Interlude 1
INTERLUDE 1
It is quiet between the stars, the spaces he feels most comfortable in.
(Here he can hear himself, dozens of voices murmuring their ways through all the stories that are Loki, catch glimpse and taste of all the cycles that have passed, all the ones that will come.)
(He does not allow himself to notice the lack of anyone with him this trip; sentiment.)
(More, he cannot risk harm coming to that brilliant blue fire that this Tony. It is good to see him so godlike, to see that he can and may grind Midgard beneath his heel--he will be safe there. It does not matter (it matters most) that he has not seen Tony (Amolika-Veeral-Amulya-Tola—priceless) since before all that changed in him changed.)
Asgard would have him a stolen relic; nature demands winter and monsters. Consume, subsume, destroy, freeze--it has always hovered at the edges of himself, and he had not thought of it. Not put the pieces together
Loki does not know what he would have of himself now
(lie--Tony. He would have Tony and the soul-shattering weight of his attention all for Loki)
but he knows that whatever it is, all things have a cost.
He has a price to pay; in his hands, he tosses and turns the blue-glowing cube, eyes distant as it murmurs to him where it wishes to go.
(There is truth, in her, and Loki will take her where she will so that he knows.)
He is so terribly, terribly hungry.