But the secret does not lie with him. Loki stares, unseeing, at the closed door of his cell. Sif is gone, but the questions she asked remain. What happened to Thor? What magic could touch him, here in the very heart of Asgard, and take his mind away? Who is that powerful? – Who, that is free, is that powerful? And why did nothing happen before he came here? He is connected, but how, for he has done nothing?

Eventually, he moves. Routine claims him, such small routine as he has managed to impose on his long, empty days. There is his bedding to be straightened. There is the midday meal to be picked at, tasted and then sent away. – The heavy, greasy roasted meat, and strong ale that make up the Aesir diet are unappetizing, apart from the life of strenuous combat most are free to live here. – There are his books, such as they are, and there is the necessary task of searching out one he can still tolerate re-reading, to keep his mind free from sleep when night falls.

And eventually, night does fall. Gloom envelops him, even here in golden Asgard. Moving quickly to conjure the light that will help him stay awake – Stay safe! – through the night hours, Loki realizes his hands are shaking. His heart is already unsteady, knowing what will come if he dares let his vigilance slip for a moment. There was only the one night of respite, wasn't there? The one night when he had his bro... – When he had Thor with him, and Thanos left him alone. Thanos watches, he thinks, and now that he is alone again, he will be back.

The walls around him feel very permeable, suddenly. He is here in the heart of the Realm of the Gods – He is in All-Father's own palace. – and yet he is not safe. And yet the mad Being who controls the Chitauri, who would control all the Universe, and destroy it in his nihilistic worship of Death, can still get at him. How is that so? How can Thanos get at him here in Odin's stronghold?

It's because he attacks his mind, Loki thinks. Odin has sealed his body successfully, but he cannot block access to his mind. There is a point here, he thinks, something that can explain more than just his own small trouble of not daring sleep for fear of attack. What is it? It trembles right outside his comprehension. But it will not come closer. His mind cannot reach it, not now when he fights twin enemies of fatigue and terror, and tries to keep a larger enemy at bay. Right now, the small lights he conjures are the best he can do, the small interest he manages to generate for reading an adventure book that he was rereading already when he was in leading-strings. If he can but stay awake tonight that will be enough, he tells himself. Clarity will come with the morning light, and he begin work then, teasing out the mystery of what power Thanos holds. For now, he must just stay awake.

He does not, of course. Even gods can only ignore their bodies' needs for so long. Loki fights sleep until the wee hours. He sits up reading old, familiar adventures until far past midnight. Warriors battle giants – Always, it's giants, he thinks and, considering this, he occupies a few minutes more. Younger brothers win with optimism and trickery, what the older cannot keep by force. – Again, Loki stops to think about the difference between folktale and reality and, thinking about it, remains awake a short while longer. Eventually though, he reaches the end of the book. He lingers over the last tale, in which a boy's magic beans allow him to steal a giant's treasure. It used to be Thor's favorite, he remembers. Thinking about his brother ought to keep him awake. - It should lead to thoughts of Thor's present condition: It is captivity, but by who? And how? And for what reason? – But instead, what comes is memories of him and his brother, both very small, and tucked into bed with Frigga. In his mind he hears her soft voice. The words on the page pause and go on, rising and falling in cadence as she always used to read them. In the end, Loki is lulled to sleep as sure as if his mother were really there reading to him.

Morning comes before he even knew he was asleep. Loki opens his eyes to find the old storybook still open on his chest. His candles are long since burned to nothing, with their enchanted flames dancing above the pools of wax where they used to be. The warm sun of another day in golden Asgard lights his window.

A good night's sleep carries over into a good day. Simple, animal good spirits animate him. Loki rises, feeling unreasonably optimistic. He does his small tasks of tidying, thinking only of how much better his chambers look now that they are neatened. He washes at the water provided him, and breaks his fast on the roast meat and small beer that have been sent for his morning meal.

It is not until he has eaten that thoughts of his brother – That any thoughts! – intrude at all. Even Clever Loki cannot think all the time. Loki eats. - There is too much food. There is always too much. The Aesir eat hugely to satisfy appetites whetted by combat practice or other activity, but cooped up here, he's got precious little chance for activity and of course his appetite is smaller. – He pushes the tray away. Then as always, Odin's magic works long-distance, causing it to disappear. Loki watches. One minute the tray is there, the next minute it is gone.

There's something there, he thinks. What connection is his mind making? First the tray is there, then it is gone. It is not his magic, but that of someone more powerful. It comes difficult to admit that anyone is more powerful. His first impulse is always to take steps that will redress the balance. Here in Asgard he used to haunt the royal libraries, ever seeking to challenge himself with new spells, and more arcane information. And then when he was thrown out of his childhood home, when Thor let him fall from the Bifrost, as easy as tossing a kitten down a well: What then?

Thanos was... – He is more powerful than Loki as well. There was a time when there was serious doubt whether he'd be an ally, or a victim of the mad Titan, and he prevailed then... He prevailed because of his wit, Loki thinks. He spun a tale of Midgard patched together out of what he'd gleaned from Thor's mind, and the little he'd seen through the eyes of the Destroyer. He told about the Tesseract, long lost from Odin's Treasure Vault, and corresponding so closely to the Cosmic Cube that was in the minds of all the SHIELD men. And Thanos bought it. He wanted the Cube's power, and he was willing to deal to get it. It felt like a victory for Clever Loki at the time. Now it feels more like a stay of execution. Now with his fate rushing rapidly toward him, the question is not will Thanos destroy him, but when?

But Thanos did not visit him last night. He didn't use his magic, so much more powerful than Loki's, to torment his victim. Why? Because he was using it somewhere else? But magic is not water. It is not diverted from one stream-bed into another, but flows in many ways at the same time, wherever its wielder would have it go. Odin did not stop whatever else he was doing, to fetch Loki's tray back to the kitchen. Why assume Thanos stopped what he had been doing (tormenting Loki) in order to do something else? Maybe he's still tormenting him. Maybe he's found a new way to do it...

There's an answer. It trembles, just past the reach of his conscious mind. A frustration. – For once, Loki is grateful for the long hours alone that lie ahead of him, for they will, he thinks, give him time to solve this puzzle. He is almost angry, when footsteps sound in the hall, followed by shouted voices, and a bang, as the door to his chambers slams open.

Volstagg, Fandral and Hogun, the Warriors Three, so-called. Thor's friends. "Loki." Volstagg, the largest of the three, surges forward. "What did you do? How did you make this happen?"

This? And was he not here before? The déja vu hovers, strong enough to taste. "Let me guess." Almost, he could laugh, just from the pure ridiculousness of the repetition. Just the day before, Sif was here, and now... "She lies unconscious in her bed, does she not? She cannot be wakened?" Loki pictures someone new coming to his rooms every day, then falling into enchanted sleep the following night. Soon the entire castle will sleep, as in the tale of the Sleeping Beauty in his adventure book.

"You monster." Volstagg surges forward. He is nose-to-nose (or belly-to-belly) with Loki. "You did it. Else how do you know what happened?"

"Easy." Fandral the Dashing. "Calm down." Hogun the Grim. "He is locked up here, how could he have done anything?" Both together in chorus, as they grip Volstagg's arms and try to drag the big warrior back.

But to no avail. "Do you want to take our souls one by one?" Volstagg spits the words, as he would spit ...oh, say, chicken bones, or the little gristle-y bits you start finding as the roast boar gets cold. "What is your goal, Trickster?"

"You guessed it. I want to take your souls one by one. I want to collect souls, so much more fun than collecting rocks. Plus of course I can't get at the rocks, when I'm stuck in here." – Oh, sarcasm was ever wasted on these three! – "This is as much of a surprise to me as it is to you," Loki says. Sif came to me yesterday, asking about my brother. I told her I wanted to help. – How is it that you know nothing yourselves, and yet you expect me, a prisoner, to know so much more?"

"Because you're the one who did it!" Volstagg's enraged shout.

Cutting over him, the voice of reason (from Fandral of all people): "Because you're smarter than us, Loki. That's always been your edge, the only way you kept up with us on the battlefield." – And thus so easily, he sets at naught hundreds, nay, thousands, of hours of combat-practice. By Odin's wounds, even when they try to give a compliment, Thor's friends can't help showing they think him inferior.

"Also because this is the third time this has happened," Hogun says. "And it didn't start happening until you came back here."

"You might have added that it only happens to those who have visited my cell." Loki waves to the chairs around his table. "Sit down, good warriors. I believe we had better discuss this before you too, wake up enchanted in the morning." With a flick of the fingers, he conjures meat and bread enough to keep Volstagg happy. A pitcher of small beer will serve to wet their throats as they talk, but without strength enough to fuddle the already weak minds he is dealing with here.

Fandral sits first. He pours himself a glass of beer, then glances at Loki, swallows uncomfortably, and does not drink.

Hogun sits beside him. He makes no effort even to touch the food. "So you're saying something will happen to us because we visited you?" Ah, so there is reason inside that dour, warrior's brain.

"It is the logical conclusion."

"Something will happen because he will make it happen." Volstagg still stands. His arms are folded over his great belly, and an angry expression, ill-suited to his chubby, rosy face, glows in his eyes. "Do you forget that he brought Frost Giants into the heart of Asgard? – That he sent the Destroyer after his own brother?"

"Yes, and so naturally I am responsible for everything bad that happens. Go check in the kitchen: You will find they have been troubled by rats. I sent those too."

A snort from Hogun. "Cease the foolishness, both of you."

Looking very uncomfortable, Fandral takes just the smallest sip of beer. The expression of relief on his face when he lowers the flagon, and he is still in one piece is comical. "Volstagg my friend, pray sit." He shoves a brimming flagon into his hand. "Drink." Then, looking at Loki, "how far has your logic taken you?" he asks. "People are being hurt who have visited you. If you are not causing it, who is?"

"This is the reason All-Father forbade us visiting Loki." Volstagg drinks, but he does not appear sweetened by having done. "We should not have disobeyed."

"Oho, so All-Father knows?" Loki shoots him a glare. "Best you go ask him the reason at once then, and stop wasting my time."

"All-Father is very busy," Fandral says. "And we have transgressed his rules by visiting you. I doubt he will be eager to stop his important business and tend to us. Help us, pray, Loki. We were ever your friends."

They were never his friends. The best that can be said of them: They tolerated his presence when he used to tag along after his brother, and that they did with no good grace. But because he bears animus against them, does that mean he wants to give their souls to Thanos?

"There is a powerful Being who seeks to destroy me." The looks the warriors give him says they have no doubt at all but that he deserves whatever vengeance lies in wait for him. Ohh, why does he waste his time with these three? They are determined to believe the worst of him. "He is outside our realm," Loki bites off the words. He continues only because he knows he stands no chance against Thanos alone. "But he is able to reach me through my dreams. Good warriors, I think that is how he reached Thor as well. And Sif. I think he attacked them through their dreams."

"But why?"

"That makes no sense."

A veritable chorus of doubt and skepticism from his companions, just as if they've got their own, better reasoning to show. Of course it makes no sense, Loki thinks. He's had no time to think this through properly. He barely had time to even figure out that it was happening. If these three dunderheads would go away... And then as surely as they did, it would be their souls forfeit tonight, and who would be knocking on his cell door tomorrow?

"Tonight you will go to bed." Loki takes a breath. Oh Norns, give him patience with these three. "You will close your eyes, and if I am correct, your minds will be Thanos' playground." Fandral opens his mouth. He wants to ask who this "Thanos" is that he talks about. Loki shoots him a look, and he is silent. "I think he will take all of you at once, - Certainly he is powerful enough. – and that will be your advantage. If you can but stay together..."

"And where will you be?" Hogun asks.

"If my reasoning is correct, I will join you the next night."

"The next night." Hogun narrows his dark eyes to mere slits.

"If your reasoning is correct." Fandral glares, the expression sitting badly on his bland, handsome face.

"If you want a guarantee..." Loki bites back the words of anger that want to come. He is in danger, that's for sure, and it's beginning to look like he's setting the rest of Asgard at risk by his mere presence as well. He finds that he does not want that to happen as much as he might have expected. "Thanos was my ally. I..." Loki swallows. Being patient with these fools, difficult enough, but to admit failure before them... "I promised him a victory over Midgard."

"Typical," he hears Volstagg mutter. "Did you not promise that builder once... And the dwarf who made Mjolnir." Fandral's elbow to the ribs silences him. Loki has at least two of the Warriors Three taking him seriously at any rate.

"Thanos is dangerous in person," Loki continues, "but equally dangerous are his psychic abilities. He was entering my dreams and tormenting me. Then, when I received a visitor... – Well, you saw what happened to Thor."

"And to Sif." Fandral shifts in his chair, uncomfortable.

"And if you are wrong, Trickster." Hogun eyes him, his gaze keen. "If you do not join us in Thanos' dream-realm, what then?"

"Oh, I'll join you, all right. Thanos is not done with me." Even saying the words, whispers of dread creep back into his mind from the dream-visits he's endured. "The question is, will I be able to find you once there? And that I cannot answer."

An angry sound from Volstagg. He is forestalled, this time, by Hogun. "But if you are correct, Loki, and we have only until tonight, then we must needs make the best plan we can now."

"And if you are wrong?" From Volstagg.

"Let us hope he is wrong." Fandral's handsome face is pale. "If he is wrong, we will all have a good laugh. I will buy the mead at The Three Tuns and we will..." He looks at Loki, then glances around at his prison cell, and his words trail off. "That is to say, the joke will be on him."

"He is not wrong." Hogun fills a flagon with beer, and drinks off half in one gulp. "Something is out there, and it menaces all of Asgard if we do not stop it. Have we not all seen the Trickster outwit formidable foes in the past though? If I have to face this Than-Os, I want him with me."