Magic Mania: Book One

8

For the course of that day, Strange and Loki discussed their plans, though, as they'd gone through it a lot already, they ended up recapping a lot of what they'd already said. Stephen had "reclaimed" his cloak, so it wasn't following Loki anymore – Strange couldn't stand the idea he might be replaced in its list of affection. That's how Loki had put it anyway.

"So, any idea who else you're going to recruit?" asked Loki, when topics for conversations were scarce. They were sitting in the library of the Sanctum, Strange flicking through his book for something to do with his hands, Loki with his feet up on the table.

"Yes, actually," Stephen said, which surprised Loki.

When Strange didn't elaborate, Loki pressed on with a hand-twirling gesture, "And...?"

"I contacted them to meet us here tomorrow morning so we can talk them through the situation," Stephen said, without looking up, flipping the same page over and over again multiple times for no apparent reason. He sipped his tea. "What time is it?"

"Time for you to get a watch." Loki magically made himself a drink of coffee and took a sip. "So, are you allowed to tell me their names or not?"

"I'd rather you found out tomorrow," Strange shrugged, checking his phone for the time. "If I tell you now you'll probably make assumptions. Besides, you don't know them anyway."

Loki shrugged. "OK. That's cool."

Strange stared at the pages of his book, not even seeing them. They'd been scheming for a collective 7 hours, recounting all their problems and a thousand different solutions, but he still wasn't satisfied. Part of him (the thoughtful side that he liked to listen to the most) told him to drop it – it was almost 10 o'clock and he was entitled to some rest at this time of day. However, the other part of him (the impulsive, bossy side that often overtook the thoughtful side) told him they should carefully plan out every moment of their attack until he was satisfied. Even if the other two he hoped would agree to help out weren't even here yet. He made his choice of which side to listen to.

Strange slammed his hands on the table with enough force to knock over his tea, which startled Loki, who thought he'd gone mad. "Can we go through the plan again? The full way through? Everything we talked about?"

Loki groaned and tilted his head back. "We've been talking all day, Strange. All we talk about is this plan of yours. Talk, talk, talk. Talky, talky." He made opening and closing motions with his hands to demonstrate. "Seriously, I'm starting to regret helping you out."

"Well, don't," Stephen said, clearing the table and sending the books flying into an untidy pile on the other chair. "And please, take your feet off the table."

Loki did so reluctantly, his boots making a loud clunk as they hit the floor. He flicked his fingers at Stephen's pile to straighten it before the books hit the ground. Then he did a long sigh and debated his answer. "Fine. You start."