The Misadventures of Loki and Strange

Chapter 23

"Oh, that was a good move."

Loki's eyes narrowed as the cape opposite him appeared to give a bow, to which Loki could only smirk at in amusement.

Wong, who was to the cape's left, let out a long breath and shook his head, his hands pushing lightly against the table as he leaned back to inspect the bricks.

"This is getting tricky," the sorcerer said.

"Surely you won't be bested by a curtain," Loki chuckled.

Said 'curtain' took offense to the jibe and launched directly at the God, curving around the wooden build in the centre of the table to wrap tightly around Loki's head as Wong watched on with a look reminiscent of a disappointed father.

"That is no way to speak of the Cloak of Levitation," he said, shaking his head.

Loki had a mini battle with the CoL, managing to rip it away from him long enough to shoot Wong a cold look.

Strange, meanwhile, had walked up and set down a selection of drinks that he had conjured up during the brief cross of the room.

"I forgot to warn you," he said, taking the seat the cloak had vacated and using a light bit of magic to push the glasses to the designated person, "everyone gets really competitive over Jenga."

"Typical Midgardians," Loki muttered, lifting up the drink to give it a cautious look over before daring to take a sip.

"Loki, if I was going to poison you then I would have done long before we got stuck in that closet together."

"You enjoyed it as much as I did."

Strange opted to sip his own drink rather than answer while Wong looked like he was supressing a bought of laughter so hard that it was causing him pain.

"Actually, as we're on the subject of our little adventure," Loki started, looking at Strange with a pointed expression, "I can't help but wonder why you didn't put more effort into it."

Raising his eyebrow a little, Strange paused as he regarded the God then set his glass down and linked his fingers atop the table.

"You're a smart one, Loki, I think you know the answer."

"You were testing me," Loki replied without hesitation.

Strange gave a one-shouldered shrug and tilted his head in answer, giving the briefest of nods.

"Clever, I hope you got the result you wanted."

"I got a result," Strange said, sounding neither impressed nor unimpressed. "And we got what we went there for, which I believe you still need to explain to me."

"Ah, yes, time for lessons with Professor Loki."

"Don't...ever call yourself that again."

Loki smirked teasingly at Strange who, in turn, was supressing a smile of his own.

The God knew there was a funny side to the man, it was nice to see him finally letting loose a little in his company.

"The shortest answer is that it's an intricate device created for Freya of Vanaheim from an admirer to keep eternal youth and beauty, or at least as eternally as you have something to offer."

"Something like your own spirit?"

"The soul," Loki nodded, inspecting the tower in the centre of the table as he chuckled. "When you're a being of beauty, magic and fertility what could you possibly need a soul for?"

"Priorities," Wong added with a thoughtful nod of his own.

"Precisely, staying youthful was vital when it was created, many lives of mine ago, just another fad within the God community, it would have died out in a hundred years or so but it went a little too far."

"How?" Strange asked.

"As they say, with great power comes great responsibility and no one thought that it was perhaps a less than stellar idea to give away their lifeforce for a few more years of looking three hundred instead of two thousand."

Leaning forward over the table, Loki concentrated some magic and carefully pushed out a block from the middle.

"Bit by bit, this magic would sap away their soul but they were beautiful, so what did it matter to them?"

"And what happened when they ran out of soul? You can only afford that for so long, they aren't everlasting," Strange said, tilting his head a little.

"Exactly," Loki replied, balancing the brick he'd taken on top of the pile before looking back to Strange. "It turned out that madness is what, there was nothing left to offer but already dwindling years and weakening magic but what were they without their beauty? So, if they couldn't use their gadget then they'd have to find other means."

"Did they manage to find another Fountain of Youth?"

"No, many thought they came close but there were terrible repercussions, eventually Freya came to her senses and called an end to their searching, threatening all who continued with severe punishment."

"For something she caused?" Wong asked, looking between the other two.

Loki shook his head then leaned back in his seat, crossing his arms.

"She saw the error of her ways before she could be driven to madness by her own magical gift."

"That would have been unfortunately ironic," Strange said. "At least someone came to their senses long enough to call a stop to it. Were many other items created?"

"A few, but not many made it out of the workshop."

"Luckily for us or we could have found ourselves running around after them all, that kid was pretty persistent in his ghost act."

"Well, it's not as though the Vanir didn't have plenty of warning to stop searching before all items, including our new friend, were banished to whatever four corners they should fall to, not soon enough but it gave us a little bonding experience."

"Because it happened to land in the right attic."

"Perhaps," Loki shrugged, "or maybe it was placed there purposefully, maybe the family had some kind of tie to the Vanir, I cannot say just yet but what I can say is that it's all tucked away and we have a job well done under our belts."

Strange nodded slowly, staring at the block tower as Loki took a sip of his offered drink.

"Let's hope it's the last of our problems, we already have you to put up with," he said, using a small amount of his own magic to pull out a block as Loki watched with a raised eyebrow, a smile of amusement at the sorcerer joining in tugging the corner of his mouth.

"You love me really."

"I tolerate you, let's not get it confused."

The two caught each other's eye around the Jenga tower and shared looks of mutual acceptance, neither would could it a friendship but they could concede that maybe, by some power of the imagination, they wouldn't kill each other during this period of forced babysitting.