"It isn't," China confirms for him, waving her free hand dismissively. "Thor was appropriately incensed on his lady's behalf, when she came to him weeping in shame. She was hardly rational about her assumptions; I suppose distraught people rarely are."

It's entertaining, how eager Arno is for the tale. Especially given he's among those who takes her magical charms as more or less negligible. "So Thor brought the matter to the other gods, and the immediate assumption, of course, was that it was Loki's doing," she goes on, sounding amused. "They were by this point far too familiar with his habits, and naturally they assumed the only mischief-maker so bold would be Loki. Odin summoned him to face what he had done, and Loki, who had thought the matter simply a great joke at first, was somewhat sobered by the fury in Thor and the steel in Odin's gaze. He could tell even before much had been said that he would have to remedy what he had done somehow."