King Loki

Chapter 3
"What are you doing?" A female hissed just as Cephera looked up from the floor.
Cephera gazed at the blond, blue eyed girl who had grabbed her. She wore a short sleeved V neck top of black and a long skirt that reached the ground in a dark green covered in a long apron.
"I...," Cephera wasn't able to think of a quick reply as she got to her feet.
"You are crazy to come in here from the free world." The girl scolded. "Go back the way you came now, before a Loyal catches you sneaking in." She shoved Cephera back toward the window.
"No. I can't leave." Cephera pushed back. "I have a friend in here I need to find." Cephera didn't know who this girl was, but she saw an opportunity. "Tell me what's happening in here." She insisted.
"You're crazy. If you're caught you'll be enslaved like the rest of us." The girl shook her head. "If your friend is in here, you'll never get them out." She shook her head harder to convey her dismay.
"Please, I have to try," Cephera pleaded. The blond looked around as if afraid to be seen or heard. "I'm Cephera, what's your name." Cephera asked trying to calm her and take her mind from her worries.
"I'm Agent Lake, Lana Lake." She replied.
"An Agent for SHIELD?" Cephera got excited a moment. Perhaps, she was a spy working on the inside. Tony never liked SHIELD, but Cephera saw only opportunity in her meeting of this one.
"Not any longer. SHIELD was destroyed. A lot of us captured or killed. It didn't help that we had double agents on the inside for years that Loki took full advantage of." She frowned. "A lot has happened in since Loki's takeover."
"I wouldn't know. I heard only rumours about what happened here. A woman outside her gave me a brief rundown." Cephera bit her lip and looked to the floor.
"What were you kept in a cave. Everywhere where Loki hasn't siezed control still has rebels and news. Anyone whose anyone knows all about the reaping." Lana scutinized her with an awkward glance.
"I'm sorry. I'm not from here." Cephera pursed her lips. It's not like they didn't know about aliens at this point. "I'm from a different planet." Cephera admitted at last. The words sounded foreign on her tongue.
"Another planet? Like Asgard? Are they coming to help?" Lana looked suddenly excited and Cephera felt bad.
"Sorry. No. I'm on my own." Lana's excitement died and Cephera ended up feeling guilty. "But if I find a way to free my friend, he'll certainly help me find a way to free the rest of you." She added hoping that she didn't dash too many hopes.
"Who is your friend?" Lana asked. "I might be able to point you in the right direction." Again looking over her shoulder with a nervous glance.
"Tony Stark," Lana's faced paled at her words.
"Leave now. Forget about him." Agent Lake shook her head vigorously making a gesture with her arm for Cephera to leave.
"With or without your information I've gotta try." Cephera insisted.
Lana sighed heavily her arm dropping and instead she placed both hands on her hips. "Stark is the most heavily guarded servant here." She informed her.
"Servant? Not a prisoner."
"I guess he's kind of both. He's locked away in a private room only the King can enter. Loki put these collars on us. They are imbued with magic. We can't leave this building without being teleported back inside. For Tony he can't leave that room. Loki has his girlfriend here to force Stark to do anything he asks." Cephera swallowed her throat feeling dry.
"Pepper is here too." Her heart sank. So Pepper was there as well. Cephera had hoped she wasn't. Freeing one person might be almost impossible, let alone two.
"That what I've heard. I've never actually seen her. I haven't been down in the Kitchens. I work in the laundry, it's why I'm in here. Changing linens." Lana motioned around her and again glanced at the door. "Loki's Loyals roam the halls to make sure no one is up to anything. We'll be found any moment now. Hide beside the bed so I can speak to you there. If anyone passes by it'll look like I'm just making the bed." She suggested.
Cephera did as she was told. "How often do they pass by?" Cephera asked.
"Randomly. Loki's set up places for them to access teleports from one place in the spire to another. They are soundless using those things." Cephera couldn't see Lana's face from her hiding spot. "So you're an alien, you got powers or tech? You're gonna need something to even have a chance at rescuing your friends."
Cephera scratched her head. "Sort of. It's tricky. I have magic of my own but nothing powerful enough to take on someone like Loki." Cephera was never able to use her gifts very effectively against anyone. Her magic simply wasn't strong enough to even dream of battling the King.
"You're going to need something. If he catches you he'll either throw you in the prison, unlikely as you're not useful to him nor are you much of a threat. Or he'll put a collar on you like mine and force you to serve in this place. Or he'll use his staff to brainwash you into becoming his loyal minion." Cephera heard the distaste in Lana's tone at all options.
"His magical items won't work. The moment I make contact with them I can weaken their energies, this I'm confident in. It's not very powerful, but it can be affective in some situations." Cephera felt proud suddenly. Her power had never come in handy before. Although technically she touched things or people and learned new magic that way, but she had learned a few, more useful things because of that ability. Taking energy was one of them.
"Prison it would be then." Lana replied.
"I've learned to teleport short distances." Cephera smirked feeling a little more hopeful that maybe she stood a chance at this dangerous game.
"Really?" Lana sounded surprised. "Well I'll be damned. You might just have something going for you." She sounded amused and Cephera smiled. "Unless he just decides to kill you in case he thinks your power could grow."
"That could be a problem." Cephera pursed her lips.
"If you can take energy, take his!" Agent Lake exclaimed slamming her palms to the mattress making it shake.
"I can't. The most I'd do to him is make him drowsy." Cephera returned to frowning narrowing her brows in thought. Taking life energy was much harder than magical energy. Inanimate things were easy, but living things not so much.
"Gosh, I thought all aliens would be strong." Lana sounded dismayed and slightly disappointed.
"I'm part human." Cephera admitted. "That affects my abilities." She often wondered if it was also why she could never get pregnant.
"Oh." Agent Lake went quiet. Light footsteps caught their attention. Sheets fluffed into the air as Lana began to dress the bed. Cephera listened as the footsteps stopped, most likely outside the door, and then begin to walk again. "Shit, he'll pass by again now that he knows which room I'm in. We can't stay here." Lana told Cephera finishing tucking in the sheets and fluffing the pillows.
"You said it yourself that if they see me...,"
"I know." Lana paused. Cephera could see her now standing at the foot of the bed looking down at Cephera. "What if you get purposely caught. I mean he catches people all the time and collars them to become servants of the Spire, you could pretend to be a servant." She grinned. "SHIELD used that trick all the time to infiltrate energy territory. The collar only binds you to parameters Loki sets. He won't know that it won't apply to you if you use your magic on it first."
Cephera had never done any kind of spy work before. Truthfully, she planned to get in and get out. She hadn't thought things would turn this difficult. "It's better than any idea I had." Cephera replied.
XxX
Trusting Agent Lake, Cephera squeezed back out the window and waited outside it for the patrol to come by. She pretended to be attempting to pull the window open further which got the reaction she was hoping for as the patrol saw her.
Her heart was beating wildly within her chest. She was unable to control it. She was both nervous and infused with adrenaline. When the patrol came running after her she kept up the act Lana had advised and began to run just a little less faster than the two men in pursuit.
Soon Cephera found herself in their clutches. Her yell was genuine as a moment of fear and anxiety hit her. She spent her time mentally calming herself as she was dragged inside the main doors.
She eventually found herself in the middle of the Spire that pivoted straight up to a skylight of magnificently painted glass above. All around the way going up the room walls were balconies to observe the Kings rulings. It was unlike any throne room Cephera had ever seen.
In the middle of the floor erected a throne befitting the sorcerer Loki was. It was not gold however, but carved from what looked to be a rock. Etches of runes dug deep along it just like the tower outside. Sitting upon that chair was the King himself.
His long legs spread wide as he leaned forward to survey her. A long staff in his hand with a jewel that glowed blue. "We found this one attempting to sneak inside." The guards were telling their King.
Loki cocked his head to the side and smirked. "You wish to find yourself within these walls?" He asked her laying aside his staff. With a snap of his fingers magic formed in the palm of his hand and in seconds a gleaming collar of gold like the one Lana had been wearing, appeared.
Loki stood and approached her. "Give me a good story behind your attempt to infiltrate my home and perhaps I'll spare you from servitude." He offered. Cephera kept her mouth shut, better to spin no needed lies. Best to allow him to take from her silence whatever he wished.
"You do not look like a rebel." He commented and Cephera stiffened. He was inspecting her closely. "But then again, most do not." He grabbed her chin with his free hand. "Speak before your king," he growled.
Cephera wondered how best to approach this. She was legitimately shaking at this point, unsure what to do or expect. "You're not my king," she replied and got the reaction she expected.
"We shall see," he warned her and moved to place the collar. Cephera shot her hand up and grabbed it sapping its magical energy. The guards grabbed her, restraining her arms behind her back, but the deed was done.
Loki snapped the collar in place with a grin. "Eventually, you all break." He gestured around her to the servants in attendance. "You wanted inside my Spire, now it will be your tomb." He sneered and stepped back. "Take her to the laundry, we could always use more workers there."
Cephera said nothing more as she was carted off.
She'd made it. She was inside the Spire and unharmed. The collar felt strange on her neck. Heavy even. She wondered what parameters he'd set to it. That was a problem she hadn't considered.
How would she know where she could or couldn't go? What if she was caught in a place the collar shouldn't allow her in? What if she was caught for the fraud she was before she even managed to find Tony or Pepper?
She'd hoped to be sent to the kitchens, but that hadn't happened. At least she'd have Lana in the laundry.

Notes