What Comes Next?

Chapter 5: The Garden

I brushed past Loki's offered arm. "Sylvie. Sylvie!"
I turned half ready to fight, half ready to collapse of exhaustion.
"I'm not him." He said. The honesty in his eyes pulled at me.

"I don't know that. I hardly know you. I have no idea where I am or what's happening and I'm a little drunk I think."I stood there dejectedly, unsure of what I wanted to do next.

Loki, whichever one he was, walked over to me, hand outstretched. "Come with me and I'll do my best to explain what I know."

I sighed and took his hand, not bothering to scan his memories. He lead me down the path to a great Oak surrounded by a meadow of wildflowers. He sat on the ground, leaning against it's trunk and patted the ground next to him.

I sat and he began to explain while he picked at the grass, weaving it together. "I knew I loved you since that moment on Lamentis-1. That's what I was going to tell you that day." His eyes stayed on his long graceful fingers, knotting and weaving the grass as he spoke. "I thought it was narcissism at first that made me love you, but you aren't me. You are strong and brilliant and resourceful and You. Aren't. Me. And I'm not him. I used to be him. I could have been him but I'm not. I don't even like him." This time he looked at me with defiance in his eyes.

I couldn't help but smile a bit. "You're right. You aren't him." I scooted to him so we were sitting shoulder to shoulder. "For you." He said, showing me the crown of flowers he'd woven. I lowered my head allowing him to remove my horned headpiece and sit the flower crown on my head. I felt a bit silly but met his eyes anyway. He tucked a last red flower into the crown the sat back as if to admire his work. His eyes never left mine as he whispered, "Perfect. "

He draped his arm over my shoulder and we just sat in silence. Light beams shown down from the suns, though the light didn't seem as harsh as it was through the town. Almost as if the tranquility of the garden extended all the way to the sky. I allowed my head to sag to his shoulder, as my eyelids grew heavy.

"Are you still with me Sylvie?" He asked attempting to glimpse my face.

"Mmhmm. Please go on." I muttered.

He chuckled and continued, "So there is a Science one of..uh..us. He just goes by Val. This is his planet of orgin. He developed the Bifrost doorways and uses them to bring any entity bearing our temporal aura here as soon as we are in imminent danger. A single breath of a moment before our death. But they are one way tickets. Once we are here we can only use the stationary portals to travel to and from select points on this godsforsaken planet. Something about energy signatures. " He paused a moment.

"So why isn't he the King then? And why do you hate it here so much?" I asked struggling to hold my eyes open.

I felt his shoulder shrug, "He doesn't want to be. He just wants to be left alone in his lab below the palace. He'll ask for you at some point for test I'm sure. He did find that while we have the same energy signatures we are all genetically unique, many of us aren't even the same species. Val actually looks a lot like The Hulk with horns." He finished with a bit of a shutter.

I shifted my weight so that one of my legs rested on top of his. "Who's The Hulk? And you didn't answer my other question, why do you hate it here?"

"Oh. Never mind him. And this place isn't real, it's all an illusion. The palace is real, the garden is real. The other variants are real. But the people in the castle? The Asgardians? They are all an illusion he's casting." He stopped moving for a moment, gauging my reaction.

I sat back to see his face. "An illusion? All of them? But there are hundreds? How can he be that powerful?" I asked in disbelief.

"I'm sure of it." He said with certainty. "And I honestly have no idea how he's so powerful. I'm not sure what he did exactly in the years since we split. But I suspect he may use his power to hold us here. We need to find a way to leave this place."

I laid my head on his chest and rearranged until I was positioned between his legs. He slid his arms around me and we sat in silence a bit longer.
"Loki?"
"Yes Sylvie?"
"Would you sing to me? The song you sang on the train?"
And he did, the deep rumble of his chest beneath my ear lulling me to sleep.