Bend Around the Wind by Scyllaya

Chapter 4: Tally Marks

Chapter Four

Tally Marks

Cassiopeia Galaxy

Shedir System

Sector 40

They didn't do anything to him. Every time the door opened Tony braced himself for what may be coming, but they never came for him, only for Loki. He tried to guess how many days passed, but the thought actually made him laugh rather hysterically. "A day", as if it mattered how many times a tiny speck somewhere very very far away turned around its axis.

Whenever the guards came for Loki, he called it a "morning" and "evening" was whenever they brought him back and gave them some water and something that could be called food, if one exaggerated. Not knowing the passage of time was driving him crazy, starting with the first few months that he slept through. So he started counting the days.

Including the day they were tossed into the cell, they have been here for eight days already. He had absolutely no idea how many hours these "days" had though, but he still called it that. For eight days now they dragged Loki out for quite a long time and brought him back bloody and beaten up. For eight days now Loki laughed at them when they tossed him back inside, and there was not a single guard that didn't have some sort of injury acquired from the god.

And Tony just watched and waited, but no matter how much time passed, there was no way out. He couldn't see any. So just as before, he just tried to keep it together.

Day 17 was the first time Loki didn't laugh as he was brought back into the cell, but judging by the angry red marks around his neck and the amount of blood he was spitting out it had more to do with his injuries than anything else.

It was more than unnerving to see how Loki looked every morning and compare it to what state they brought him back. Watching how his flesh knit itself back together as the hours passed, then see how new damage was done all over again the next day. They never really talked to one another and the silence was also not doing anything good to Tony's nerves. He couldn't sleep. He could blame a number of things, the too uncomfortable floor, Loki being in the same cell, thus making it impossible not to be alert and on edge, or of course the nightmares that tried to take over his mind more frequently as the time passed. At least Loki didn't threatened or attacked him. Small mercies.

He also noticed how Loki looked worse and worse as the days went by, he was healing rapidly, but the more injuries there were, the slower the process became and sometimes he was still bruised when the door opened for him to be taken away again. Tony had a fairly good idea why they did not touch him yet. He was mortal, a lot less sturdy than someone like Loki, and they needed information from him, so they couldn't risk injuring him too much. He had a sick cold feeling in his gut that told him that making him see what was happening to Loki, what their captors were capable of, was their way of making him more agreeable.

It was happening slowly, very slowly, but it was happening. The guards having fewer injuries, Loki healing a little slower, they were all signs leading up to the inevitable.

On day 31, when Loki just sat next to the wall, his every breath a wheezing wet sound in the cold cell Tony could not take the silence anymore.

'I can't believe that you have no way of getting out of here,' he said. His voice a little deeper and more scratchy than usual, he was not used to not speaking for so long.

Loki's eyes slowly opened then focused on him. He stared for a moment then raised his hands up.

'You may have guessed, that my magic is sealed away,' the god told him. Now that Tony looked at it, Loki's shackles were indeed different looking from his own. There were engraving on it, some looked like runes, and some were symbols Tony has never seen before.