeling, basking in the glory of his magic. It's freedom, it's happiness, it's life. He sweeps himself inside of it like a freezing man would with a coat. He could cry. In fact, he thinks he's crying, but he doesn't care about that. It's finally there.
"Uh, Loki?" There's suddenly a hand on his shoulder, shaking him.
Startled, he opens his eyes, not until now aware that he had closed them.
"I hate to disturb you since you're wearing that weird smiling happy face, but you've been sitting there for like ten minutes now. Everything alright?"
Alright? That would be like calling a storm flood 'moist'.
"It feels… amazing." He bows his head. "Thank you, Stark. I will never be able to pay you back for this."
The man shrugs, adjusting a knob on one of the devices. "So I take it it worked, then?"
He nods. Of course, he can't actually use his seidr because it's now bound to Stark and the man hasn't issued him with any orders or instructions yet, but he can still feel it. He can still touch it.
"Okay, so show me something you can do."
It's not much, of course. Truth be told, he can barely do anything with so little seidr, but the fact that he can do anything at all is nevertheless enough to make him delirious with happiness.
He reaches out and directs his powers towards the pen lying a little bit away. The one Stark said he would try to teleport to his living room. It twitches slightly; it doesn't quite lift from the surface, his powers too small, but he can still make it roll over.
"Cool," Stark comments, an eyebrow raised. "And like I said, I have a bazillion tests and stuff I want to run on you while you're doing your thing. But the rest of the time, you're free to play around with it as long as you don't do anything stupid with it, okay?"
Inside of him, he can feel the bond shift to adjust to Stark's orders.
Inside of him, he can feel true happiness for the first time since forever.
He never grows tired of playing around with that small, green spark. He reaches for it first thing in the morning and holds onto it until sleep takes him. It's like his surroundings have turned brighter, their colours more vibrant. The ugly plastic plants that Stark keeps on the windowsills look greener, alive, even; and the sun rays streaming in from the windows more golden. And the water sparkles like crystal when he turns it on to drink from the tap.
While it might be like splashing around in a shallow puddle as opposed to diving in a bottomless ocean, for a man who has been languishing in the desert the puddle is wonderful enough. He still can't quite believe that Stark has granted him this.
Jarvis suddenly interrupts his musings by informing him that Stark wants him down in the lab. More testing, then. He doesn't mind that one bit. He'll happily submit to the most tedious and lengthy testing the man is able to dream up.
But it turns out that for once, Stark doesn't want him down there for any tests.
"Hey, check this out!" he says excitedly, pointing towards the device on his workbench as Loki has barely exited the elevator. "It's my, uh… my teleportator, all ready for the first test round! And I'd figured you'd get the honour of watching as Tony Stark, the first person on Earth to achieve the impossible, makes an object go from here to there without passing in between!"
Loki studies the device, so different from a teleportation portal in the other realms. Granted, this machine will only be transporting an inanimate object and not a person, but still.
"You are aware that these things could be dangerous if not properly constructed?"
"Meh. Danger is my middle name." Stark waves a hand, cocky as ever. "I've done all the calculations correctly; Jarvis has gone over them as well. And besides, I'm only going for this pen, for now."
He makes a little flowery motion with his hand. "So, behold!"
And with that, he demonstratively presses a button. The pen lying on a metal platform in the centre of the machine starts to glow softly with a ghostly light. It flickers for a few seconds and then disappears.
"See that?" Stark shouts in triumph. "It worked! I knew it would fucking work! My calculations were correct! I knew it!"
Loki is about to congratulate Stark to his no small achievement for a mortal, but then he senses that something is wrong. It takes him only a moment to understand what is happening. The containing barriers that Stark has built in – if he has built them in at all, oh norns! – are not strong enough and the powerful forces he's put into motion are spinning out of control, reaching out beyond the little platform the pen had been placed on.
It's too late to even shout out a warning. There's the familiar surge of inter-realm teleportation, then the image of Stark's lab disappears and is replaced by the shimmering hues of a million rainbows.
End note: I was getting the feeling that I was starting to slip in regards to cliff-hangers, so here you go. ;)