The Lokistone

Lokistone 15

For the first section, I listened to the Thor Soundtrack: Letting Go, followed by Science and Magic.

Thank you, forever and always 3

VVVVV

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

"What though the sea with waves continuall
Doe eate the earth, it is no more at all ;
Ne is the earth the lesse, or loseth ought :
For whatsoever from one place doth fall
Is with the tyde unto another brought :
For there is nothing lost,

that may be found

if sought."

-Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene

A sonic blast slammed Jane into Loki's back. It cracked from behind them and screamed across the skyline. And a blue flash exploded, brighter than direct sunlight. Jane grabbed Loki's cloak—he swept an arm around her and pulled her close—

The scarlet, blind figure above the door threw his hands into the air—

The flash of light decimated him.

He burst into a thousand pieces, like sliced ribbons, and tumbled out of existence. The staff clattered to the ground.

The ripple of power raced down the sides of the building—Jane could feel it under her feet—and barreled out toward all corners of the city. And as it moved, a great, horrified cry arose from the streets. A collective, alien cry.

The engines of the hundred buzzing fighters extinguished. As one, they each fell into chaotic tailspins and plummeted straight into the ground, or crashed into the distant black water. Chattering, gasping and choking issued from the lowest level in a strangled roar.

The ripple, like a roll of thunder, hurried away and quieted to nothing. Silence fell over the whole of Manhattan.

But behind them, the soft glow of light remained.

Slowly, Jane turned toward it. She felt Loki, then all of the others, gradually do the same thing.

All the breath left her body.

A wide, luminous archway stood with its bases planted on the roof. And in the middle of the arch stood nine people.

Three of them, Jane did not recognize. One of them was a mighty, golden-clad old man, with shoulder-length white hair, a beard, and a patch over one eye. He carried age in his shoulders, and an ancient mix of knowledge, joy and sorrow marked his weathered face. To his near left stood a magnificent woman with curly golden hair, wearing long, flowing white robes. She had a warm look in her dark eyes—a look both softened and intensified by the object glowing in the old-man's hand: the fiery tesseract.

For a long while, Jane just stared at it, completely captivated, unable to look away.

Then, all at once, her attention twitched to the side—

And she looked into her own eyes.

Her reflection—herself. She wore a long, deep-green dress embroidered with silver, and her hair hung down in curls. She stared back at Jane. And her right hand tightly clasped the hand of...

Loki.

Loki.

He stood directly beside the woman in white. He wore black and green—princely clothes. Lean and knife-like, he had long, wild hair, and those selfsame sharp, pale features Jane knew so well...

But his eyes searched—and found her. Those stunning emerald eyes—

Completely unguarded. Vulnerable. Brilliant. His eyebrows drew together. A knowing, intimate, familiar gaze went right through her.