"Oh yes, you do always seem quite concerned with fairness," Loki drawled. Such an explanation was pure theater, and they both knew it. Perhaps the man just liked knowing he had an axe hanging over the heads of those beneath him. Loki had no intention of letting him think he was at all bothered.

"That seems a fair enough requirement," Loki continued. While he preferred to keep his hands clean, he had no problem doing what was necessary; either way that didn't need to be stated. "However, before I can agree to the conditions, I would need to know precisely what punishment I would face upon failure. Shouldering unknown risk for dubious reward is the act of the desperate or the foolish, and I am neither."