"I think we should have him prove his strategy works," Krampus said thoughtfully after I had explained my idea of hit-and-run tactics, guerrilla warfare, and capture instead of killing.

"How can we test his ideas without starting a war?" Thrym asked. "Odin and his ilk might fall for these tricks once or twice, but sooner or later, they will ignore these attacks, believing them to be feints, and attack Utgard."

"Why will that matter if Utgard is empty? You will have abandoned the city. All Jotunn that usually fight to defend the city redeployed to harass and harry Asgard City," I pointed out. "The entire reason for the strategy I am suggesting is so the conditions for a reset are never met.

"Let Odin reduce Utgard to rubble. The city's only value is to provide a focus for his people to attack. If the Asgardians fail to kill the Jotunn, and the Jotunn are capturing, not killing the Asgardians, then the condition required for a reset is in the hands of the Jotunn.

"You can decide if and when to assault Asgard City and return to the failed strategies that will allow everything and everyone to be restored."

"Why don't we see how this works against Jotunn as a test?" Krampus suggested. "We can use Utgard-Loki for a target, and he can prove to us his ideas will work."

"That will work, but only if you don't warn Utgard-Loki or the defenders of Utgard. My tactics depend on the element of surprise to be effective. Eventually, the defenders will figure out what I am doing, but by then, it will be too late, and they will have little recourse but to continue to respond to each attack."

Once we agreed to the terms of success, I was freed and allowed to rendezvous with my companions.

Tia and Ag had remained hidden, the Jotunn unaware of their existence. Draioct had been excluded from the meeting when the room had been cleared. But Balfour and the Azi-fey had remained, hidden behind their glamour. They had been able to gain entry through the magical barrier that Thrym had formed, their ability to ignore any ward, proven to work even against divine constructs.

The magical barrier might as well not exist for all the difference it made to the Azi-fey. I had hoped that was the case. Their ability might make things easier when we arrive in Asgard City. At some point, I would have to rely on stealth and misdirection. The Azi-Fey's ability to scout a safe route would make that manageable.

I was offered no escort back to Utgard, not that any was needed. With the mapping function the System now provided, it was simple enough to retrace my steps. I circled the city, keeping my distance so that I could set up a staging area.

I needed a base to store the Jotunn I would capture, a prison hidden. I wasn't worried about something strong enough to hold, even something strong enough to hold Utgard-Loki. My plan wouldn't allow him the opportunity to try to escape.

Thrym and Krampus had demanded I prove my ideas using Utgard-Loki as the target, and I would do just that. I didn't need his people clamoring at the doors of his jail trying to free him.

Their request made sense. Utgard-Loki was one of the strongest Jotunn, his value within the tenets of war equal to any of the more well-known Asgardians. He might not have the same scale of power as Thor, but he came close. If I could capture and hold him, Thrym had given his word that he would agree to an alliance.

As I surveyed the surrounding area, an idea began to form. Jotunheim was a land of snow and ice. Utgard was nestled inside a valley that backed against the Asgard Mountains. It was protected on three sides by those mountains, mountains that would serve as both staging area and prison.

I sent the Azi-fey to scout. I wanted a cave, something hidden and large enough to hold dozens of Jotunn. I only needed to capture Utgard-Loki, but he was never without his guards. I would need to capture them en mass if I couldn't separate him from the pack.

The Azi-fey had found more than one cave suitable for what I needed. The one I chose to use was a reasonable distance from Utgard. That distance would make some of what I needed to do more difficult. Capturing Utgard-Loki was one thing, spiriting him away and leaving no trace or tracks to follow another.

I had an idea to deal with that, but first, I needed to fortify the cave to serve my purpose.

Utgard-Loki was a Mountain Giant. That gave him an affinity with the earth, which might have allowed him to warp the cave walls to his liking if I didn't protect against that. The protections I would weave would be four-fold- a layer of shadow, fire, ice, and life.

The life energies I had inherited when I had gained Arianrhod's bloodline. The magic was a weft of creation, endurance, and growth. I wove that energy through each layer of the other elements, then braiding them together to coat the inside of the cave.

The braid would support and protect each other, and by adding life magics, the braid would repair any damage Utgard-Loki or his men might make. They could batter themselves against the walls of this prison for an eternity, but as long as life existed, the magics would draw upon the creation of life to keep the prison intact.

Finally, I wove an illusion to hide the true nature of the cave. I recreated Thrym's throne room, populated with the people who had been there when I'd arrived, without changing the room's layout.

Now where I had stood when being questioned, a raised dais stood, surrounded by a barrier that resembled the one that Thrym had used to guard against spying. The energy field made it so that you could see out, but no sound could enter.

I would have Utgard-Loki believe that Thrym had had him captured and that he was imprisoned by the will of his King. It took only a token effort to give life to the people that had filled the room. They moved, talked, entered, and exited in random patterns, making it almost impossible to tell that they were recreations of the originals.

The cave was hidden in illusion, the dais glamoured to give bite and reality to the illusion.

That was the difference between illusion and glamour.

Illusion used the nuances of dreams, light, and deceit to create a framework, a vignette that could be broken. Glamour gave substance to illusion, anchoring it with reality using the threads of my magic to fill the framework of illusion with form. Giving it shape, meaning, and characteristics that were only limited by my imagination.

All of this was overkill. If events occurred as I planned, Utgard-Loki would be lost to [Sleep]. The deceptions, illusions, and glamours I created an intricate backdrop in case the Giant was immune to Elfshot.