Because teleporting might contaminate the dragon coin with Loki's magic, the brother's took the time to walk back to their rooms. When they finally arrived in Loki's room where his magic supplies were, Loki shooed Thor out of his immediate way so he had room to work. He set Slítas on his bed and carefully shaped the dark green sheets into a nest for his serpent.
Once Loki was sure Slítas would be fine, he set the sphere with the coin on his desk and went to his supplies. His closet had been extended so although there were clothes on the left side, the right side had shelves full of his magic supplies such as herbs, crystals, and books. He ducked into his closet and after a little fishing around underneath his clothes he slipped his hand thorough an illusionary tile and he withdrew a small copper disk about the size of his hand.
"Are you sure this will work?" Thor asked and closed Loki's balcony doors as Loki set the disk on the floor and sat down across from it.
"No Thor, I don't," Loki admitted in a voice tired from Thor's questions. "Now shush, and leave the balcony doors open."
"Why?" Thor asked and opened them again.
Loki sighed softly and levitated the sphere with the coin to his hand from the desk. "I told you when we were walking up."
The disk before Loki was a circular Scrying disk Loki had made and polished to the point that it reflected his image. Using the disk, Loki could scry to view a distant thing, place, or person. He dismissed the evidence sphere and set the coin with Tilaria's magic on the surface of the disk.
"I only have one chance to do this," Loki spoke, doing his best to spell it out. "After this spell has been cast the energy will build up inside my disk. Once it reaches high enough levels I'll be able to see what realm Tilaria is on. The only problem is that I can't stop the energy buildup so it will keep building until the disk explodes. That's why I need the doors open – unless you want the disk to explode in my room."
Thor quieted, and Loki looked back down. He wished that he didn't have to sacrifice his scrying disk, but he could always make another one if he wished. Scrying disks were actually forbidden magical instruments, so it wasn't that bad that it was the thing getting destroyed.
"So let me concentrate," Loki said grimly. "I can't afford to fail."
Thor sat on the chair next to Thor's desk without another word, and Loki was grateful for his cooperation. Neither boy doubted that their father had tried to regulate the knowledge of the barrier's shatterpoint, but both had heard rumors about it when they were walking up here. Since they were the princes, they had been asked if the rumors were true and what was going to happen until Loki gave up and put himself and Thor under an invisibility weave.
Both princes were somber with the dangerous turn things had taken. There was no doubt that the other realms had spies or information sources so they knew what was happening on Asgard. With rumors of the shatterpoint so common, the other realms would likely catch wind of it. Asgard's enemies like the Dæmons and Jötnar, would likely try to take advantage of the shatterpoint in an attack. The shadow mage had to be found, now.
Loki set his the tips of his fingers on both hands on the scrying disk and started whispering. Barely a syllable had left his lips before the sound of someone knocking on his door echoed. The brothers looked at each other in panic at being caught in the act.
"Heimdall must have seen us!" Thor hissed.
Loki sent out a sense line and then narrowed his eyes and stood. "That is not a Star Guard Thor."
He walked over and the door unlocked and opened by itself as he reached it, revealing Angborn standing in the hallway. Angborn glanced up when the door opened, and straightened at the sight of Loki.
"What are you doing here?" Loki asked Angborn, surprised that someone would seek him out.
Angborn had come to the same conclusion Loki had about the new shatterpoint. This situation was already dangerous, and could become critical very easily. During the blackout anything could have been taken, and someone had nearly succeeded in killing the Allfather while he was unconscious.
Angborn didn't want Asgard to be that vulnerable. He wanted to stop the shadow mage and any allies if they had some. Loki's plan to track down Tilaria would lead them to the shadow mage or an ally of theirs. It was a plan to stop the new and terrifying threat from within that Asgard faced, and it was the only plan anyone had. The idea of working with someone as dishonorable as Loki was distasteful, but he would do it to protect Asgard.
"I know you have a plan to find Tilaria and catch the shadow mage," Angborn promised Loki. "I want to help protect Asgard."
"How very noble," Loki taunted in an amused voice after a few seconds. "I'm afraid I don't need the help, but you can stay and watch if you wish."
Angborn bristled at Loki's arrogant dismissal, but walked inside his room when Loki stepped back. Loki's room was full of books lining the walls, and there was a part of the wall by the closet for magic supplies. Otherwise it was sparse and amazingly neat without a single thing lying on the floor.
Loki was already planning several steps past finding out which realm Tilaria was on, so he charged a charm. When Angborn closed the door and walked by him, Loki brushed his fingers lightly against his right wrist. There was a glimmer of magic as Loki's spell set, but Angborn didn't realize he had just been charmed.
"Heimdall is too busy searching on Asgard for Tilaria, and helping with damage control, but he'll notice your disk exploding." Thor warned Loki when his brother sat down in front of the disk again.
"I know," Loki promised and flexed his fingers. "I'll have the information on Tilaria by then though, so it won't matter."
Angborn knew Loki was going to do something to find Tilaria, but he didn't know what. He panicked a little when Thor said the word explode, and by Loki's calm response to the word. What exactly was Loki going to do?
"Even if you find what realm Tilaria's on, how are we going to get there? I doubt Heimdall will let us use Bifrost," Thor continued.
"Hopefully all we have to do is find proof that she's off Asgard and the adults can go retrieve her," Loki said rationally. "I have an idea of what to do if they don't and we have to find her ourselves."
Thor nodded and quieted. Angborn stood beside Thor tensely, unsure what to make of the situation he had just walked into. The elder prince gave Angborn a reassuring look, but Angborn couldn't understand how he could be so calm even after Loki said explode?
"Don't interfere," Loki warned the two of them.
Then he set his fingertips on the edge of his Scrying disk and started whispering. First he said the words "itoya dira" to activate the disk and then began to say the words of his spell. To Angborn the words Loki spoke sounded like gibberish, or like written runes rather than any sort of words. It made him shiver and Angborn didn't doubt that it Loki was speaking Magescript, the language of magic.
The gold dragon coin glowed and then became liquid. It melted into the copper scrying disk, and gold veins spread across the disk's surface like arteries. Thor and Angborn had to avert their eyes as the golden glow brightened to the point that it was hard for them to see, and there was a sound like shifting ice on a river as the scrying disk began to fracture.
Loki stopped whispering, and blackness clouded all five of his senses. It was as if he had fallen into a void, and the inability to feel anything terrified him. After a moment, the blackness faded and color seeped in. The color came into focus, and Loki could almost feel the hot winds of the realm and the pain in his throat from breathing in the polluted air. Tilaria was on this realm? Why of all the realms was she there?
Angborn jumped when Loki swore and tore his hands off the disk, kicking the disk back from himself.
"Throw it!" Loki shouted.
Thor jumped out of his seat instantly and grabbed the disk while Angborn stared uselessly, having no idea what was going on. The scrying disk that Thor picked up was thrown out the open balcony doors like a Frisbee as he turned. Loki waved one of his hands, fingers curled awkwardly, and the doors slammed closed.
Angborn jumped to his feet as the disk glowed like a sun with wide eyes, remembering that Thor had said the word explode. Before the disk fell below the balcony from his line of sight it exploded in a flash of light. He raised a hand to shield his eyes from the light, and that was when the shockwave from the explosion hit. There was a brief noise and then the sound vanished, so the explosion was eerily silent and it remained silent even when the shockwave shattered the glass-paned doors and made the ground rumble slightly.
A hot wind tugged his hair and clothes back, and he adjusted his stance so he wouldn't fall. He saw the shards of glass from the door come flying at him, and then suddenly there was light between the glass and the children like a sheer curtain colored emerald-black. The shards hit it, and fell to the ground harmlessly. Sound returned although Angborn's were ringing and the sound was muddled as if he was underwater.
When the odd distortion faded Angborn heard Thor mutter, "Heimdall definitely saw that."
Thor knelt by Loki's side, but Loki did his best to shake Thor off. "I'm fine you oaf, just some burns. I expected as much. The explosion was a little larger than I thought it would be, and I didn't think I'd need a ward. It's lucky it held."
Thor reached out a hand, but didn't quite touch Loki's hands that he held in front of him. They were badly burnt, and some of the flesh was more black then red from the burns. Although Loki's hands were shaking he was managing to hide any other indication of pain that he felt. Casting a ward by channeling his magic to his fingers while his hands were burnt wasn't a smart idea, and although Thor was grateful for Loki's protection he wished he hadn't pushed himself like that.
"I hope that worked brother," Thor said instead and grabbed Loki's arm to help pull him to his feet.
Loki tried to jerk his arm free, but Loki had too firm a grip so he gave up. "It worked. I know what realm she's on."
Thor's eyes lit up and when Loki was standing on his own, he lowered his hand from Loki. "Where is she?"
Loki shook his head unexpectedly. "You won't believe this, but my spell says Tilaria is on Svartalfheim."
"Eh?" Both Angborn and Thor shouted at the same time in shock, stepping closer.
"The Dark World," Thor demanded when he recovered.
Angborn merely stared and thought that it might be best if he had stayed out of Loki's way. The explosion proved that things were dangerous around Loki.
"Yes the Dark Elves home," Loki repeated and held his hands close together to try and use a self-heal spell to fix the burns.
"Tch, tch, tch," Loki hissed softly in pain and stopped the healing.
Self-heal spells were notoriously difficult, and it was a poor idea all the way around to cast with such severe burns. He decided to stop and laid his hands in his lap, palm up. Before very long at all the doors were opened by Star Guard. Loki decided to let them enter, so they were not attacked by his protective spells. They hesitated when they saw the glass, broken doors, and the three children who were in the middle of it all.
"The Allfather wishes to see you, princes," one of the Star Guard announced to them.
"Sounds like Heimdall say us after all," Loki smiled. "You Star Guard came too quickly to respond to the explosion, so Heimdall alerted you to come and get us before I finished scrying didn't he?"
"So he did," one of them responded.
Loki glanced over at Slítas, but the serpent hadn't stirred from the explosion. It looked like he was in a deep sleep, necessary to revitalize lost energy. He would be fine obviously, and Loki felt it was safe to leave him unattended and follow the Star Guard as they ushered the boys from Loki's room. Before they left, Thor pulled the doors to Loki's rooms shut so he wouldn't have to with his burned hands and Loki raised the protective spells around his room so no one could enter while Slítas was vulnerable.
"I think I'll go to Fey first," Loki told the Star Guard. "I've burned myself badly."
He expected the Star Guard to disagree, and so reached for his magic out of instinct for trouble. His magic was worn from the scrying and the shade's touch. Slítas's dose was still an artificial influx of magic, and it did not sit as well with Loki as his normal magic would. It remained a temporary measure, and when Loki's normal magic recoiled a different kind of magic spiked him.
Perhaps it was because of his recent contact with the Tesseract fragments in the barriers, but an unnatural blue slid into his eyes. Sparkles of the Tesseract's color glittered amid his emerald-black irises for a brief second, and during that second he realized that he could sense he was being watched. Because of the Tesseract's touch he could sense Heimdall looking at him.
"Heimdall," Loki said in a scolding voice as he looked up at the ceiling. "Stop staring at us. Surely you have better things to do."
"Huh?" Thor asked blankly, and the look of Angborn and the Star Guard matched his words.
Heimdall flinched away and averted his gaze from Loki and the other children. He was glad that Loki's eyes weren't red from his Jötunn heritage, but he still recoiled from the Tesseract's blue. It had to be because the Tesseract was involved in the barrier's injuries. Traces of it remained in the barriers and saturating Asgard's atmosphere. Only Loki, who had once harnessed the Tesseract's power without being vaporized, would be susceptible to its energy and it was obvious that he was.
Loki was the first of the five to start walking, and after a hesitant moment the Star Guard, Thor, and Angborn caught up to him. Thor smiled, unaware of the blue that had touched Loki's eyes. To him, Loki was simply getting stronger, and the fact that he was able to sense Heimdall proved that he had recovered.
Angborn was far more worried with the fact that he was being escorted with Loki then the fact Heimdall had been seen. His father would know that he had disobeyed him and spent time with Loki. Hopefully the information Loki had gotten was worth the ire of his father. Svartalfheim huh, the dead world of Malekith, and the last place anyone would think to look for Tilaria. By that regard, he supposed it was the perfect place to hide someone.
He hoped that with a location, Asgard would be on its way to tracking down the shadow mage and their allies.
If only things would be so simple Angborn, but Svartalfheim presents problems of its own. Not in the least being Daris's troops who are currently occupying it, or the fact that the children might not be believed if they say there's an army on a dead world. Things are just starting to get interesting.