Thor paused before he shook his head a bit. "I wanted to check on you, brother," he said quietly. Because he still loved the bastard and didn't want to see him (too) unhappy.

"I think we're both long past the age of needing nursemaids," Loki pointed out, raising an eyebrow. "So there's no need for you to be mine."

Thor looked at him for a moment before he huffed out a little laugh and shook his head, rising.

"Very well, brother," he agreed amiably. "I'll let you have your peace. Perhaps I'll tell this medium she should bring you sweets more often, soften your disposition." He grinned.

Loki gave a rather undignified snort and waved a couple of fingers at his brother in a clear dismissal, a very faint smile on his face. He didn't protest the suggestion of sweets, however. Thor was right in thinking that Loki had a sweet tooth.

A few days later, people seemed to have settled in. Everyone had accepted that Lessa would bake sweets when she felt like it, Bruce and Tony had accepted that Lavender wasn't going to tell people and she was going to come watch some lessons. Things were going well.

Except on the whole trying to figure out who the bad guy was front, that was going poorly and frustrating the hell out of multiple people.

Lavender was definitely getting frustrated at the lack of information.

"I don't get it," she grumbled, "how can there be nothing to find? You'd think a diva like that guy would be shouting from the top of the world."

"You'd think so," Lessa agreed mildly. "But apparently not. I guess he isn't quite as much of a diva as we thought." She paused. "That, or we scared him into silence for a bit."

"No, if he's dumb enough to think he could control that much power, he's dumb enough not to get scared," Lavender mused. "Think maybe he's scheming something?"

"Probably," Lessa agreed. "Now we just need to figure out what so we won't be caught off-guard again. Too bad you can't spy on him."

"I tried," Lavender said, making a face. "All that did was give me a headache. I hate scrying."

"I know." Lessa was quiet for a moment. "I could try asking Loki, maybe?" It was worth a shot. She knew he had magic still, even if not as much as before.

"If you think it will help," Lavender said. "But I want to be there if you do, I don't trust him at all."

"He's not so bad," Lessa protested. "Really. He's kind of nice once you talk to him."

"I don't trust him," Lavender repeated. "Hardly any good can come from dealing with tricksters. I just want to make sure he doesn't try anything."

Lessa shrugged. "Well, then, you can come with when I go ask him. I mean, Tony and Bruce aren't getting anywhere, and we're out of ideas. So we should see if he can help."

Lavender's lips thinned a bit, but she nodded. She didn't like the idea, but she had to agree that Lessa had a point. So it was worth a shot. Making sure her wand was up her sleeve, she followed her partner down to Loki's cell-slash-suite.

Lessa knocked on the door before she entered, because she didn't like just barging in on him. Just because he was stuck in that one room most of the time didn't mean he couldn't have any consideration.

There was a moment's pause after the knock before a soft "Enter" came from inside.

Loki watched as the door opened. He had been wondering how long it would take before someone else decided to throw themselves into his solitude, and to be honest, he wasn't too upset about it. He might like peace and quiet, but being truly alone for so long had begun to grate at him. He gave a lazy smirk when he saw who was on the other side of the door.

"So, what brings a medium and her pet sorceress to rattle my cage bars this day?" he asked, watching them.

Lessa huffed at him. "I told you to stop calling me that," she said. She wasn't really upset about it, but it was odd to be referred to as a medium. "I was wondering if you had any ideas on how to track the mage we've been trying to find."

"Mage?" Loki scoffed. "Hardly. Mere parlor tricks. His power is not his own." He glanced at the girls. "I'm sure you've learned that there are limits to Midgardian sorcery."

"Yes," Lessa said, already puzzling over what he'd said. "It is rather frustrating sometimes."

"So I've gathered," Loki replied. "I assume, therefore, that you've come to me for assistance in locating the pretender."

"If you can help us," Lessa agreed with a little nod. She'd figured out already that he did have an ego, and it was best to not get riled up around him, because he'd just get more uncooperative.

Loki was quiet for a moment, weighing his options.

"Fine," he said. "I have nothing better to do at the moment. I will see about finding this pretender so that you and yours might flush him out into the open."

Lessa smiled. "Thank you. That would be immensely helpful." And she'd go make more sweets later.