SHADOW OF DEATH
Chapter 32: Time
Shuri met Loki and Jane at breakfast with a stern look on her face, as if a mother scolding her children. She took on more the appearance of the child as her stern look morphed into a pout.
"You two went to play science without me!" she complained. "What did you do?"
"Another alien power source," Jane said with a shrug. She laughed at Shuri's offended face in response. "He's had it the whole time and forgot to tell us. We'll play with it in the lab this week."
"Of course, he did. Prince Loki probably has the key to immortality hidden somewhere from us as well... right next to his flying carpet in his dimensional pocket," she said with an eye roll.
Loki didn't answer. Instead, he gave a magnanimous bow that was dripping with too obvious charm and a wide smile. "In apology for our oversight, Princess, would you care to accompany us on another quest?"
Shuri considered him dubiously and turned to Jane with one eyebrow raised. She pointed her head in Loki's direction in a silent question.
"He also forgot to tell us that he was directed to a specific location in Birnin Zana by a mysterious prophet months before he even arrived here. We are going to find where the coordinates lead to."
"I see… and you require a Wakandan chaperone to do so," she said in slight disappointment.
"Partially," Loki responded truthfully. "However, you cannot deny your curiosity to discover the end result is as great as Dr. Foster's."
Shuri attempted indifference for another minute - at least until Loki produced the original message he received from Mrs. Johnson and shared its origin with her. Then her dark eyes grew intent and bright as she calculated within her busy mind the exact end points of the coordinates. She whispered to herself as she thought over it. Then she shook her head and grinned.
"Sawa, sawa. Twende," she said. "I will take you there, but I do not think you will find the end location very exceptional."
"You know where it goes?" Jane said. "Tell me!"
"And miss seeing your face when we arrive? Hapana, daktari," Shuri replied. "Let us go."
Eyes and whispers followed their movements all through the bustling streets of the city after they emerged from one of the underground tunnels near the marketplace. The morning streets overflowed with hawkers selling saucepans, tomatoes, and dried fish. Mandazi sizzled in pans of oil and scattered chickens pecked their way down sidewalks. They narrowly missed a collision with one of the hovering streetcars in their avoidance of a long-horned cow blocking their crossing on one street. A small group of children chased a ball down one street and nearly lost it when they stopped to stare at the unusual trio passing by.
Two streets away, they came to stop before a two story, rectangular brick building with a busy delivery dock. A number of patrons came and went through the glass entryway into a wide, tiled lobby lined with counters. Kikanda script over the building explained its name and purpose. Jane paused to try to work out for herself what they said. Shuri did not bother waiting.
"Welcome to Birnin Zana's headquarters for postal communications and commerce," Shuri said dryly.
"Wait, is this like a post office?" Jane asked as she struggled to read the Kikanda script in large letters over the door. People walked by them carrying boxes of letters or packages and they gave the visitors wary looks as they came and went.
Shuri nodded.
"The coordinates are quite precise," Shuri said. "They lead to a location within this building."
"You've got to be kidding me," Jane said and Shuri burst into giggles.
Guards and post office patrons made way in reverence as they saw their princess enter the post office. She spoke a few low words to the very concerned clerk who rushed towards them as they entered. He nodded and led them into a large room adjoining the lobby. This room was lined from ceiling to floor with locked grey metal boxes, each labeled with a computerized orange and black Kikanda script. Shuri thanked the clerk who gave her an obsequious nod of his head and profuse words of being "at her service." Shuri tapped away at her handheld computerized tablet again only to shrug and show it to Loki.
"This is it," she said as she pointed to the coordinates on a map of the city. "This is as far as it takes us. Somewhere in this room."
"That's rather anticlimactic," Jane responded with pursed lips. She furrowed her eyebrows in concentration as she walked around the room and stared at the Kikanda labels on each of the boxes. "Is there at least a secret underground crypt or a catacomb or buried treasure or something?"
Shuri snorted and shook her head. "There's an underground parking lot below us. Perhaps you will discover something more mysterious in the boot of an automobile."
Loki glanced over the vast number of boxes before he gave a disgusted groan. For five different floors, each connected by staircases, the room spread out before them. "If I had my magic, I could search the room in a moment. How do we begin to determine what we are supposed to find here? Or do we assume it is random coincidence that the coordinates lead here?"
"You expect me to believe you think this is a coincidence?" Shuri responded with a skeptical glance at the prince.
Loki merely closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose as he concentrated.
"I can tell you it's not a coincidence," Jane said, with her eyes closed. She opened them again to stare back into the unremarkable room. "I know, I know. Not a lot of help, but I can tell there's a reason."
Loki considered Jane again before half of his mouth quirked up in a smile. "Lady Jane, the prophet sent us to dig under the ground below us," he stated.
She sighed and rolled her eyes. "No, Loki."
His smile crept across his entire mouth then. "The prophet sent us to seek something from one of these boxes."
"Yes," she said, slowly at first, then her eyes brightened. She began to trace her hands along the mailboxes, curiosity burning in her fingers. "But don't you dare start asking me about each and every single box to identify the one."
"You do not need magic, you only need Jane," Shuri said with a laugh. "Let us look at these boxes. I will take the east wall. Prince Loki, you search through the west wall. Jane- use my translator on my scanner and take the north wall. We can meet at the southern wall if our search till then gives nothing."
Loki did not move in the direction Shuri indicated. Instead, he fixed his eyes on Jane again. "Dr. Foster, close your eyes," he said.
"Why?" she asked.
"I wish to test something."
She complied, but slightly reluctantly.
"Feel through this room with your new senses. Can you feel anything unusual? Anything that calls to you?"
She inhaled deeply, but kept her eyes closed and tilted her head to one side. She gave a step in one direction before she stopped and opened her eyes again. She opened her backpack and withdrew Mjolner from its main compartment.
"Jane, you cannot be serious. I brought Mjolnir in that? It is bordering on sacrilegious," Loki scoffed.
"It beats trying to carry that thing around all day. It's rather cumbersome. This way, I have my hands free."
"That is why Thor used a belt."
"Well, I tried that... only I'm a little short on magic belts and the damn hammer broke my belt and tore my pants right off me. I guess Levi Straus is not worthy of so fine a weapon."
"Levi who?"
"Never mind."
"I think the backpack suits Jane well," Shuri added in. "What better way to transport an ancient magic alien artifact than next to her laptop?"
"Hush, you two. Do you want me to search this room or are you gonna do it?"
They fell silent and watched as Jane closed her eyes again. She carried the hammer as if she were dousing for water instead of searching through thousands of post office boxes. Her mouth whispered unspoken words as she walked slowly across the room and turned in a full circle. The blue aura that surrounded her was as slight as a veil of lace until her eyes flew open. She climbed up three flights of stairs, slid a ladder over and climbed to the top. There, she banged her hand against one box so hard, she left an imprint of her hand in its metal face.
"Here," she called down to them. "This one is not the same. There's something… familiar… and very, very powerful in this one."
Loki and Shuri sprinted up the stairs after her and strained to read the label from their positions on the floor below her. Shuri laughed.
"Oloki Othino. If an Mkanda clerk received a phone call to make a post office box for a 'Loki Odinson,' that is a close interpretation of how to write it," Shuri said. "I will speak with the mail clerk again."
When the clerk returned following after Shuri, he remained ruffled and nervous in his manner as he scanned the label with a device and tapped through a database.
"This was created by a businessman who returned home to Birnin Zana from New York over a year and a half ago," the mail clerk said. "It has not been opened since. It has received no packages and the businessman paid for the box upfront for three years."
"Did he give his name?" Shuri asked.
"Indio. Oloki Othino. That is the name," he said. He anxiously rung his hands together and glanced back and forth between the eager eyes of his audience.
"Open it," Shuri commanded. The clerk obeyed the princess and gave a startled gasp when the box held a small parcel within in. The clerk stammered slightly as he checked his database records again.
"I do not understand. It should be empty," he said. "It has received no incoming mail."
The clerk pulled small parcel out of the mailbox. It was wrapped in a layer of brown paper and a single scrawled line of direction was upon its square face.
"It isn't possible," the mail clerk said as he shifted nervously on his feet. "There are no stamps, no address, no return address, no international postal seal. We do not allow our post office to be used as a safe deposit box. My apologies for this breach in policy, princess. I guarantee you I will see that the situation is remedied immediately…."
He was prevented from finishing his apology by a wave of Shuri's hand.
"It is for him," Shuri said as she took the package from the unfortunate clerk and read the label for a second time. She handed it to the Asgardian who stared at it dumbstruck. "Loki Odinson. He is the one."
Loki inhaled a startled gasp as he held the package in his hands. He could feel the traces of magic lingering on the outer package, though faint, but it could not compare to the feeling of power emanating from within.
"Let us return to the palace," he said as he thrust the package into a pocket. He felt nervous being so exposed with such an object, even in a location as well-protected as Birnin Zana. In case it was what he hardly dared to hope it was, he would not open it here.
Ooooo
"Wait, you're telling me someone mailed an Infinity Stone in a package and it's just been sitting in a mail box for the past year?" Jane said as she paced the length of Loki's room. Goose trailed in and out of her footsteps, rubbing its orange body against her feet and nearly tripping her as she ignored its quest for her attention. "No. I can tell that's not what happened."
Loki stared at the green and gold relic he held in his hand as if it were speaking to him. He barely heard Jane's musings.
"It couldn't have been mailed," Shuri interjected. "Maybe the creator of the post office box placed it in there to keep it?"
"No," Loki said. "There are traces of magic on the casing. Whoever the soothsayer is who sent me those coordinates also must be adept at magic. It is a wonder for such spells take more years to perfect than even three Midgardian life spans would allow."
"You are certain the prophet is human?" Shuri asked.
Loki shook his head to show his uncertainty. "If the prophet is not of Midgard, then their skills at concealment rival even mine and we should be wary."
Goose sniffed at the relic in Loki's hand and licked it before turning a curious gaze onto the Asgardian. Loki pushed the Flerkin aside with his elbow. Goose gave a hiss and such an expression of affronted dignity that Shuri stifled a giggle. Loki continued to analyze each swirl and crevice on the casing of the Stone and he pursed his lips as he considered it.
"It's been here, on Earth, this whole time," Loki finally said in tone of wonderment. "It is little wonder Thanos was so keen on acquiring this little realm. Who would be so foolish as to keep two Infinity Stones within the same realm…and then leave it so defenseless?"
Jane rolled her eyes and grumbled something about "patronizing Asgardians."
"I believe you are correct again, Lady Jane," Loki remarked in a tone that hid whether he meant to speak out loud or not. "The metal casing on this Stone is made of Uru."
"What does that mean?" Jane asked.
"Its casing was forged on Asgard," he said. His gaze left the strange necklace and met hers again. "I cannot help but assume that both the Tesseract and this Eye of Agamotto were hidden on Earth by Asgard."
She thought this over and then nodded. His sharp intake of breath was his only response as he placed his fist under his chin and considered the relic again.
"I am beginning to wonder if there are more reasons to Asgard's keen desire to prevent the other realms from meddling with Midgard than I originally was informed," he said.
"You think Asgard wanted to do more than, what did you call it? Protect nature?" Jane said.
He nodded. "If Asgard wished to hide two Infinity Stones on Midgard, the short-lived, magically inept peoples of Midgard could hardly recognize their value or wield them to the same level of destruction as the peoples of the other realms," he mused. "If unused or rarely used, their power would remain muted and would not act as a beacon to herald their location to outsiders. If none were permitted entry to these lands, these relics would remain safer still."
"What Stone is this?" Shuri asked.
"Time," Loki responded. "The tales say this one has the power to influence time itself."
Both women's mouths fell open and they turned to face the Asgardian prince.
"Are you telling me that this Stone could be used to see into the past or the future? Or even to change the past and the future?" Jane asked. She ceased her pacing to sit by Loki on the couch where he remained unmoving for a few moments longer, uncharacteristically unraveled by what he held in his hands. "Is this a mini time-machine?"
"Yes, Jane," he said and his eyes remained on the elliptical gem. "It can do it all."
Her intake of breath could be heard from across the room.
"Can it be destroyed the same way as the other one?" she asked.
"In theory, yes."
"Then what are we waiting for?"
"It's not that simple…," he began. Then he looked up at her, almost placatingly. "Don't you understand? This changes everything!"
"Exactly- this changes everything! We don't want to change everything, do we?" she answered.
"Don't we? Was it only a few mere hours ago you asked me what I would change, if I could? Then it was only musings, but now - Jane, I can fix it," Loki responded in an unusually contrite voice. He earnestly leaned forward and took her hand as he spoke. "This is my opportunity to makes things right. With the blink of an eye, I can put New York back together and your beloved Puente Antiguo and even that thrice cursed frozen plain of Jotunheim. I can fix the Bifrost and bring back every single life that was taken. Jane, I could bring back Thor."
She squeezed his hand gently and looked away. "No, Loki," was all she managed to say in answer. His eyes grew large with anger and he pulled away from her as if she had stung him. Jane shook her head and decided to explain further. "If you changed it all, you do not necessarily know it would be better. What if it actually made things worse?"
"Then I could go back and fix it again. Don't you see? I can go into the future or into the past and make sure everything comes out as it ought. With this small trifle, I could search out every possible future to ensure the best possible outcome is achieved and I could change all the unnecessary mistakes of the past. Jane, you could go back to being as you were!"
"And allow you to remake the world into the image of Loki… in the image of Jane?"
"Is that such a bad thing?"
"Yes!"
"Why?" he asked, perplexed.
"Can't you see? It never ends! There's always something to change, to shift, to adjust until soon you are like Thanos- trying to restore the universe to your own perceived idea of what it ought to be according to yourself."
"I am not Thanos," Loki spat back angrily.
"Then don't strive to behave like him! Don't you see? This is your chance to prove you are not him- to willingly let go of the chance to be in control. Maybe that's what the Stones are for. They are elements that man was never meant to control because it does something to you when you try. When you try to control them, it twists something in you….and it ends up controlling you….and makes you into something you were never meant to be."
"Is there no way that Loki can do right? Am I doomed to only bring evil and not good?" he said in a distraught, simmering exasperation. "Jane, you castigated me only last night for my misdeeds and now again as I seek to remedy it. Don't you see? Thor would come back. The hero, the true king, your beloved, could come and save the day for you and for all Midgard as he was always meant to. Would not that be a more glorious, fitting end than this interminable disaster wrought by the ill-conceived machinations of the bastard prince?"
"Maybe not," Jane said quietly. She knelt on the floor in front of him to force him to meet her gaze. "What if Thor isn't the one we need this time? What if all this is so much bigger and grander and more complicated than any one of us can comprehend- even you with your crazy, alien brain and me with my supernaturally altered one. What if all this mess is working together to eventually achieve something that none of us can see right now?"
Loki closed his eyes to avoid her piercing, knowing stare and fought to maintain his stoicism, at least externally. However, internally, he was hemorrhaging. He opened his eyes when he felt a pressure on his lap and he saw Goose curling up on him with a resounding purr.
Shuri, who had remained silent during their exchanged, cleared her throat and spoke. "Prince, if this Stone has the power to change the past, could it be used to bring back the other Stones?"
Loki's face shot up in surprise. He thought of the implications of restored Stones - free to be wielded by any who could grasp them. He thought of what the Mind Stone had been capable of, before it had been destroyed. He shuddered inwardly.
"Take it," he whispered to Jane as he kept his gaze fixed on Shuri. "I dare not hold onto it for a moment longer. Take it and destroy it in the same manner you destroyed the Mind Stone. Do so without a moment's delay."
He thrust the relic into her hands and closed his eyes. Shuri and Jane, seeing his need for solitude, left him with none but Goose for comfort as they made their way out of the palace and into the gardens.
The whole palace felt it when the power of Mjolnir collided with that of the Time Stone and pulverized the relic into an ocean of miniscule green shards in the grass outside the palace. As Loki felt the air change around him with the demise of yet another Stone, he buried his head in his hands. He tried to think of anything else- anything except his momentary and now extinguished hope of righting any of his past missteps... or of ever seeing his brother again.
Ooooooooooooo