Somewhere on Knowhere: Book Three

7

The dream started off like an average dream – running around Kamar-Taj being chased by evil Christmas decorations. Dream-Stephen used his mirror dimension spell to turn them into butterflies. Then Dream-Stephen walked a bit more into the courtyard and started laughing at his fellow wizards – they were playing a ridiculous game on flying broomsticks just like in Harry Potter.

That was all the normal bit of the dream. Stephen had had many weirder dreams than this in the past.

But suddenly everything changed.

It was hard to pinpoint the exact moment it happened, but at some point in the dream, everything had gone completely black. And Stephen (not Dream-Stephen, awake and conscious Stephen) actually felt in charge of his own actions. He looked around, feeling awake, wondering what the hell had just happened. Was this still a dream?

"Uh..." he murmured to himself, spinning around slowly on the spot. There didn't appear to be a floor, but the emptiness felt strangely solid under his feet. The closest thing he could relate it to was when they'd been in the astral hell, except everything then had been blinding white and there was, well, stuff there. And he'd been awake then. "Hello?" he said, listening to the dull echo that succeeded it.

"Strange?" a voice said.

Stephen nearly jumped out his skin. He knew that voice. "Loki?"

"That's my name," Loki's voice confirmed. "Can you hear me alright?"

"Um, yeah, I can hear you," Stephen said, completely baffled. "Am – am I still dreaming?"

"Um, sort of," Loki's voice said, coming from everywhere and nowhere. "I'm projecting an illusion in your head while you're sleeping."

"So... we're in my head?" Stephen asked, staring around in disbelief. If this was his head, it was very dark in here.

"Yes and no. Metaphorically we are I suppose. Not literally I don't think," Loki said. He stopped. "Anyway stop distracting me! I'm calling in a favour, Strange."

Stephen felt like he'd been hit in the face. "A favour? Like... how I owe you from when I forced you to help out with the multiversal madness and the hell casino?"

"Yes," Loki's voice said, sounding like he was having his patience tested. "You see, I'm having some problems up here in space and – I can't believe I'm saying this – I could really use some help."

Stephen knew he was dreaming now. "You need my help?"

"Strange you aren't dreaming. I am talking to you right now from space," Loki's voice told him, which squashed his thoughts. "And, reluctantly, yes, I do need help."

"With what?" Stephen asked, sitting down on the empty blackness because this seemed like it could take a while. He looked around, still unable to tell where Loki's voice was coming from. "And how are you even contacting me?"

"Telepathy," Loki said, which Stephen had been expecting. "I'm casting my thoughts from space into your mind but it's incredibly difficult. If you were awake you would self-combust and I might even feel bad about that."

"Self-combust?!"

"There's also a chance you'll forget this in the morning, but hopefully not, because otherwise I'm draining all my energy and power for nothing," Loki's voice said, like he was talking about a matter of little concern. "And as for what with... well, I'll explain fully when you get here, but let's just say its... life-and-civilisation-threatening."

Stephen was pretty sure he was going to self-combust with the overload of information. He scratched his beard like he did when he was debating what to say. "Can we just back up a little here? Weren't you going to space to find Thor?"

"Yes."

"And... you need my help finding him?"

Loki sighed dramatically. "No. I need your help for a different matter entirely."

"Well... what's that?"

"As I said, I'll explain fully when you actually get here, but its important and I wouldn't ask you if I knew anyone else who could help."

Stephen gulped uncertainly, but also hopefully. "I'm... going to space?"

Loki sighed aggressively, like Strange was deliberately being stupid. "Yes! How else would you help?"

That was a good point.

"But how?" asked Stephen. Space was a big place. It wasn't like he could make a portal exactly to where Loki was.

"I've been thinking about that. I'd come collect you in the ship but-"

"You have a spaceship?" interrupted Stephen.

"No, I've been walking around space, getting in a good 5 million steps a day," Loki said, sarcasm creeping back into his voice. "Of course I have a spaceship, Strange. Any more stupid questions?"

Stephen had no more stupid questions.

"Instead I think I'm going to teleport down to Midgard and teleport you back up with me. That should work and you shouldn't get caught in limbo between dimensions..."

"You're joking, right?"

"Yeah. I've never done it. There's only a very small chance that could physically happen in reality. Probably a 20% chance," Loki debated, and if he realised Stephen was internally freaking out at this last statistic, he didn't say anything about it. He hesitated for a moment. "Damn, the connection's fading. Look, I'll come as soon as my energy is restored later, so make sure you're ready."

"Wait, ready?" asked Stephen. But then everything seemed to be going fuzzy, if plain black could go fuzzy. Loki's voice had gone indistinct as he replied to Stephen's question, but Stephen couldn't make out what he was saying. He said a bit louder, "Ready for what? I don't even know what we're doing!"

And that was the moment he woke up.