Rosamond discreetly asked around for the name of the guard that had done the act of violence against the Prince. She found it and headed to the guards barracks, walking directly to the dining room, figuring that at this time of day she'd be able to find Rufus at dinner. As she pushed through the heavy double doors a barrage of noise assualted her senses and it took her a moment to acclimate as she looked around the room. After a moment of intense searching, most of the men in the dining hall were taller than she was even when they were sitting, she found him and strode purposefully toward his table. A couple of men stopped what they were doing to watch her. She stopped in front of him.

"I know what you did." she said in her quiet voice. "I'll meet you in the back garden at nine so we can have a little... heart to heart."

Rufus had been surprised to see the wench from earlier. More surprised when the bitch had opened her mouth. So the Prince had told her everything despite his warning?

"So be it." He said. "I shall finish my meal and then I will see you there."

She barely waited for him to finish his response before she had turned and left the way she had come in. She made her way back to her room. She needed to be ready for a fight, if that's what it was to come to. She stripped free of the Asgardian dress and pulled on clothes she had brought with her. Leather pants, a short sleeved white peasant blouse, and over that a leather corset. She reached up and back and braided her hair tightly, tying it off at the end. Trading her sandals for boots, she she finally felt better able to fight the thug. She picked up her sword and smiled to herself, glad to feel her blade in her hand once again. She strapped the sheath around her hips and drew the sword, testing the ease of it's release. Perfect, as always. She re-sheathed it and headed out to the back gardens. She had heard the gardens were not the best place to be after night fall. Even better. If she had to, if he gave her no other choice, she would kill him. She took her duties seriously and she couldn't allow the Prince to be harmed again on her watch.

Rufus had watched the girl leave, smirking, his mouth still full of his dinner. He stood up and brushed the crumbs off his chest.

"Women are so naive." he chuckled to himself.

He headed in the opposite direction of the back gardens, he was headed toward the Prince's cell. As he made his way down the long stairway, he informed the guards that patrolled the area around the cell that he was going to take over for a little while. They did not question him and vacated immediately.

Loki knew that something was going to go wrong. Who was he to depend on this girl he had just met anyway? The whole situation had happened too quickly and he couldn't ignore the twisting feeling in his gut. That's when he heard Rufus' voice.

"Loki, Loki, Loki. It is a shame it had to come to this, my Prince. But a prisoner must be punished for revealing secrets." he smiled as he finally stepped to the front of the cell where he could see Loki standing.

Reaching into his pocket, he brought out the key to the cell and opened the door in the magical glass. As he thought might happen, he had to stop the Prince from an escape attempt. He shoved him to the floor and shut the door behind him.

As Loki hit the floor, he got up as quickly as possible, regaining his footing.

"Do not touch me again." he said.

"That's all I needed to hear." Rufus said.

With that he charged the other man and thre him into the wall, not giving him any time to catch his breath, he started punching the Prince in the chest, so hard that the wall behind the man began to crack.

Rosamond had been waiting a while when the guard still hadn't showed. Thinking it trhough, she wondered if he would lie about meeting her. Was he a coward? Her heart sank as she broke into a run for the castle. He had gone to punish the Prince. She was almost certain of it. She flew down the stairways and corridors to get to the cell. There were no guards in the hallway surrounding the Prince's prison and she burst into the space outside of the glass, her chest heaving as she tried to catch her breath. She saw the guard in the cell with the Prince, it almost looked as if he was trying to break his ribcage.

"STOP!" she yelled.

"Ooohhh and here is the Prince's naive savior!"

Rufus grabbed Loki's hair and turned him toward the glass wall, forcing him to his knees as he tried to struggle free.

"What are you going to do, break the glass?" he taunted her. "Let's give her a show shall we?" he said to the Prince. "I warned you what would happen if you couldn't keep your mouth shut."

He unsheathed his sword and dragged it along Loki's side, looking at the girl beyond the glass.

Loki didn't know what to do. Now Rosamond was involved, it wasn't just him. He bit his lip so hard it started bleeding at the pain of the sword's edge in his flesh. He needed his magic, but he had no access to it. Not unless the door to the magical cell was left open for long enough. He was basically helpless.

Rosamond didn't know what to do, she didn't have her own set of keys.

"Your quarrel is with me!" she yelled at the guard.

Her eyes were round and wide, as she racked her brain for anything she could do. The only tactic she could think of was to taunt him enough that he'd attack her instead. He seemed stupid enough to fall for it.

"Are you really that afraid of a woman that you have to pick on someone who can't fight back? Or are you just scared that I'll stick my blade through your gut and your pathetic existence will have come to it's end?" she snarled at him, hoping he'd exit the cell.

Rufus dragged the Prince with him until he reached the wall right in front of the woman and pushed him against the glass, pressing his sword even deeper into Loki's side so she could see his pain up close.

"The more you taunt me, the worse it is going to get for him."

With that he pushed the sword's edge even deeper into Loki's side, smiling as he finally let out a scream.

Loki was angry that he had screamed but the pain was getting worse. He brought his hands up and pressed them against the glass. He wanted to look at Rosamond, tell her to run while she still could, but he couldn't even open his eyes at the moment. He could feel the cold bite of Rufus' steel in his side. His hot shallow breathing fogged up the glass in front of him. Kicking his foot back, he bit short another scream of agony as the blade went deeper, but he connected with the man's leg and Rufus fell to his knees behind him.

"Get out of here!" Loki yelled to Rosamond.

Rosamond wasn't going anywhere. She gritted her teeth at his screams and looked defiantly at the guard as he was getting back to his feet.

"Smart enough to figure out my tactics are you? Impressive. I mean, wow, I'm speechless. I thought you didn't have any room for thinking in that tiny, worthless brain of yours."

Rufus was more enraged now. First the Prince had struck back at him and now the girl was insulting his intelligence. He swung the door to the cell open.

"That's it! Come here you little bitch!"

Rosamond wasn't about to waste this opportunity, it was now or never. She drew her sword and rushe toward the man while he was framed in the doorway. Almost in range to attack, she was startled as she saw the Prince stand up quickly, and grab hold of the guard to hold him in place for her attack. That was all she saw before her blade slammed into Rufus chest, piercing his heart. Her aim had been true. She then wrenched it out and watched the guard fall to his knees, easier for her to finish it. She brought her blade up again and swung it deftly, sending his head rolling across the floor of the cell. She was shaking with adrenaline as she lowered her sword, watching blood pull around the corpse and wondering what to do next. She realized the Prince was in front of her, and his cell door was open with no guards present. She looked up at him.

He was thorough, he'd give her that. Looking down at her as she raised her eyes to meet his, he smiled. This smile was neither warm nor kind, it was cold and heartless.

"Well, we meet properly at last."

Rosamond held her sword at the ready by her side once more, wondering what he was up to. There was something in that tone. The only hope she had of keeping the Prince confined was to grab the dead guard's keys.

"What do you mean, meet at last? I met you this morning, don't you remember?" She tried to ask lightly, trying to come up with a plan to get the keys.

"You don't actually meet a person until you are standing right in front of them with nothing in between."

He slowly brought his hand up and brushed an escaped strand of red hair from the side of her face with his long fingers.

"My sweet savior."

Rosamond's heart started pounding as he touched her face. She was terrified. Immediately she sprang into action, ducking and moving backward, she crouched and grabbed the keys. She hoped she was fast enough to dodge him if he pressed an attack as she tried to get out of the cell. At the same time she called for any guards.

He became amused as she moved swiftly and called for the guards.

"They cannot help you now." he said, moving slowly toward her. "Give me that magic of yours."

"I'm sorry Prince, but that's not going to happen. Now just stay in there and I will go get a healer at once."

She turned her sword and smashed the pommel harshly against the wound in his side, making him double over in pain as she exited the Prince's prison and slammed the door shut, locking it quickly and taking a few steps back. She was even more scared now than when the whole fight had started.

"You..." he gasped, his eyes wide with rage. "HOW DARE YOU!"

He scrambled to get to his feet and slammed a fist against the glass of the door.

"Let me out!" He continued hitting the door. "I said let me out!"

Now that the door was shut he didn't have any bit of magic to keep him upright and he fell to the floor. It seemed no matter how hard he tried he couldn't get a deep breath and his wound was bleeding profusely.

Rosamond didn't know if she had enough time to get a healer. Damnit! She hadn't signed up for this. She set her sword on the table and moved to the wall between them once again, laying her blood stained hand against the glass like she had done earlier that day. She focused her energy on the Prince and beseeched her 'magic' to work. Her body twitched as the blue light instantly surrounded her and got to work healing the Prince. She could feel his pain. There was a lot of it. It seemed like forever as her energy moved through his prone body. She still didn't know how to stop her magic and she started gasping for breath herself. She moved to her knees, knowing this might be the end of her life energy, and passed out. She fell over and hit the floor as darkness clouded her mind, her heartbeat slowing almost to a stop.

Loki stood back up as he was healed, watching the girl fall over as a retinue of guards came in with a healer. He was angry that she had kept him locked away, at this point he only wanted her to live so he could seek vengeance on her. The healer knelt next to her immediately and began flooding her body with more energy to restore her depleted supply.

"Stupid wench." he said quietly.

Rosamond whimpered as she came to, coughing slightly as the healer helped her sit up. She had heard the Prince. She glared over at him.

"Ungrateful boy." she said under her breath.

She looked up at the guards who were staring between her and the Prince and the dead guard in the cell, wondering what the hell had happened. She decided to feed them a story that wouldn't get the Prince in anymore trouble than he already was.

"When I arrived the guard was trying to free the Prince, hurting him in the process of trying to force him out of his cell. The Prince was being uncooperative because he knows he is serving time and atoning for his sins."

She glanced at the Prince as she said this, wondering why she even cared enough to cover for him. She was pretty sure he had been about to kill her. Stealing all of her magic would have left her at death's door. Once the guards heard what had happened, they took the body out of the Prince's room and had someone clean up the mess quickly. One of the guards glanced at her bloody sword and then caught her eye, wondering what she wasn't saying. She glared at him until he handed it over to her politely so she could get the blood off of it. She put it back in it's sheath after the healer helped her up from the ground. The healer left after she uttered a thank you, and the guards went back to where they were supposed to be positioned patrolling the hallways nearby. One guard had been sent to let the King and Queen know of the incident. She turned back to the glass wall, facing the Prince again.

"I am sorry your escape attempt didn't pan out too well for you. You should be thanking me though. I could have told the guards everything."

Loki glared at her, feeling defeated and ashamed that he hadn't been able to get out of his prison.

"Then tell them, I do not care what you do." he spat.

"You have so much anger. Did you ever think that that may be what got you into this cell in the first place? The rapist is dead. You can be angry with me because I kept you locked in there, but I have saved your life twice now." she said softly, not wanting to provoke him even further.

"And how do I know that you're any better than the rapist guard? No one can be trusted, everyone wants to hurt me in one way or another."

His eyes were wild as he spoke and he moved his face closer to the glass.

"You will want to push me down and hurt me as well. Perhaps in this bed? It would be easy to take advantage of me in here in my weakened state. Or perhaps verbally? Tell you what, I would rather you just get it over with now, I'll even disrobe for you if that is what is going to come to pass. What do you think?"

His tone was harsh and cold as he finished speaking the bitter words.

Rosamond's heart filled with a strange emotion and she didn't know what it was. She was already ashamed she had had to exploit his injury to keep him in there, and he really thought she would actually hurt him in yet another way. The Prince seemed so confused that he wanted abuse, only expected abuse from anyone and everyone. She sighed sadly.

"Prince Loki, I hope eventually I can earn your trust, but I promise I will not harm you again. I apologize for having to hurt you earlier. I have saved your life twice and I have risked my own just as many times. Remember that, please. I'll see you at breakfast."

Loki grit his teeth and slammed his fists over and over again on the glass that refused to shatter.

"Liar! Whore! You're lying to me. All anyone ever does is lie to me!"

Rosamond turned her back on him, wondering what if anything she could do to ease his soul. Her heart was aching on his behalf even though he now seemed to hate her completely.

"I do not know what I may say that will make you feel at peace. Maybe everyone you've ever met has taken advantage of you, but I am not like that. If you spend more time with me, you'll find out soon enough that I don't lie."

She felt a few tears roll down her cheeks and left quickly, only wiping them away when she was out of his sight.

"Don't you dare come back!" Loki yelled after her.

His hands started shaking uncontrollably, with fear or anger he couldn't tell. He sat on the bed.

"They are all liars. Just hurt me already, I am tired of waiting for the well meant intentions of those who presume they are honorable to fade away." he said to himself as he dug his fingernails into the palm of his hand, blood welling up in the crescent shaped indentations.