Stephen’s expectations were not disappointed.
The alien’s face had been a display of emotional complexity seldom seen.
He went from a far-away, nearly languorous smile to something bitter, more crooked, as he summarised parts of his childhood. It was just as fascinating to watch as the illusion the alien had created, all in all a story which carried the aura of a Shakespearean tragedy. It would be no less impressive if this was all just an Oscar worthy act.
And Stephen suspected that even if it was all true, it was still only one side of the coin, the one that painted the picture of an innocent, albeit both spoiled and misunderstood Loki, while on the other side the monster, the destroyer of New York, or at least the scornful God of Lies slumbered.
And yet, knowing that this was the way Loki saw himself, a little boy with a father who looked at him in an intimidating, merciless way and who played simple pranks and cared for the simple people’s thoughts and rumors, did something to him. It was a change of perspective, maybe, if there wasn’t so much doubt left.
Dwelling on this thought was Stephen’s only excuse to being surprised by Loki’s choice. In truth he should have expected this.
It was after all the one subject related to the most mighty confirmed power source inside the Sanctum.
As soon as they reached the area Stephen began to talk, like he did when lecturing his novices, with his back to the books, as if to protect them from the students or in this case the Half-God.
“Well, travelling into the past can affect the future but not the presence, as any direct impact on and change of the past would result in a formation of new time streams given the individual traveler however no choice but to return within his or her own historical thread. No matter what one does in the past, one can only return to ones own future.”
This was why traveling into the past, if not just to spend some time at a beach that was turned into a rubbish pile or to pick up something like an old subway-coupon, was pretty useless. Which was also the reason Stephen had been leading Loki to those shelves in the time-travel section, rather than the shelves about foresight and traveling into the future(s).
“It is a truly challenging mind-fuck of a topic, which is also a nice metaphor to our entire study session, so I can see why you chose it.” He said with a smirk that had little humor in it, but was not bitter, yet. “Is there anything you wanted to see in particular?”
“One could stay in the new thread,” Loki shrugged, standing next to Strange. His hand skimming the books, just like the God wanted to caress each spine, but in truth he was waiting to get that familiar prickle when he was searching for a book and it would present itself to him.
Stepping past the Human in search of his book, Loki came so close that his clothing brushed against the man’s. He better make sure that Mage’s cloak wouldn’t get to familiar with his own.
He stopped momentarily, giving the human a crooked and sideways grin. “And one could always create new threads within new threads.”
It wasn’t so far from the truth and what he wanted to reach, but he wasn’t going to enlighten the Human with why he wanted to know about time-travel. It was something he had been chasing for a few years now and there was no other place on this damned planet where he could get more of the information he needed. The only other place would be Asgard and right now he didn’t want to set foot on that realm.
“I’ll know when I get to it,” he murmured under his breath, an answer to the latest question, but Loki was only paying half attention as it was divided between his Seidr in search of the book and quickly reading spines at the same time.
When he felt that familiar prickle he pulled a book from the shell and resumed his search. One book could never be enough.
“You succeeded in it, did you not?” he asked, still only paying half attention. “Travelling to the past. I have seen you do it. Have you never wanted to change the past and live in a new thread?” Loki briefly looked at the other and said, “No lying, I know when you do,” before he turned his attention back to the books.
