By the pace Fandral set, one would have thought he was the prisoner who was fleeing his captors. He led Loki and Baugi up the steep stairs and through several palace tunnels, glancing back only to prod Loki to keep up the pace. They passed through three more sets of guards, all incapacitated, before Fandral took a sharp left and flung open the door to one of the unused servant dormitories.

Frigga waited inside. Loki didn't even have the chance to greet her before she wrapped her arms around him in a suffocating embrace.

'Mother?' he struggled out.

Frigga smiled sheepishly as she drew back enough to allow Loki to refill his lungs. 'My room was guarded, that's why this took so long. And the materials I had to work with were... Never mind all that, it's done now. Let me get that collar off you.'

'Thank you.'

Loki couldn't see much of what his mother did, but after a few moments, the collar clicked and split into two parts. He ripped it off, then palpated the base of his neck. The collar had chafed and there were now several weeping sores around his throat. He left them as they were. Should any Asgardians see him, he wanted them to know what had been done to their prince and from a more practical standpoint, he planned to expend his magical reserves on more important things.

'We'd best not frighten the children any longer,' he muttered and with an exhale, warmth flooded his skin.

Thank the Norns.

Frigga's lips tightened. 'You don't have to do that.'

'It'll be easier to make our way around Asgard if I don't look like the enemy,' Loki said. 'Fandral, do you have a weapon to spare?'

While Baugi had chosen to skulk around the edge of the room, Fandral had positioned himself before the half-open door so they could have warning should they have company. At Loki's words, he finally pushed down the scarf covering his face and offered Loki a small dagger.

'You won't need a weapon,' Frigga said.

Baugi snorted. 'It is an insult to call that a weapon.'

As Loki turned the dagger in his hands, he found himself agreeing with the frost giant.

'I've arranged for a place on Alfheim where you'll be safe,' his mother explained. 'You can open a portal to Alfheim from this room and I'll send a message to you when it's safe for you to return to Asgard.' Loki's expression must have told her what he thought of that plan, because she went on. 'Or if Alfheim is not where you wish to be, go to Midgard.'

'I'm not running off into exile. Not while Thor is being held captive.'

Why do you think Baugi is here?

'No, Loki -'

He slipped the dagger into his pocket, then set his hands down on Frigga's shoulders and pressed his forehead against hers. 'He's my brother. Send me to Alfheim or Midgard or the farthest corner of the universe, I will crawl my way back to Jotunheim and find a way to set Thor free.'

'And if you get in trouble yourself?'

'You know me,' he responded. 'I find trouble all the time and, sooner or later, I find a way out of it.'

Frigga shook her head in exasperation. 'You'll be careful at least?'

'Of course, I will,' he replied. 'Let me think for a moment.'

He tapped his fingers against his thigh. The Bifrost was closed to him; the Einherjar would have commandeered the bridge for their purposes. It was the portal then. That too would be guarded, but perhaps not as heavily. From there, it was a long and unpleasant, but manageable hike to Laufey's house. And once he was there, things would only become more complicated. Thor wouldn't be kept unguarded.

'Do any of you have paper?' he asked.

With a sigh, Frigga conjured a short scroll, ink and a dip pen for him. Loki unrolled the scroll. Even if he couldn't use the Bifrost to enter Jotunheim, changes were the portal would be out of reach for his return journey. He would need Heimdall's help. Loki scribbled down his few rough ideas for his plan in Jotunheim, then, unsatisfied with himself, stared at the scroll. He needed Heimdall's trust, otherwise, the man would betray him to Tyr at once.

Loki bit his lip. Heimdall had already looked askance at him when Loki had travelled to Jotunheim with his father.

'I beg your help, Heimdall,' Loki added to the end of his message. 'Asgard is in greater danger than anyone in the Nine Realms knows. Tyr and Laufey play children's games, unaware of the tides shifting in the wider universe. My brother has a part to play in the war that is to come. I will explain when we return.'

He rolled to up the scroll tightly and added a spell to ensure its contents would be legible only to its intended recipient.

'Watch me being careful, mother,' he muttered, then spoke more loudly. 'Fandral, you have already done me a great service tonight, but would you do one more? Would you take this message to Heimdall?'

Fandral swivelled to look directly at Loki. 'I'd rather be by your side in Jotunheim.'

'Please. This is important.'

'Fine,' Fandral replied. 'But take my rapier with you. The frost giant is right, I mostly use that dagger to peel apples.'

Loki took the sword from Fandral and tested its balance. It had been decades since he had last had cause to hold this weapon. He had no affection for rapiers - the blade was too long for his taste, but the grip of Fandral's weapon at least sat comfortably in Loki's hand. Loki tried a mock attack, then drew back into a low-line parry.

'It's not terrible,' he conceded.

Gripping Loki's message tightly, Fandral offered Frigga an ornate bow and nodded to Loki, then slipped out the door.

Loki motioned for Baugi and Frigga to move also. The Weapons Vault was in a different section of the palace to the once they were presently in and the passage between them was circuitous. Before they had made it two hundred feet, however, an alarm sounded.

'Did the blond one get caught already?' Baugi asked.

Frigga muttered something under her breath, then sad, 'It seems unlikely. But my escape could have been noticed. Volstagg and Hogun helped me cover it up as best we could before we broke into the vaults, but --'

'Or the guards were left behind were discovered. The how doesn't really matter,' Loki replied as he quickened his pace.

His heart already pulsed. He would have broken into a full sprint if not for the fear that he would run straight into a squadron of palace guards. Or, considering his luck of late, Tyr himself.

But despite the continuing thump of the palace alert system, they found the passageways and the stairways on their path empty. Loki had to wonder just how many men had been called to Jotunheim in recent days.

'Halt!' a woman shouted from behind them.

When he spun around, Loki realised the woman half-dressed in the formal Einherjari officer's uniform was one of Tyr's favourite underlings. He couldn't quite remember her name. Her face and her scowl, however, were familiar - she had been there in the Great Hall that night, relishing in Loki's downfall. Her scowl turned into a smirk as she drew her sword.

Loki flung Fandral's dagger. She hadn't taken the time to fasten her collar; the dagger slid smoothly into her bare throat.

'Decent throw,' Baugi said as the woman fell forward, struggling through the last minutes of her life.

Frigga grabbed Loki's sleeve and pulled him after her. 'Hurry. Who knows who heard her.'

There were no half-measures any longer. Frigga, Baugi and Loki raced down to the Weapons Vault.

Loki's lungs burned by the time they reached the top of the stairs to it and saw the wall of men standing there, all itching for a fight. Had Frigga and Loki come alone, perhaps they could have leveraged the oaths of loyalty that had bound the citizens of Asgard and their royal family for generations, but Baugi's presence extinguished that possibility. Once they saw him, the guards closed in around the top of the stairwell and dropped their spear tips down to form a formidable shield wall.

With one sweep of her hands, Frigga lifted a good half of the guards off their feet and deposited them in a crumpled heap. Baugi and Loki leaped atop of them. Baugi swiftly commandeered a spear, while Loki found that Fandral's rapier slipped into the gaps of the guards' armour just as well as his own knives.

'Loki! Go!' Frigga shouted.

She was right, of course. Their aim was escape, there was no need to exacerbate the political turmoil in Asgard by shedding unnecessary blood. Moreover, the longer they spent here, the higher the chance of reinforcements arriving. Loki shouted for Baugi to follow him and set off down the stairs to the Weapons Vault ante-chamber.

Once they were there, Loki skidded to a stop.

Don't fuck up this time.

Loki sucked in a breath and started on the incantation, working at a slightly slower pace than his habit. Portals were tricky magic and the consequences of errors very painful. Two of the guards had pursued them, but Baugi kept them at bay. As Loki worked, the chamber resounded with men's grunts and clangs of weaponry.

With one final flick of Loki's fingers, a ball of light pulsed into being and unfurled into a portal.

'Baugi,' Loki called out. 'Follow me.'