Eccedentesiast: Sequel To Redmancy

Chapter 13

Loki POV

Loki watched Eloise disappear out the door in a hurry. "Well, shall we continue, Thor what can you tell us..." Loki quickly tuned everyone out, his thoughts on Eloise.

"Loki?" He realized everyone was looking at him, "I'm sorry, what was the question?" Steve cleared his throat, "Well we wanted to know how much is Thanos influencing Eloise and her actions? It isn't like with you when you came to earth, she clearly has her own thoughts but she seems to be limited on how much she can act against him." "Its true, I was under the influence of the Mind stone," he nodded towards Vision, "which Vision now has, I believe her mind to still be her own, which is something of a testiment to her strength that even after 4 years he hasn't broken her. The collar she wears has magic on it and it chokes her everytime goes against something directly, it also limits her powers."

Eloise POV

"You forgot about the iron."  She said from behind Loki, glaring at him as he whipped around shocked to see her. "How did you..." Tony pointed to the door and back to her, she rolled her eyes and stuck her hand thru the wall to show everyone it vanished, "Not actually here. I needed to be able to speak freely." Everyone stared at her, "How fascinating..." Vision approached her and looking her up and down, "Your mind... you are separate from your body but still linked." She shrugged, allowing Vision to circle her, "Thats essentially what I did. I can allow my soul to leave my body. It is convenient for when I need to speak or if I just don't want to be present in my body. It's also handy for keeping information out if Thanos hands. As long as I don't see it in person, I can lie about it." She moved more to the front of the room so everyone could see her, "So you were saying about iron?" Tony asked, "Oh yes, Loki and Bruce already knew this but I suspect both wouldn't have made this known to protect me," Loki made a noise but she disregarded it, "But iron is what this collar is made out of. Iron is toxic to fae. I am saying this because Thanos may try to have me go up against you all and I have serious doubts that any of you could stop me if I wasn't holding back. I don't want to hurt anyone, especially not people I care about." She watched everyone obsorbing the information, Loki his face unreadable but he was blinking alot as if he was holding back tears, his eyes burning intensely with emotion as he looked at her, Thor and Bruce giving her reassuring smiles, Wanda, Steve, Nat, Tony, Rhodes, and Clint all looking sympathic, Vision and Bucky's expressions were blank, "But if the iron is toxic how can you seem to be alright?" Wanda asked softly, "She isn't, are you doll?" Bucky finally made eye contact, his blue eyes gazing at her with a fierce glint in his eye, "No I am not, but as of now it won't kill me." She answered honestly, "That is rough." Sam added. "Lady Eloise is strong. She won't be broken so easily as the mad titan thinks." She smiled at Thor, his eyes on her giving her more confidence than she felt.

"Anyway as I tried to say before for now I cannot break from Thanos, it's imperative he thinks I am still within his grasp. He is using this summit to see if he can take control thru diplomacy, while he searches for more infinity stones. You all also need to be prepared for him to come after Vision, I may not have time to warn you but I will if I can." She warned them, trying to convince them of the threat. "You seem certain you can break from Thanos." Tony stated, looking her up and down. "Well my plan has worked so far." She shrugged, "Tell us about Fairy and what we should expect at this summit." Steve asked, "Expect alot of political showboating, honestly try not to get involved with the drama but I would advise that you petition a vote to separate earth's council and have your own representative. I cannot block it if it came to a vote and it would give earth a stronger voice later. Other than that, alot of dull meetings and parties. " There was general chatter about what intergalactic parties when Bruce spoke up, "So how can we tell when you can speak candidly or not?" She smiled at him, "If it's in-person assume Thanos will be trying to figure out an angle to get what he wants. But if I am..." she thought about it for a moment, "like this then he won't know. He has no idea I can do this."  She added, before she walked away, "Also if the collar tightening does happen, give me a minute, it looks bad but it always loosens before I pass out and I'll be alright afterwards."

She moved back to standing against the wall away from the center of the room, to let others speak, when Thor and Loki both turned towards her, "Ok, first of all I don't like being stared down by both of you, it's mildly intimidating and second shouldn't you all be discussing..." she gestured behind them to everyone else in the room, "Actually we've been to more than a few of these. So we know what to expect." Loki explained, "So when darling..." he drew out the word darling like she was in trouble, "Were you going to mention that he's moving after more infinity stones?" She raised an eyebrow at him, "In case it was unclear, that was me telling you. So if either of you," she looked back and forth between the brothers, "Should happen to know where one is. Move it." Loki stood up drawing close to her, looking intently at her to the point she had look straight up to keep her eyes on him. "I'd like to throw you over my shoulder and take you somewhere to talk about what you are implying. But as I can't, I'm going to ask you to follow me without making a scene." He whispered in her ear. She nodded vanishing thru the wall, as he reappeared in the hall. She followed him till he opened a small room. After he closed the door he caged her in between his long arms. "How did you figure it out?" His emerald eyes bored in her blue ones into, "Knock it off Loki, you can't intimidate me. As to how I figured it out, I know your magic and what your hiding isn't your magic. I can feel it. How long have you had the tesseract with you?" He flinched as soon as she said the out loud. "I brought it back with me when I came back from Asgard. When you showed up I thought it would be a good idea to move it." "Does Thor know?" "Yes." "But I'm guessing our friends won't like you having it again." "No I suspect they wouldn't." He pulled back away from her, she closed the distance making sure he saw her actually reach her hand up to his face, "Loki I wasn't going to tell them. You know that right?" He nodded, leaning into to her fingers, "How odd." He murmured, placing his hand on hers, it didn't go thru, "Hey you can touch me!" Her eyes went wide. "It would seem so. It's like putting my hand on water, I can feel you but if I tried to grab you my fingers would go thru you." They stood there together for a moment. Suddenly she heard a call in her head, "Oh dear. I have to go." She vanished from Loki's sight and was back in her body, transporting her self thru space.