Part One: The Precipice

In which Loki balances on a knife's edge between who he was and who he will become. Or, hiding in plain sight.

I

Five thousand four hundred and thirty seventh cycle of Odin Borsson's reign

Sút Enda in the Final Descent

Sannligr Stiarna in the Ninth House

At dinner, Father told us we are to journey to Midgard in a fortnight. It is most exciting. He says as princes of the Realm Eternal, we must have knowledge of each of our protectorates.

I am glad, for I have already tired of Vanaheim, where we travel more than any other realm. Mother always spends hours inside, drinkingǫl and talking to old women, and not telling sagas, either. It is most dull.

Alfheim is tolerable. I like their seidr, though I wish they would not spend so much time and effort coaxing flowers to bloom. What is the point? They will bloom given enough time. I think it is considerably more impressive to cause a flower to burst into emerald flames.

But everyone was very cross when I did so. They are sticks in the mud, Thor says.

Thor doesn't want to go to Midgard. He wants to travel to Muspelheim and see a fire giant, but Father has forbidden it. I told Thor that I heard Midgard has giants of all kinds, only they hide from the sight of any Æsir for fear they will be killed. I cannot tell if he believes me but I dearly hope he makes a fool of himself demanding to see Midgardian giants while we visit. Most amusing!

I suspect there is another reason Father wishes to visit. I would very much like to know why. I believe it has something or other to do with the Tesseract. I overheard him mention its safekeeping to Mother when they thought I was busy eating my custard. After Mother dragged Thor to the private bath house, I asked Father what the Tesseract was. He frowned for a very long time but finally told me it is the most valuable jewel of the Treasury, given its great power, forged from the heart of an ancient, distant star before even the Singularity occurred.

Master Alfarr told me all about the Singularity in our lessons last week. Thor doesn't know anything of the Tesseract or the Singularity. Master Alfarr says Thor is impatient and easily distracted by bright lights. Then he told me not to tell Mother he said that. I wasn't going to anyway because I can keep secrets. It's fine that I am better with lessons, since Thor always bests me in the training yard.

Nurse is telling me to put out the mage-light and retire to bed. She is insufferable. But I suppose I must be well-behaved and courteous if I am to be sure to accompany Father to Midgard.

Loki Odinsson, Prince of Asgard. Mother says I must sign my name thus to all documents. I think I would prefer to use my seal because the melting wax can be molded into all sorts of shapes – now Nurse is frowning at me, I wonder how much longer I can pretend to write out tomorrow's lessons before she takes the –

II

Agent Roberts glances at the quaint painted sign and double-checks the name with the information she'd been emailed. Museum of Scandinavian History and Folklore, reads the curling blue script. The building itself is an old white clapboard house that has been repurposed to contain the exhibits. Just the sort of small-town, folksy place she'd been expecting.

She suppresses a sigh of irritation. Of course she'd landed this assignment, as the only probationary agent in her unit. Even though she had three unfinished reports to work through and Brock had been sitting at his desk, twirling a pen and grinning smugly at her this morning when she'd left.

The two-hour drive did nothing to improve her mood. And this far out in the boonies there isn't even a decent cup of coffee. She'd been forced to stop off at a gas station and grab a refill. Taking another sip, she frowns. The swill tastes suspiciously like they'd hooked up the industrial coffee pot to the gasoline pump instead of the water line. She dumps it in a trash container framed by painted iron scrollwork that looks far too charming to be used for its intended purpose.

Nothing for it but to go inside and get the interview over with so she can make it back the city in time for dinner with Hank. Some S.H.I.E.L.D. agents had personal lives, contrary to what her supervisory agent believed.

Pushing through the door, a bell tinkles above to signal her arrival. The ground floor is deserted, dotted throughout with glass-topped cases displaying the curios. The tiny reception desk is empty as well. Roberts looks around for a minute before calling out, "Hello? Anyone there?"

A blue-haired elderly woman totters out of a side corridor. "Hello, sweetheart!" Roberts tries not to grind her teeth at the term of endearment. She usually doesn't mind, especially coming from an old lady, but being a female agent in the mostly male-dominated S.H.I.E.L.D. headquarters has made her a bit sensitive to pet names.

"Are you here for a visit?"

"Ah, no, actually. I'm here to see Mr. Lukas Eld? We had an appointment. I'm afraid that I'm a bit late. Underestimated how long it took to get here from the city."

She bobs her head sagely. "The highways round these parts take you on a lot of twists and turns, don't they."

Roberts gives a vague noise of agreement. The old woman waves her back to the left, following the hallway leading off the main room. She leads Roberts to an office, likely converted from a bedroom when the house originally became a museum.

"Lukas, sweetheart? Your guest is here." At least it isn't only her that's stuck with the endearments.

"Thank you, Roseanne." Eld's voice is smooth and cultured. The British accent is surprising to hear in the backwoods of Virginia.

Her first impression of the man she'd come to meet is of height. He stands up from behind a desk cluttered with haphazard stacks of papers and gestures for her to have a seat in the spindly wooden chair opposite him. Neat black hair curls atop his head, and his clean-shaven face is angular and pale. Much better looking than the greying old professor type she'd been expecting.

They shake hands and she sinks down into the proffered chair. Roseanne hovers in the doorway. "Can I get you a coffee? Tea? Water?" she asks.

Roberts starts to decline, then remembers the half-finished cup she'd dumped on the way inside. "Coffee would be great, thank you, ma'am."

Eld smiles gently at Roseanne and she putters off to fetch it. He folds his hands on the surface of his desk, reclining back slightly while somehow maintaining perfect posture. "Pleasure to make your acquaintance, Agent Roberts, was it?"

She flushes. "Yes, yes, Agent Brenna Roberts. Nice to meet you as well."

"May I ask what brings you to our humble museum this afternoon?" His refined, polite tone makes Brenna uncomfortably aware of her own inelegance.

"I'd like to talk about your research. The last one- paper, I mean, the last paper you published. If that's alright?"

"Certainly," he agrees. "Is there anything in particular you wished to discuss?"

"In your conclusion, you mentioned your research provided some evidence for a theory that's been debated about for a long time. About the Tesseract. Being real." She leaves off there and waits to see if he takes her prompt.

He tilts his head and studies her. "There is no definitive proof the Tesseract is an actual physical object, nor that it possesses the kind of unearthly powers that tend to be repeated in legend."

"Well- no, I understand. But could you tell me about your theory anyway?"

Eld's green eyes are sharp and curious. "S.H.I.E.L.D. sent an agent all the way out here to listen to an obscure historian posit his theories about the potential existence of a mythical object?"

"I wouldn't say you're obscure." In fact, Eld's papers had gotten quite a lot of acclaim in academic circles. His field was necessarily small, but any mention of the Tesseract, even a few offhand sentences in a conclusion, were automatically brought to S.H.I.E.L.D.'s attention. There was an algorithm to keep track of certain key words floating around the Internet, or so Brock had droned on about in the break room last month. She'd read the abstracts of most of his published work in her briefing folder, and read the latest in detail before she drove down. It was a treatise on the intricacies of Old Norse religion, specifically reviewing the archaeological and textual evidence for veneration of physical objects in a ritual context.

Roberts hadn't understood much of the jargon but she likes to think she'd gotten the gist of his point. The historian raises an eyebrow at her.

"Look, I know this is a little unorthodox. But think about it this way- if there's even a miniscule chance of this thing being real, S.H.I.E.L.D.'s got a duty to investigate it. Can you imagine how much power it would have if all the legends are true?" She hopes he buys her explanation. He doesn't need to know about anything recovered from the ocean during the search for Captain America. S.H.I.E.L.D. was keeping that on the down low, obviously. "Just covering all our bases, here."

Eld's brow momentarily furrows. At the colloquialism? Maybe it's a British thing. Finally, he nods. Before she can ask another question, Roseanne brings in two coffees.

"Black with two sugars, dear," she says as she hands a mug branded with the museum's logo to Eld. An identical one is handed to Roberts. "Did you want cream or sugar?" she asks.

"No, thanks. I'll take it black." That was one of the first aspects of her job at S.H.I.E.L.D. that she'd learned. Take your coffee where you can get it, and don't bother wasting time trying to make it taste better when you don't know how long you have until everyone is running off to the next emergency.

Eld sips at his mug. Roberts decides to jump right in. "Let's work on the assumption the Tesseract is real. What do you know about it?"

"Most of the accounts are oral," he begins. "They speak of the star-bright jewel of Asgard's vault. Legend holds that the Wanderer came down the Bifröst and entrusted it into the care of his most loyal acolyte."

"The Wanderer?"

"Odin." A flicker crosses his face, the beginnings of a frown. "The One-Eyed. Wielder of Gungnir. The King of Asgard."

Roberts has a sudden urge to refer to Director Fury as the One-Eyed when she gets back to headquarters. She bites her lip to fight a smile. "Okay, how about the Bifröst? What's that?"

She thinks this time his tone holds an edge of irritation, like he'd expected her to know background and terminology before she'd arrived. She did, of course. Her research had been fairly thorough, but she finds the easiest way to put most academics at ease is to allow them to chatter on about their subject.

"The Rainbow Bridge, connecting Asgard to the Nine Realms. A portal capable of transport."

Roberts remembers the mission brief from the New Mexico Incident. It was a portal all right, a damn portal to space that brought nothing but hunky aliens and trouble. She'd be fine with the former if it weren't for the latter.

But as she understands it, the Bifröst is described as an actual bridge in Norse mythology. It's curious that Eld would use the word portal specifically.

"So, are there any theories about where it was hidden? Who this acolyte person was?" she redirects.

"It was said that the Tesseract slept beneath the Tree, awaiting the Wanderer's return before the beginning of Ragnarök. It is unclear whether the Tree is a physical entity or a metaphor. The geographical location of the temple in which it was supposedly hidden has been widely debated but never conclusively proved," Eld notes.

She hums acknowledgment. "But your research suggests the Tesseract was an actual physical object."

"My research suggests the Nordic peoples of one thousand years ago believed they possessed an object of mystical power they referred to as the Tesseract," he clarifies carefully. "There are several accounts that describe a sacred artifact matching the Tesseract's description enshrined in a place of honor within a certain temple. Replicas have been discovered at numerous archaeological sites. It is my assertion these replicas served as surrogates, and were used in religious rituals by cults venerating Odin throughout the region."

Roberts meets his gaze. "What do you think the Tesseract could do? If it was real?"

Eld laces his hands together, bringing them to his chin and resting lightly on his fingertips. "Well now, that's very interesting. Given the cube's purported origins, one would imagine it contained an impressive source of power. Divine, even." He gives her a teasing half-smile.

"What, like performing miracles or something?"

"Your Christianization is showing, Agent Roberts. I mean to say the Tesseract most likely contains an actual power source, if its rumored qualities are true." He leans forward. "A glowing, unearthly light. A shiver in the air when one is near, a buzzing of energy prickling along the skin. A sense of barely contained power. A fallen star, trapped on Earth."

Roberts finds herself wide-eyed and staring. Eld makes it sound so, so… enthralling. She'd seen the Cube, of course. Twice. Everything he describes is pinpoint accurate.

A frisson runs down her spine. It sounds as if he's encountered it before, or at least spoken to someone who had. Either way, it adds up to a potential security breach.

Eld leans back in his chair. "That is, if you believe the rumors. We humans do tend to embellish." He smirks.

"Right," she says absently. Her thoughts chase each other around her head like a dog chasing its tail. She manages to come up with a few more basic questions regarding where he thinks the Tesseract was hidden. Luckily, he doesn't say "In a S.H.I.E.L.D. base in the desert, of course."

She clears her throat. "I think that's all I needed. Could I contact you if I have another question? Do you have a card?"

He retrieves an embossed business card from his desk drawer and passes it over to her. Roberts drains the last of her coffee and stands. "Thank you very much for taking the time to speak to me, Mr. Eld. It was enlightening."

"I am glad you found it so. Do not hesitate to call, Agent Roberts." They shake hands again, and she straightens her blazer as she walks to the door. Just before she crosses the threshold, a question picks at her brain and urges her to stop.

"Mr. Eld?"

He glances back up. "Yes?"

"Do you think it's real? The Tesseract?"

It takes him a moment to reply. "The boundary between the possible and impossible is ever shifting, Agent Roberts."

That isn't quite an answer, but she nods and leaves. Waving a hasty goodbye to Roseanne at the reception desk, she pulls out her phone and heads to her car. Her supervisor answers after the second ring.

"Coulson here."

"It's Roberts. Just wrapped up the interview with that researcher."

"And?" Always straight to the point with Coulson.

"Not sure. But I get the feeling he knows more than he's saying. Definitely worth the drive. We should keep him on our radar. I'll write up a more detailed report when I get back."

"You do that. The Tesseract project is top priority right now. We're bringing in some specialists to help Dr. Selvig."

"Understood."

They hang up without a goodbye. Roberts has long drive back to the city to ponder all Eld said. And the man himself. If they bring him in, for questioning or consulting, she needs to get a handle on him.

His rich voice plays on repeat in her head the entire drive. A fallen star.

A/N: Hi y'all. This is my first fanfic for the Avengers/Thor. Hope you enjoy - I'm still working on the story so updates might not be as quick as I'd like but I'll do my best. This is definitely AU, but you'll see most characters, and this is not just a rehashing of the Avengers movie. This takes place after Thor and before the events of season one of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., though the main parts are all mostly in play and the same people have been gathered.