Thor helped Loki walk all the way outside to the courtyard where they had been when they had passed out. From there, it would be a straight shot up to the prince's rooms. He noticed how worn out Loki was getting, so once they reached the courtyard Thor let Loki sit down and lean against a pillar. It was terrifying for Thor to see Loki this weak and he couldn't wait until Loki recovered.
The two of them sat there for a little, enjoying the sunlight that fell on them and the autumn breeze. Slítas poked his head out of Loki's collar and nuzzled his cheek with a reassuring click. Loki smiled softly, but didn't have the energy to raise his hand.
Although the brothers didn't see it right away, Angborn was lying on the grass relaxing to let his headache fade. Angborn noticed Loki, but didn't pay him much mind. He had heard two stories about Loki's strength. The predominant one was that Loki was weak in terms of both strength and combat prowess, but sometimes when his temper rose his power spiked with it. Mages kept their emotions under control and stayed calm to avoid situations happening like the one that had happened half a century ago when Loki had lost his temper and almost killed Thor.
Right now, it seemed to Angborn that the story of him being weak was the accurate one. It must be quite odd, for someone like Loki to either be a weak disgrace or an untouchable berserker. Angborn must have made some move because a moment later he heard Thor call out to him, ad with a nod at Loki to go on, Thor hopped off the walkway and came over to Angborn.
Loki watched Thor walk over and start talking with Angborn idly, trying to form a coherent thought. Tilaria was missing, and he needed to find her. When he had projected to the barriers in the throne room earlier they hadn't alerted him of Tilaria's presence on Asgard as they had every time. They did it because she was elfin instead of Asgardian, but this last time they hadn't mentioned here where they had every other time in the past. The only reason they wouldn't mention her would be because she wasn't on Asgard anymore.
Slítas must have sensed Loki's discomfort somehow because he nibbled on Loki's ear, and Loki sighed softly.
"I'm sorry I'm not really into it right now Slítas," Loki apologized. "The first 24 hours after someone goes missing are critical in finding them, especially if you have elements like a shadow mage and possibly Daris involved. Now that a shatterpoint in the barriers have been discovered though, Father will be far too busy protecting the realm to look for her. I-I have to do something, but I can't think of what I can do to find her. I need to sleep and restore my lifeforce but if I'll sleep for days, and by then it will be too late to do anything."
Each word Loki spoke was said softly with a slight rasp from his sore throat, and there was a slight hesitation every few words as if he had to summon the energy to speak. His features were dark, and twisted slightly in frustration because he knew it was his own weakness. Slítas knew it wasn't Loki's weakness though, and it was normal considering how much of his Seidr the shade had taken. He shouldn't be blaming himself for circumstances out of his control.
Unexpectedly, Slítas looked away from Loki sharply with a serious expression as if debating something important. Slítas knew that Loki was correct, and that he needed to move quickly in order to find Tilaria. Although he had no way to communicate with Ymir's descendant, Slítas knew that this was not Loki's fault. It was not the Tesseract at work, but a copy of it, and he had a bad suspicion he knew exactly who was behind this.
Slítas's knew his strength had long since waned, just as it had for all the others of his time. At the moment, Loki was far more valuable to this mission then he was. He clicked at Loki sharply, and Ymir's distant child turned his head towards him curious at the seriousness in the click.
Slítas raised himself to Loki's eye level, making Loki lean back. Since he was already leaned back against the pillar there wasn't much that he could do, and he hesitated as Slítas lowered his head and touched his muzzle against Loki's nose. Then he exhaled.
Loki inhaled sharply and his eyes half-closed as energy suddenly rippled through his worn system. It was similar to contact with the barriers, but this energy was different somehow as if it were… more primal or feral, wild magic. The magic that was not Asgardian made Loki's blood sing in a way he had not felt since he had opened a rift to Jötunnheim a century ago. A brilliantly bright crimson red color slid into emerald-black irises.
Breathing his magic into Loki's exhausted soul left Slítas's own lifeforce depleted. In the past he could have rejuvenated someone easily, but now one breath was all it took for Slítas to slide off Loki's shoulders and fall onto the grass of the courtyard, already asleep. Loki closed his crimson eyes and hung his head as energy coursed through him.
Dosing was a technique where one mage gave another person whose lifeforce was low some of their Seidr. It was one of the easiest techniques to use, and to forcefully take a person's lifeforce from them was called drinking.
What Slítas had done was to literally breathe energy back into Loki's worn lifeforce, and Loki would not find that so bizarre if the technique was not a Lost Magic. Fifteen thousand years ago, the Elder Gods who had created the Nine Realms had slaughtered each other for power, becoming known as Fallen. In that war as the gods killed each other, the Fallen War, many magics had become "Lost Magics."
How Slítas knew a "Lost Magic" of the caliber of the one he had just used was beyond him, but Loki was grateful that he did. Slítas's technique was the purest form of dosing, and it energized Loki far more than a normal dose would have. His magic returned to its normal levels, and was actually left higher than normal.
Loki's blood sang with a song Loki had not heard for a century. When he used his ice magic, he heard a song similar to the one in his soul now, but this one was stronger. It almost seemed to call to his blood. The last time Loki had felt this strong of a melody was a century ago when he had opened a gate to Jötunnheim.
Odin had been threatening Slítas then, so Loki had used his magic that had been enhanced by the Tesseract to send him home to Jötunnheim. Not long after, ambassadors from Jötunnheim had come to Asgard, and Slítas had smuggled himself back with them. Loki knew without a doubt that the power Slítas had given him was Jötunn, but he didn't understand why his body was accepting the dose so well.
When Odin had adopted Loki, he had imprinted him with his own lifeforce. It was because of the imprint that Loki remained in Æsir form, and why Gungnir and Asgard recognized him as a prince. The imprint took control of the Jötunn blood that Slítas had awakened, and the crimson in his eyes faded away.
He didn't understand what was going on, but currently it wasn't one of his priorities. Loki hopped off the walkway and scooped up Slítas in his arms. His friend was breathing deeply and his heartbeat was stable, so he would likely be fine with a bit of rest. That was a relief for Loki.
"Loki?" Thor asked when he saw Loki on the grass instead of the catwalk, assuming he had fallen. "Are you okay?"
"I'm fine," Loki promised and stood with Slítas in his arms.
Thor and Angborn were both startled to see that Loki was wide awake now. Angborn assumed that Loki had simply been acting it up earlier, and looked away while Thor stared. The red in Loki's eyes that Slítas had awakened had faded, but Thor still thought he saw a glimpse of crimson. That had happened several times before, so Thor dismissed it.
"Slítas," Loki explained with a shrug, unsure what else he could say to explain what Slítas had done to him.
Thor stood and started to walk over to Loki, wanting to see for himself that Loki was fine and wanting a better explanation. He took a few steps, and when he tried to take a third the toe of his boot slid on something. His foot slid out from under him, and Thor fell forward. Reflex made him put his hands in front to him so he did not land flat on his stomach, and he was able to catch himself.
"Are you okay?" Loki asked Thor when his brother sat up, mimicking Thor's earlier question.
"I'm fine," Thor said, copying Loki's response on accident. "Something tripped me."
He looked through the dry grass, and managed to see a glitter of gold. Curiously, he leaned over and fished the glitter out of the grass. It was a gold dragon coin, and Thor sighed softly at just how perfectly he must have stepped on this in order for it to trip him up.
"Is this yours Angborn?" Thor asked and held out the coin to him.
Angborn shook his head. "I don't have any coin on me right now."
Loki glanced up from Slítas at Thor's question, and saw the coin. He didn't take it too seriously until his magic reacted to it. Then he remembered whose coin it was.
"Thor," Loki called out, "can I see that?"
Thor nodded and tossed the coin over to Loki. Loki snapped it out of the air with one hand and looked at it in his palm. His memory had been correct, for this was the coin Tilaria had been levitating before the blackout and it was still laced with her magic. That was why his own magic had reacted to it, and Loki smiled when he realized that he had a sample of Tilaria's magic. This little fragment might be enough for him to do a tracking spell with.
Loki cast an evidence sphere around the coin so the trace of Tilaria's magic wouldn't fade or become contaminated. His father might be too busy stabilizing Asgard, but Loki had the time to do a tracking spell. There was no reason why he couldn't because after all, Odin had never told him not to try and find Tilaria.
"I'm going back to my room," Loki told Thor sharply, and tucked the sphere with the coin into his jacket pocket with one hand while he held Slítas in the other.
"You're what?" Thor asked in confusion, wondering what had just come over Loki and what was so important about the coin.
"My room," Loki repeated. "You know the thing that has my bed and my clothes, you have one to."
"I know what a room is," Thor sighed at Loki's literalism as he walked over and stood before him. "Why? What's so important about that coin?"
Loki thought about not telling Thor, but figured it couldn't hurt to have Thor around in case something went wrong with the spell he was planning to do.
"Vir's wasting his time looking for Tilaria," Loki started to explain. "She's not on Asgard. If she were, then as a Non-Asgardian the barriers would be able to instantly pinpoint her location. Since they can't do that, she's not here."
Thor didn't ask Loki how he knew what the barriers did since Loki usually did. "So if she's not here then how do you expect to find her?"
Loki tapped his jacket pocket with his free hand. "The coin you found was the one Tilaria was magiking before the blackout. It still has her magic in it, and I might be able to track her with that."
"Like a hunting hound with a scent," Thor compared in mundane terms. "Can you actually do it? Isn't inter-realm magic like that difficult?"
"It is," Loki admitted, "but it's not like we have very many other options available. This way, we can look for Daris while father secures Asgard."
"Daris?" Thor took a slight step back. "That elf that started the civil war a month ago? What's he got to do with it?"
"Maybe nothing," Loki admitted, "but maybe something. Like they said in the throne room, Tilaria was partly responsible for Dari's defeat and she's the one missing now. I doubt it's a coincidence. Even if it's not Daris, if we find Tilaria then we find the person holding her prisoner. Whoever her captive is, is an enemy."
Angborn lowered his head as if he were staring at his boots, but his eyes were watching Loki out of the corner of his vision. Loki was right, he grasped. If they found Tilaria then then whoever was holding her was the enemy. Even if it wasn't the shadow mage themselves it would be an ally of theirs, and if one traitor was caught then information about the other's identities could be found. They just needed to catch one, and the easiest way to do that was to find the one holding Tilaria.
Loki started walking away, and Thor followed him leaving Angborn to watch after them. If they found Tilaria then they would be on the way to finding the traitor. Angborn sighed and stood after a minute or so, realizing that it would be in Asgard's best interest if Loki succeeded in locating Tilaria.
He had no wish to work with someone as dangerous as Loki, but he didn't have much of a choice. The adults were too busy to act, so that left only the children. To protect Asgard he had to work with Loki to find Tilaria and a possible lead on the traitor.
Angborn knew where the prince's quarters were so he started to walk down the halls to them. Loki might need some help with his spell. Just this once, Angborn would work with Loki. The identity of the shadow mage and their allies needed to be found, and Loki's had a chance of doing just that. He would work with Loki, for Asgard.
It's ironic and annoying that Angborn sees working with Loki as some great sacrifice. Loki being so weakened by the shade really isn't his fault, and he's hela lucky to have even survived clashing with it. Most don't and when the shadow mage and their shades strike again, many won't.
Loki is also lucky to have Slítas with him. Slítas's "dose" he gave to Loki is artificial so Loki will burn through it quickly with his spells, but it will do for now. How exactly Slítas knows a technique that was lost so long ago will be left up to your imagination.