“Before you do, would you care to explain just what that threat means?” Loki baited with a leisure glance over at the brunette. His features might’ve been enlivened with the tease that was heavy, heady underneath the words, but her expression during the period-long silence between them made his own soften. It usually wasn’t his forte to consider the offense and consequences his statements and responses might evoke, but this time felt, different. He actually cared about Kali. Cared about her opinion, about what she thought. But his brows creased while watching her awkwardly maneuver herself so she could peer around the corner and see the guards that were posted a little ways outside their cell.
Eyes squinting, he quietly attempted to work out what it was exactly she was doing, but it all came to a blank as soon as he witnessed the hue of her stare melt and brighten into a phosphorescent, acidic green. “Kali?” He whispered, but his attention plucked away from the luminous gaze and towards the guards that—in an instantly, suddenly dispersed into a puff of green, before turning into what resembled primordial star dust. Silently splashing onto the ground in the place where they once stood, Loki was, for what he could closely consider, speechless. Half-widened eyes searching the empty space where he could’ve sworn two bodies were. How did she…
Keen he was to shift his stare back towards Kali, witnessing her eyes edging back to their original, almond color, weary. He blinked and tried to remember that his voice still worked. “I, ah,” he cleared his throat. “Yes, I do. I can get out of my chains, but yours require a bit of magic. I suspect they took precautions when they found out you are an infinity stone.” Inhaling a deep breath, Loki flexed his upper arms—as much as he could, the steely material of the chains bending underneath his strength, until they were contorted enough to burst, the pieces clattering to the floor.
“You can, however, call me “oh-great sorcerer “more often. It just might make me work faster.” He quipped with a grin as he strolled over to Kali and kneeled down behind her. Taking the shaft of the chains within his palms, he focused the seidr in his veins that gradually heated his blood, surging towards his fingertips and channeled it into the enchanted material, watching it burn with radiant color of brilliant orange, gold, and a peculiar sapphire, and pale wisps of smoke dance into the air. “As soon as we’re out of here, you need to rest, and lots of it.”
The intense wave of weakness that followed her use of her power was delayed, as by the time Loki was behind her, she wanted to just lay down and let her mind wander through time, recovering her strength. Her siblings may not have shared this weakness, that their mortal form could use the full breadth and width of their powers without worry, but Kali’s form had it’s drawbacks. To encapsulate the immense power of time itself, the ability to go back and forth from beginning to end, in a body of flesh mimicking the type that would inevitably decay was not wise. Sometimes she wondered if underneath the layers of skin and bone, her first form existed, that she was still starlight and cosmic matter instead of a cold stone or just organic material.
Kali’s mind was wandering aimlessly with these ideas until she felt hotness against her skin. She snapped back into reality and a sharp sound of pain left her throat. She twisted her neck to try and see what Loki was doing to the chains that caused them to burn her, but she was no owl. Turning back at his words, a steeliness came to her expression. “I’ll be fine, oh great sorcerer.” She muttered, tone harsh. If there was anything she hated more than captivity, it was being underestimated. Yes, she was tired and maybe something was draining her energy like the old sorcerer spells once did when she was in the Eye, but she was still an Infinity Stone. She was a piece of the very beginning and would last until the very end, a true immortal. She would not be belittled and thought weak.
But this was Loki, who cared for her as a person and not her power unlike most people. He may not know the entirety of her issues though, or how the situation was more and more setting her on edge, so he did not deserve her attitude. “I... I’m sorry.” She’d been quite for a moment, letting him finish working on her chains. “I... after the Eye, I just don’t like being confined and trapped. Like this.” Her voice was soft and the hardness was gone from her voice and expression. though her head was ducked that her hair hid her face from him. Admitting weakness wasn’t something she liked doing, but by the Entities, he deserved better than her being cold.
