The Ashen Keeper

Chapter 10

She supposes she should say something to ease the tension in the room. In fact, she could feel tension all the way from the room where others were located.

It felt strangely familiar. After all, this amount of tension was the norm back home. You could get randomly stabbed by a passing undead or get brutally killed by a nightmarish monster.

"I hath no need of condolences from one who cannot even accept their true self. How doth thou wish thy kin to accept thee when thou fail to accept thyself? Thou present thyself as nothing more than a child begging for attention.".

The 'clever giant' failed to come up with any retorts. His malice for her only grew. However, the 'false god' forced himself to look over at Nick Fury once again. Someone he believes is beneath than him.

"How desperate are you, that you call on such lost creatures to defend you?".

"How desperate am I?", said Fury as he walked closer towards the glass.

"You threaten my world with war, you steal a force you can't hope to control, you talk about peace, and you kill cause it's fun. You have made me very desperate. You might not be glad that you did.".

Loki simply grinned at this, "Ooh. It burns you to have come so close, to have the Tesseract, to have power- unlimited power, and for what?", he continued as he turned towards the camera. "A warm light for all mankind to share? And then to be reminded what real power is?", he rolled on.

Loki might have noticed it, but those words stung her deeper than his foremost words. 'A warm light for all mankind to share?', these words resemble the first flames too much to be her liking.

Fury returned the smile, "Well, let me know if 'real power' wants a magazine or something.", as he left with the firekeeper following behind him.

She returned to see Stark accusing an agent of playing games.

They gathered once again. She spectated as Stark begins messing with the screens, sticking something to the underside of a desk. Tony once again uttered words she could barely understand.

He seemed to be a big fan of the Doctor. "It's good to meet you, Doctor Banner. Your work on anti-electronic collisions is unparalleled. And I'm a huge fan of the way you- lose control and turn into an enormous green rage monster.", said Tony once again going at his own pace. The doctor was visibly nervous.

To help ease his anxieties, she chimed in, "Fear not, good doctor for I shall be by thyself to calm you down once thee lose control over thine actions.".

This allows the good doctor to collect his composure once again. Fury entered the room and started explaining once again about how Loki would turn them into his personal flying monkeys.

"I understood that reference.", the blurted out the captain startling everyone while Tony rolled his eyes at him. She, for instance, did not understood the reference.

At night, they gathered once more when the Captain started arguing with Stark once again. There seems to be some form of ongoing rivalry to assume the position of the leader.

They eventually started accusing Nick Fury of attempting weapons. She did not understand why one would dislike the fact that they were arming themselves.

It ended with the captain storming off. "Stubborn guy, isn't he?", the rhetorical question was directed at her by Stark.

"That's the guy my dad never shut up about? Wondering if they shouldn't have kept him on ice.", said Stark, his voice tinged in a form of envy he may not recognize himself.

"Guy's not wrong about Loki, he does have the jump on us.", said the doctor this time. He is scared of something. Perhaps that he would end up a mindless monster of destruction.

She had seen this form of fear in many undead and hollows. She conjured up two small balls of fire without saying a word and let them fly towards both men.

They appeared to be startled when hit with it, but the ball simply disappeared into them. She conjured a form of flame meant to calm down one's mind.

That was how the Ashen one was able to stay sane despite dying over and over.

"Worry not, for I shall always be here ease thy worries. Speak thine heart's desire.". Both went silent over this.

"Thank you but I think we're okay now.", replied Stark as he was the more outgoing of the two.

She bowed and disappeared in the form of flames. "Cheery that one, isn't she?", said Stark nudging at the doctor.

She sat down alone once again when the group seemed to have gathered around her once again. There were many rooms where they could have gathered but they always gathered near her it seems.

Perhaps because they all crave the warmth of the bonfire in one way or another. The captain to ease his estrangement with time, Stark to ease his anxieties, the doctor to ease his worries, the 'god' to ease the fears of his brother committing an unforgivable felony, Nat to ease her guilt,, and Fury to ease his temperament created by keeping secrets to himself.

However, they all started going for each other's throats once again.

"Yeah, big man in a suit of armor. Take that off, what are you?"

"Genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist."

"I know guys with none of that worth ten of you. I've seen the footage. The only thing you really fight for is yourself. You're not the guy to make the sacrifice play, to lay down on a wire and let the other guy crawl over you."

"I think I would just cut the wire."

"Always a way out. You know, you may not be a threat, but you better stop pretending to be a hero."

"A hero, like you? You're a laboratory experiment, Rogers. Everything special about you came out of a bottle."

The arguing seems to get more and more intense. They have affected by the arcane that came out from the Tessaract. She could have stopped it earlier but did not so that they can all say what's on their minds.

Now that, they all seemed to have let everything out, it was time to stop them. Especially since she could sense a hostile aura approaching them.

The arguing stopped immediately all at once when she conjured balls of flames and hit all of them. "I apologize for the interruption, but it appears that all that is here hath been affected the arcane to make you more impulsive. It also appears that a hostile force is approaching this craft.".