I wake up on Asgard in a large, dark chamber. Torches line the walls, casting some light but it's still pretty hard to see. I sit up, looking around. This doesn't look like the sewing room. Where am I? There are many objects in here, all of them covered with sheets of some sort. They're a bunch of shapes and sizes, and along with them, there are items hanging on the walls.

One of the items catches my eye, and I get up to look at it. It's not covered by a sheet, for some strange reason. I think it might be a painting. I can't tell for sure, not until I get closer. I take a couple of steps forward, but then suddenly, my arm is grabbed from behind. Letting out a surprised yelp, I quickly turn around, my hands raised.

"Shh!" Someone grabs my hands. "Be quiet! Don't you know where we are?"

It takes a few moments for my eyes to adjust, but then I see who it is, and my heart ceases its rapid hammering. It's Dessa. "Dessa!" I whisper shout. I jerk my hands out of her grasp. "What's going on? Where are we?"

He mouth is set in a firm line. "We're not supposed to be here. We need to leave." Her eyes dart around quickly, searching for something.

That's when it hits me. She's scared. I slowly turn in a circle, looking at the items here. Everything here is strangely shaped, there's no sort of pattern or anything. My eye catches on the painting again, and I can't help but move closer to it. It's so enchanting.. like a million galaxies swirling about the cosmos. The longer I stare at it, the more lost I seem to become in it. It's beautiful. So so beautiful. It reminds me of life and loss, of music and silence. I could probably stand here forever just looking at it...

I'm jerked out of my trance when a sheet is thrown over the painting, blocking my view. I quickly back up, shaking my head. What was that? Some sort of hypnotic painting?

"Cameron are you okay?" Dessa asks, appearing in front of the now-covered up painting.

I shiver, rubbing my arms. "I'm not sure." I tell her honestly. "What is that thing?"

"A painting." She says simply, walking up to me. She grabs my hand and sits down, pulling me down with her. "An enchanted painted, made to hypnotize you away from all of your worries."

I shiver again. It did hypnotize me. "Who would paint such a thing?" I ask, meeting Dessa's gaze.

Her gaze never wavers. She is completely serious as she says: "Why the queen, of course."

"What!?" I gasp. Why would the queen create something to forget all of her worries? She seems so... strong.

Dessa nods sadly. "I'm sure she had her reasons, as it was right after Prince Loki had.." She trails off and closes her eyes, as if remembering a painful memory. "Well I'm sure you know."

Was it after he tried to take over Earth? I don't see how that's such a big problem. "I'm.. not sure I do, actually." I tell her hesitantly. When she looks at me in surprise, I shrug. "Midgardian, remember?" I remind her.

She looks down. "That's right, I had forgotten."

Suddenly, we hear a crashing noise down the hallway. We both stand up in alarm. "Dessa, what is this place exactly?" I ask in a whisper, watching where the noise had come from for movement.

"This is the Forbiddon Art Gallery." Dessa whispers back, her voice full of fear. "If we're caught, we'll both be in a lot of trouble." She turns to me, her face now ashen. "You have to get us out."

"Me?" I ask. "What can I do?"

"The same this you did to get us in here: teleport."

I stagger backwards a step in surprise. Teleport? Me? I can't teleport! Can I? My eyes scan the chamber again. Or... maybe I can. How else could I have gotten here? I don't think Dessa can teleport. I sigh. Yet another new thing to figure out. "Okay then." I say, meeting Dessa's gaze. "How do I do it?"

"How do you do it!?" She exclaims. She shoves me lightly on the arm. "You're the one who got us in this mess, and you don't even know how to get us out?"

"I know how to get us out!" I retort.

"Really? Then how?" She crosses her arms.

I smile. "By teleporting."

"Arrgh!" She shoves me in the arm again. "You're just like your Prince."

I bite my lip, thinking about that. Could that be true? Am I becoming more and more like Loki? I have been feeling a bit more mischievous lately..

"Hello?" Dessa waves her hand in front of my face. "Escape now, think later?"

I nod. "Right." Let's do this. I stretch out my fingers. I can do this. I close my eyes, remembering before I had woken up in Asgard. A series of images were flashing through my head, memories, places I've never seen before, pictures of unknown people. I remember sort of choosing one, and then I woke up here.

I open my eyes. "Okay." I meet Dessa's gaze. "I think I know how to do this." I smile, trying to make it convincing. I certainly don't feel convinced. "We're going to get out of here." I close my eyes again and pull myself of Asgard.

I wake up feeling disoriented. I'm still in my bed. Grateful I'm not teleporting here, I close my eyes again and send myself back to Asgard. This time, I pay more attention to the images that are flashing by my consciousness. They're all hazy, not quite complete. It makes me dizzy just looking at them. I choose one at random, hoping that it's not back in the Forbidden Art Gallery.

I wake up gasping, with Dessa right beside me. "Oooh." She groans, holding her head. "If you were ever awake while teleporting, you would feel terrible."

"I'm new at this, okay?" I sit up, rubbing my eyes. It's so much brighter here, and aside from Dessa, all I can hear is a loud rushing sound, like running water. I look around, now able to get a clear look, and my jaw drops open of it's own accord. "Whoah." We're on top of a rock - one that's floating way above a gigantic waterfall. The waterfall cascades into what appears to be an endless ocean.

Carefully I stand up, looking around in wonder. "This is amazing." I breathe. I never even knew this was here. Far off in the distance, I can see a glint of gold off of the castle.

"What is it?" Dessa gets up, sees the waterfall, then immediately sits back down again. "I can't believe this."

I sit down next to her, sure that my eyes are sparkling with excitement. "This is so cool! I can go anywhere!"

"Once you control it, that is." Dessa reminds me. "Perhaps it's best we don't try it again."

I look at her questioningly. "Why not?"

"Look where we are!" Dessa explains, gesturing to the rushing water underneath. "What if you had missed this rock?"

I look down at the water, a feeling of dread filling me. She's right. If I had missed... we'd both be dead.

"Now we need to find a different way off of this rock." Dessa continues. "Without teleporting."

"Wait." I hold up a hand, stopping her. "First, you owe me some answers."

"Not about your Prince, I hope." She smiles. "That secret I'm holding onto for quite a while."

I smile back. "No it's not about that." Even though I will find out about that eventually. "I was wondering why you're with me when I teleport. Don't you have to be touching someone else to bring them with you?" I think back to all the times I had teleported with Loki, which always began with him grabbing my arm and squeezing it tightly.

"Now you ask a question I can answer." Dessa says gladly. "We're connected."

I frown, confused. "How is that?"

"I'm your servant, remember?" She reminds me. "Not only that, I'm your only servant. Therefore you and I are connected similarly to how you and Prince Loki are connected."

"Through a mind link?" I ask, worried. She can't know I consider Loki my king, or how I'm not really fainting because I'm tired.

Her eyes widen. "You and Loki have a mind link?!"

My eyes widen as well. I don't think I was supposed to say that. "Um well sort of but maybe that's not what it really is..." I scramble for an explanation. "I just heard it somewhere in the hallways I guess.."

"Wow." She says, looking impressed. "Mind links are really rare."

I stop my stuttering and look at her with interest. "Really?"

She nods. "Yes. Only those with really strong minds can sustain one."

"Cool." I smile. Then a thought occurs to me. "Hey." I look at her seriously. "What is it you were saying earlier, about Loki? Something he had done?"

"Ah." Her smile falls. "I had hoped you had forgotten about that." She meets my gaze. "Prince Loki tried to kill himself."