Heart Of Stone

Chapter 18

Loki's POV:

When the girl walked in, I took the opportunity to enter her mind. Her powers seemed to lie within there, so I might as well evaluate her finest weapon. She had as witty a tongue as Stark, though she was much more refined and dignified with her words, not that this was a difficult task. But I would prefer to see the brain behind the brawn, so to speak.

She was thinking about her beautiful spot in a forest again, wondering if she could ever return to her home. She was not worried about the others attempts to remove her, merely annoyed.

Such depressing thoughts for such a powerful mortal, I comment. She looks over at me blankly. Her grey eyes look like they are trying to hold onto life, but failing. Whoever said I was a mortal, God of Mischief, was misinformed, she tells me blandly.

I have underestimated you, Lady Lexis, I admit shamelessly. You are truly a very puzzling woman to me. I cannot fathom what you hide with your cryptic ways.

Her eyes close, raven black hair falling nearly over her shoulders when her head leans forward. She starts sending me waves of pain which make me yell out. Screams echo in my mind. It takes me a moment to realise the screams are of her own creation.

What sounds like a stone tomb sealing occurs, the pain only worsening. Then came a sense of revival that tore away the pain. A faint vision of water entered my mind, most likely not by the intentions of the girl who had gone through this torture. Horrid cracking sounds replaced the screams.

Then it was all over.

I looked back at the strange immortal who had done this to me. She had turned her back on me already and was walking out. There is a mere taste of what my 'cryptic ways' hide, was the last I heard of her before she vanished from my sights.

Thor only took a few more moments to arrive. "What ails you, brother?! I heard your screams!"

"... that immortal witch," I say, finding myself lacking of breath still, like the oceans she had shown me were drowning me. "She was... sharing with me her troubles... the pain was excruciating, brother. It could only have been from her past to have been that strong and effective."

"Since when has Reindeer Games been so easy to shake up?" That flying metal man questioned as he approached. "I haven't seen him like this since the Hulk played 'Puny God' with him."

I shudder at the memory. I hate that dull creature. He may be a mortal, but his strength exceeds even that of my brother. I have heard that he has even lifted Mjolnir before due to his mere brute force. Nobody on this planet can lift Mjolnir aside from Thor or that red creature they call the Vision.

"Lady Lexis did this," Thor said, shaking his head. The look of anger on his face assured me that the girl was in trouble. "Yeah... I don't care," Stark shrugged. "As long as she only does it to Loki, I just think it's funny."

"I believe the mortals would call you a jerk," I say. I have acquired more knowledge of human life. I feel like this is already a huge accomplishment for me, however Stark appears unimpressed.

"Loki, what did she do to you?" Thor pressed for answers. "I told her that she was a puzzle to me as I could not fathom what her cryptic ways hide," I explain. She sent me pain, the sounds of her screams, the feeling of being sealed away in a tomb... then there was water, a more pleasant revival and the sound of cracking came with it. It was... fragments of her own experiences that she was sharing with me. She said that that was a mere taste of what her 'cryptic ways' hid, then she departed."

The fire in Thor's eyes extinguished. "That is all?" "Yes," I confirm. "Out of all of us, she opens up to Reindeer Games," Stark sighs irritably. "Jarvis, tell everybody except Lexis to meet in the conference room, please. Code Blue."

Yes, Sir, the 'ayy eye' of the tower responded. "You guys come on, we're having a meeting."

Stark made me go to the meeting, too. I sat silently next to my brother. Once the other mortals had arrived, Stark began to speak. "Loki had a breakthrough with Lexis today."

"What happened?" Lady Romanoff asked. She has been very interested in the wellbeing of Lady Lexis. "She shared some of her past with him mostly via emotions and sounds," Stark explained.

He made me repeat my experience into a communications device that spoke my words back to me. He referred to it as a 'fuh-own'. "She said about being something called a Stone Siren," the dull creature's human form revealed. "Nat apparently heard the term Singing Statue, too, but she prefers the former. Turns out there are a lot of names for whatever she is. She's also immortal and over a century old."

There is a silence among us. "Okay," Stark nods slowly after a lengthy interval. "So what now? While I can afford to take her swimming every day until she trusts us, I can't be bothered to swim every day."

"As much as I hate to admit it, Loki seems like our best way in," the Captain announced. "Lexis likes him and Vision more than any of us because she can talk to them without worrying about coming into actual contact with them and she's already opened up to Loki, even if it's just a little. We can keep working the way we are now, but we need Loki to step up a little. And nobody tell Lexis what we're up to, she won't trust us if she thinks we're conspiring against her."

You are too right, Steve Rogers, Lady Lexis says telepathically, most likely addressing all of us since the Avengers leap up. I slowly smirk. Crafty little witch, I'll give her that. I have read your minds and I know of your intentions. If you knew what I was hiding from you, I am unsure as to what you would do to me. I understand that currently your intentions are pure, but I do not wish to share these things with you. At very least not until I am certain I can trust you all.