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"Mika, sweety... They didn't find her that way. They killed her. They did that awful thing to her right in front of me. I'm glad they didn't tell you how my body ended up after they were finished." She waited for Mika's reaction. The girl had tensed, but didn't turn around.

"They're terrible people, Mika. They destroyed her, and me. And I didn't even do anything to them... Well, I did offer them cookies, but... They could have told me if they didn't like Chocolate..." Granny's voice wavered and she put her face in her hands. "I can't even shed any tears in this form... It feels like I'm just keeping it all bottled up inside! Oh what a piteous shell I've become..."

Loki turned, patting Mika on the shoulder comfortingly. "Now, Mika... no one blames you. There's nothing you could have done." He pulled her back gently and held her chin between his forefinger and thumb, tilting her head back to look up at him. "Mika... I am a very powerful man. But even I have been forced to helplessly watch these people destroy what I hold dear... my poor Margarette... and I fear that as their power grows, they will look outward, toward the rest of the world." He shook his head, turning to pace away. He walked straight over the edge of the cliff without falling, another show of his amazing power. Nothing flashy, no glow beneath his feet. He simply failed to fall.

"Enough! I can stand it no longer. Mika, I can help you," he said, spinning suddenly and marching back to her. "I have some friends who can help you... avenge your sister. I can lend you great power... You could succeed where your sister failed, Mika. If... you will trust me." A slow, friendly smile made its way across his lips.

Loki smiled, brushing his cape aside. "There are nine weapons I have hidden across the continent. I have nine... old, old friends," he said, smiling slowly. "I can call them for you, but not until you have the weapons-- only because, you must understand, my friends would not be terribly useful without them. Your grandmother can take you to get them, and I shall return to the shrine where we first met, that I can prepare to call our old friends back."

He turned away, clasping his hands behind his back and rocking forward onto his toes as his smile became a tad insidious, his face away from Mika so she wouldn't see. "And then... then, we can ready an assault."

He turned slowly to face them again. "It should not be too difficult. Margarette, kindly accompany her." He reached out once more and parted reality, then pushed the rift toward the two of them. It swept around them and closed seamlessly, carrying them off across the land.

Slowly, Loki turned to regard Eyris again, and his eyes narrowed with rage. "They will pay for their insolence," he growled. "This time."

Somewhere in the Great Sea, Loki's rage caused an earthquake that thrashed the coast of Sentria with tsunamis.