An Involuntary Mystical Chart

Nevaeh's eyes lingered for a moment over all of them before she gladly turned her attention towards the next page. She had a strong burning sensation rising in the pit of her stomach.

'This is bullshit. Why are you looking at all this new stuff? Where did it even come from? Father of a wolf and a snake? Dude, be realistic! Why are you shaking so much? You are freaking me out!' Daniel was getting more alarmed by the second.

Nevaeh's silence had always spoken much more than needed, but this was an unusual circumstance and he needed her to speak, to explain. Unfortunately, her flickering, scared eyes were analysing the next depictions displayed on the holographic slides.

Two of the next frames displayed Loki's cave where he was chained.

Nevaeh pointed her shaking wand towards it. It zoomed in.

The man in front of her was looking lost. Unrecognizable. His face was scarred with acid burns, his hands and legs had several bruises on them, as did his bare body. His hair was soaked with the serpent's venom whose tongue was sinisterly slithering over his head. She watched the helpless women standing next to him while holding a bowl over his head. The next frame showed her tipping the bowl's contents aside in a bubbly pool of red and Loki's face severely contorted in piercing anguish. His bloody veins visible from his tight grasp over the chains looked like they would burst any second.

Nevaeh was so busy analysing his face that she failed to read the caption. She quickly read it. God Loki bound forever in the cave of Helheim by the entrails of his children.

Nevaeh felt like throwing up. She felt as though the acid was dripping in her eyes instead of Loki's as hot tears filled her eyeballs, dying to shed down her face. She clapped a hand over her eyes and stifled a sob, but quickly shook her head and analysed the last frame.

Loki stood over a flame burning inside a huge metal pit which had crooked horns placed inside it. Both his hands were raised as though performing a spell and the caption read, God Loki reviving Surtur in the Eternal Flame causing Ragnarok, the end of the Nine Realms.

Meanwhile inside Queen's Nest, after half an hour or so, Loki had not only sought her bags perfectly shut with all her belongings packed neatly within it, but also had cleared the annoying clutter lying around her room. Loki sighed lightly as he watched her room twinkle with cleanliness. Even her ridiculously oversized bear had finally agreed to sit hunching inside a mystically enlarged bag-pack. The question bugging Loki's mind was what was taking Nevaeh so long to return. He got up from the bed and went downstairs in the kitchen to open the fridge. There were two tubs of ice-cream already sitting inside.

'Huh,' muttered Loki and walked towards the deck. 'Should've known that was a lie.'

Loki closed his eyes, stretching his senses further. His eyes snapped opened in three seconds.

'Well, it's time for that visit, then,' Loki said bitterly and snapped his fingers. A gleaming door opened and he stepped through it.

Inside Daniel's apartment, the confusion was mounting. 'So, you are telling me that you have actually been to this place?' Daniel scoffed, vaguely pointing a finger towards the picture of Asgard's palace inside the book and passing a lit cigarette to Nevaeh, who hastily took it in her still-trembling fingers.

'Dan, I walked on that rainbow bridge! I met Heimdall!' she pointed a finger at the bi-frost page of the book where the gate-keeper stood. Daniel had a disbelieving smile on his face. He kept shaking his head, raising a strong urge inside Nevaeh to slap him across the face. Nevaeh inhaled largely once. The remaining half cigarette burnt in a second, burning the filter a little and she put it out, only to light another one before speaking again.

'I befriended a dragon on Asgard! I have been inside the palace!' Nevaeh had no idea why she was trying to convince Daniel. Maybe it was because he was the only one present. She was sitting in front of the holograms, analysing the new ones, while her eyes constantly flickered towards the original unchanged ones.

'Nev, I think you have been a bit disoriented ever since you returned. What exactly happened when you were gone? And where were you? Did he brainwash you or something?' Daniel asked in a serious tone.

'Just stop talking. Let me focus,' Nevaeh snapped.

She pointed her wand towards the first frame and it changed, so did the last one, to reveal yet new depictions. She had been rapidly changing those two frames, all the while keeping the middle three solitary. Nevaeh was feeling extremely light-headed. She got up from the floor.

The close-to-ground hovering holograms rose along with her. They stopped right in front of her as she straightened herself. She had bewitched the first and the last slide to keep on changing on their own, displaying new pages which were not a part of the book they had with them, but were being displayed by the blend of Nevaeh's magic, the book's accuracy, and a dash of the internet.

Next to the holograms were two lists which Nevaeh had not even bothered to create. She was reading everything in sight when the chart had started creating itself. She didn't flick her wand, or charmed the holograms, or utter any spells, but the list was lengthening gradually along with her reading speed.

1) I KNOW THIS

Mischief, trouble-maker

Illusions, shape-shifting, trickery

Magic

Biological father Laufey

Charming attitude, silver tongue

Manipulate fire

Annoys Odin and Thor frequently

2) I DON'T UNDERSTAND

God?

Norse God?!

Thor is a God, too? NOOOO!

His entire family are Gods??!!?

Loki leading an army of Giants? Never!

He can't be a God!

God??!!????!?!?!?!

When the "I don't understand" part kept growing rapidly, Nevaeh finally gave it some unwilling attention and tried to make it disappear. It did not budge. It felt as though her Atheist-self had invisibly torn out of her body and had started creating the list for her. The table simply refused to vanish. Nevaeh decided that ignoring it was the less time consuming solution for the moment.

Even in her neurotic state, Nevaeh had another idea of seeing everything neater. More vividly. She took a deep breath and circled the frames one by one, rounding them up and revolving her wand around them. The tiara atop her head was vibrating visibly, but she showed no signs of alarm.

Gradually, each of the pictures came to life. They started moving.

The wolf Fenris' tale began swaying maliciously.

Hel rolled her eyes, turned around and completely left the frame.

The enormous serpent slithered towards the large wolf as though they were best friends.

'Brothers.' Nevaeh's mind corrected itself.

But, they weren't nearly as disturbing as the one that had caught her attention severely. Loki's imprisonment, or as the words flashed now, 'the binding of God Loki.'

'Nev, are you seriously implying that he is the same one from mythology? That – that he can do this shape-shifting and stuff?' Daniel asked finally, his voice no more than a squeak. Nevaeh half-nodded, half-shrugged. Somehow, her Atheist-self was managing not to scream at the top of her lungs with fear, and she was not even bothering to wonder why.

'No.' Daniel retorted before he could stop himself. He was sitting on a couch chair while Nevaeh stood facing him in front of the hovering holograms. Daniel was feeling weak. Since the past thirty minutes, he had been watching the self-help table write itself and her face getting paler by the second.

Nevaeh stretched out her arm holding the wand, the stone still gleaming a bright scarlet. She gave her wand a slight tug.

The imprisonment frame grew bigger till it was as tall as Nevaeh and as wide as a flat-screen. She stretched its size. The details grew more vivid. Nevaeh had no idea why she couldn't take her eyes off of his gruesome face.

Nevaeh's eyes flickered to the first, normal sized slide which slowly changed to reveal a golden helmet with two huge, pointy, bent horns; Loki's helmet.

Nevaeh immediately started sobbing. As soon as the first tear drop rolled down her face, she felt an excruciating pain inside her heart as though she had just now encountered everything. She hit the ground on her knees and waved her hands in front of the God's burnt face, contorted in pain over the huge hologram. 'That can't – can't be my Loki! Why would anyone write something like this about him? Everything is picture perfect for the rest of them! Why him?'

Daniel was staring at her face with his mouth wide open; he had never seen her cry this hysterically ever before. He couldn't understand the appearance of the horns leading to her neurotic shrilling. He knew the right thing was to comfort her at such times, but her tear strewn eyes were making him stay rooted in his seat. The "I don't understand" list added a new point: too cute to be tied up like that!

Daniel ran a hand over his head, he felt as though he might collapse.

'Nev, chill! This – this can't be right! That man doesn't even look much like him! This can all be staged! An acted out thing or something,' Daniel said.

'I know that! I know this shouldn't mean anything to me! These are just stories! But why are they so gruesome? Why is he facing such misery in those stories? Why?'

'Look, we can—'Daniel's voice faltered. His eyes flickered horribly at a distance behind a sobbing Nevaeh.

Opposite to him, a gleaming outline appeared right near his main door. Nevaeh was crying with her face cupped in her palms, her whole body shaking due to her sobs and she didn't even realise what had happened.

Daniel got up with a startle.

Loki stepped inside the living room with a lethal expression swarming all over his face, the gleaming door disappearing as soon as he halted at a distance in front of them. He was breathing frighteningly hard...