Spiritborn ✦ AVENGERS

𝟖 | Loki

I HAD NO IDEA HOW RANI HAD GROWN TO TRUST THESE HUMANS SO EASILY.

True, Rani had always been a little too trusting when she met new people (something I'd warned her against many times), but this was ridiculous. They'd put us to sleep before we even had a chance to explain ourselves! And what's worse, then they locked us in a cage! And now they just expected us to... to just willingly work with them? After treating us so poorly? How could Rani trust people like that? How could anyone trust people like that?

To be fair, though, Rani always had a way of twisting my arm to get me to side with her on things. It'd been that way since we were young. Maybe it was the fact that she was my little sister, maybe it was the pitiful, big, baby-eyed expression she gave me, or maybe it was a combination of both. But whatever it was, it was hard for me to say no to her. Thankfully, though, she was the only one who could sway me so easily. No one else could convince me to do things I was usually against.

So now, we sat on yet another one of those giant metal birds - a "quinjet" - on our way to a place called "Germany." The taller woman, Natasha, was one of two mortals controlling it. And the man - Steve - sat beside Rani, now wearing an odd costume and with what looked to be a gleaming metal shield by his side.

I squinted at the costume Steve was wearing. Teal and reddish-pink were very odd colors for a man such as himself to wear. "Why does your armor have a green and pink color palette?" I asked.

Steve turned to me with a frown. "Wait, what?" He glanced down at his clothes. "This isn't green and pink, it's red, white, and blue."

I frowned as well for a moment before I realized what I was seeing. It was what my father called my "Wumba's Sight" - my inability to see certain colors. But I didn't want Steve to know that; after all, it wasn't any of his business. So I simply nodded. "Right," I said. "My apologies."

Steve's frown deepened. "Are you alright, Nemarra?"

I stiffened. "I'm fine, thanks for asking."

Steve kept his gaze on me. "You sure?"

"She's fine, Steve, really," Rani piped up before I could respond. "Nemarra just lacks the ability to see colors the way the rest of us do. Yellows, greens, and blues appear in different shades."

I shot my sister a glare before hissing in Nahantu, "Rani, my ability is none of his concern."

Rani, however, just shrugged.

"Wait," Steve said to me. "You mean you're colorblind?"

"Colorblind?" I repeated.

"Yeah, colorblind," Steve replied. "It's what we call people who see colors differently."

"And judging by your description, you have Tritanopia," Natasha piped up from the front of the quinjet, then explained when Rani and I frowned in confusion, "Tritanopia is a form of colorblindness, it means you see colors with a greenish-pink tone. It's a sporadic form of the affliction, only affects a very small percentage of the people here."

I crossed my arms, regarding the woman warily. I had no idea that my ability wasn't unique to me. But it alarmed me that she knew so much about all sorts of things - more than Steve seemed to know. Part of me knew it could just be a sign of high intelligence, but another small part of me couldn't help but feel like there were ulterior motives to her knowing so much.

Steve turned to me with a raised eyebrow. "You mean that there's no one else in Nahantu who's colorblind?"

I narrowed my eyes. "It appears so," I said flatly.