Thor had tried to explain to the team that Loki hadnât been, well, himself when heâd attacked New York. That heâd always been prone to mischief, never exactly trustworthy, but that he wasnât generally evil. Believe it or not, Tony was trying to believe that, trying to look past the memory of Lokiâs hand on his throat and remember instead how it had felt when heâd had his brain played with. It sufficed to say he hadnât liked it much. Tony also knew a thing or two about the endless struggle for redemption and how it felt to change absolutely everything about yourself, try and do good, and have it not mean a damn thing to half the world. Heâd been lucky enough that the other half had given him a second chanceâone he knew he didnât deserve. But heâd also never tried to take over all of New York City with a rabid alien army.Â
No, said a little voice in his head. You just let innocent cities across the world get bombed with your weapons. Your death count is much higher.Â
âI donât think youâre contagious. I think youâre an anomaly,â Tony explained, already rolling his chair away to one of the many machines on his desk. âYour brand of science leaves traces. Letâs call themâŠblips in the natural order of things. This realmâthis planetâthis reality, operates on a finite amount of matterânothing created, nothing destroyed. You wave your hands and do some abracadabra, and you offset the balance. I can trace the energy.â Tony didnât look up, continuing to speak as he analyzed the âsample.â So far, Loki was rightâas much as he hated to admit it: there was nothing to see, nothing to find, nothing lingering. But just because he didnât see it, didnât mean it wasnât there. âMagic is a system, right? It has to have coding. And Iâm good at code.â
âOkay, fine, itâs ârealâ.â He put air quotes around the last word, finally looking up to see that Loki had not, despite his threats, actually left. He hated to admit that he was gladâhe shouldnât beâbut it had been a while since Tony had had a real challenge, and alien âmagicâ was the ultimate test. âNow thatââ He said, pointing the pen at Loki. âMakes sense.â He didnâtâcouldnâtâbelieve that magic was random, that was as simple as snapping your fingers and making a wish come true. There had to be a logic behind it, a theory as strange as gravity must have seemed to the ancients, that he could, piece by piece, begin to decode.
Tony tried his best not to look impressed. The last thing he needed was Loki getting a big head or, worse, thinking Tony was actually interested in anything he had to say. But the truth was, well, he was. The man just turned his pen into a snake. That shouldnât have been possible. It wasnât the weirdest thing Tony had seen, not by a long shot, but there was something different about seeing it up-close when no one was trying to kill him and no alien army was knocking on his door, ready to take his head off with a magical guillotine. With no immediate threat, no lives currently in danger, no âheroingâ he had to do, there was nothing but pure, unadultured, scientific inquiry. And he loved it.Â
âAnd this Seidrâit understands the oath?â he asked, eyebrows raised and leaning back so far in his seat, heâd have fallen over long ago if he hadnât designed it for that very instinct. He put his legs up onto the desk, crossing at the ankle, and folded his hands behind his headâthe picture perfect image of casual indifference, but inside he was buzzing. âYouâre trying to tell me youâre in contact with all the atoms of the universe? That youâre having âmagicalâââ Again, he made air quotes around the word âConversations on a cellular level?â He sat up. âI know Iâm going to regret this, but fine. LetâsâŠoath it out. What do we shake hands or something? Blood pact? Do I need a lock of your hair? A small doll I poke with pins when you annoy me?â
Loki wasnât sure whether being an anomaly was much better than being seen as a monster or contagious. He was...Loki wasnât sure what word to use, but it was rare anyone showed this much interest in his seidr, so it was a welcome change that Stark was and wanted to learn more. However, he didnât like feeling like a science experiment, nor did he like the idea that he was only worth having around so long as he could be poked and prodded at. He was grateful that his back was turned to Stark, he would have been humiliated if the mortal saw how his usual stoic mask crumbled from the onslaught of memories assaulting him.Â
One in particular was causing him the most pain. He was suspended in the air, his skin being peeled off by the Chitauri to test his healing abilities, his defenses and his pain threshold. If he could have passed out from the agonizing torture he was being put through, he would have, but Ebony Mawâs intrusive microsurgery needles kept him awake throughout it all. Loki was allowed no rest from the many ways they had tried to break him. theyâd just kept pushing his body and mind till it could take no more, and once they had broken it, they had been able to rebuild it however they wanted. Theyâd indoctrinated and radicalized him into their way of thinking, turning him into the villain Stark still saw him as.
He took a moment to recompose himself before he turned back to Stark, plastering a smile on his face. âI suppose Thorâs told you all about how unusual I am.â Better to pass him being an anomaly off as a joke than to admit that it had touched a sore spot. Lokiâd been seen as unusual and as an outsider all his life, it was something he was used to so it was second nature for him to act unbothered when someone else pointed it out to him. âI wish I could confirm your theory, but thereâs no coding to what I can do. There are things about the universe that are mystical in nature, however much you want to deny it, it doesnât make that any less true.â He admired Starkâs intelligence, but this was one area the mortal fell short. His ignorance and refusal to accept what his science couldnât explain made him narrowminded, and ultimately would get in the way of understanding the universe on a deeper level.
Loki wanted to explain seidr to Stark, to help him understand and learn. It had been centuries since Lokiâd taught anyone and he wasnât ashamed to admit he missed passing his knowledge onto someone else. However, teaching was a two way street, the potential student had to be willing to learn, and open to possibilities that contradicted what they already knew. There was no problem having questions, Loki welcomed them, but outright denial wasnât welcome in a place of learning. âThere is a system of sorts, thereâs a sort of give and take when using a spell. It takes energy to wield seidr, if you donât have enough of it, or are inexperienced the spell will either fail, or hit back at you.â It wasnât unknown for overenthusiastic beginners to die from trying a spell well beyond their ability. âItâs a living force, it should be respected, those that abuse it arenât just scum, theyâre a danger to themselves and everyone around them.â
The pen turned snake continued to slither up his arm till it reached his shoulder and hung around his neck. It brought a smile to Lokiâs lips and he gently stroked his fingers along its scales. Heâd always had an affinity to snakes, they were wonderful creatures, often misunderstood like he was and far more intelligent than humans gave them credit for. They were also survivors, using that little they had to find a way to come out on top, it was a trait Loki respected. âYou can take it if you want.â Loki offered. âItâs perfectly safe.â Loki could be cruel, but he wasnât about to turn a pen into a snake that was venomous, not when he wanted to earn Starkâs trust. âSee for yourself how real it is.â
Loki wasnât expecting to make a believer out of Stark overnight. He knew it would take time, if it happened at all. Annoying as it was to be doubted and to have Stark resort to childish air quotes, he could understand Starkâs skepticism. He was being asked to believe in something that he couldnât prove with his machines or any other scientific means that were available to him. If Loki had been in Starkâs position, he would be just as reluctant, so he could hardly fault the mortal for how he was acting. âItâs not so much a conversation, think of it like how you might combine elements together. Youâre not talking with them, youâre just putting pieces together that already exist.â Stark was making it more complicated than he needed to.Â
âThereâs nothing special you need to do, you donât need my hair or my blood, nor do I need yours.â Loki couldnât help but wonder where Stark had gotten these ideas from. Were these the kinds of sagas and stories the mortals told themselves? âI only need to say the words and imbued them with magic.â
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